yool1981

Just received a notification from my usual store that Brotherhood of the Rat was being reprinted and unavailable.

It is however currently sold on Wyrd's webstore...

I don't get how the distribution network works. It's a big weakness from Wyrd.

The artwork is nicer than usual. Igors are still a thing.

Still a problem in the proportions of the head (too small) and the rest of the body as was the case for many spoiled artworks.

May I humbly suggest to change the colour of the background of those previews? White and bright yellowish green distorts the colours of the art imho.

2 hours ago, Mason said:

The Grave Spirit is a Tyrant.

I thought the Grave Spirit was not a Tyrant but something else, more powerfull, coming from another dimension.

Themes could also collide / converge with faction identity, especially in the case of dual faction masters.

For example, how would Hoffmann / Zoraida / Lucius /Marcus... play differently depending of the faction you declare if all the theme models are available? Or do they play roughly the same?

I guess it would be a matter of the declared faction versatile models (and maybe non-versatile models but the 1SS penalty may be a killer as the themes flesh out) or perhaps generic upgrades.

It would be really interesting to first see how a theme is built by the game designers and how they ensure the variation of playstyle (or at least a constance in competitivity) in both factions a dual faction master is in.

One of the problem of dual faction masters in M2E was that they were often only competitve in one faction and the performance in the other was lackluster.

14 hours ago, Kyle said:

Since it’s the holiday season, we thought that we’d leave the topic of the next article up to you! What parts of M3E are you most excited to hear about? Let us know!

For next topics, perhaps things like:

_ Planned new crewboxes and other boxes (art & contents). Perhaps with the amount of new refs in the M3E.

_ Artworks for new masters & models (Eurdipides for example...)

_ Theme contents for those where the Beta is advanced enough to tell

_ How you built themes (content & option choices) & the design philosophy (for example is a theme built to play in all strats & schemes or be optimum in some of them to avoid all rounders)

_ Fluff evolutions

Happy Thanksgiving !

14 hours ago, Kyle said:

All in all, these changes to the summoning rules have allowed summoning to remain as a strong option for Crews in M3E while still ensuring that there are enough checks in place to keep it from becoming the absolute best strategy in every situation. 

These are very positive changes. Thx for sharing this news.

I think you refer to p.9 of the TTB 2E core rules.

Quote

The people of Malifaux had won the war against the Tyrants and bound their spirits, but the price they paid for their victory was steep. The Tyrants had used their magic and science to twist the minds and bodies of their servants and enemies into useful tools, and now, the monstrous survivors of those experiments struggled to find a place in the world.
Some of these creatures, such as the Nephilim, turned their backs on their former masters and took to hunting down those who still served the Tyrants.
Others turned to whatever fragments of magic they had scavenged from the fallen Tyrants, using it to mutate their forms into new shapes that their vengeful brethren would not recognize.

...

Centuries passed, and with each generation, the various transmutative magics that had been worked upon the people seeped into their offspring and their offspring's offspring, until eventually, every one of their descendants possessed an ability to change its physical form. For many, this change became a fixed part of their growth cycle, such as with the Nephilim,
who required red blood to grow larger, but others retained a greater control over their forms and learned how to change their appearance on a whim.

Thx a lot for the recap.

It is always interesting to hear how other people see the fluff.

Also I realise that with time my memories may have altered.

I recall the shifting loyalties events and the fight between Kitchener and Mei Feng differently but maybe it is bad memory on my part (I remember Kitchener being in an armoured vehicle and his avatar clashing with Mei Feng’s as she tried to defend the workers).

About the Neverborn if I remember correctly many of their mutations from their original forms come from being enslaved by the Tyrants they are not all self inflicted.

The Nephilim inflicted black blood upon themselves but if I remember correctly their Nephilim form and growing mechanics come from enslavement by Shezuul.

10 minutes ago, Mason said:

Nope, each faction has a couple of different Versatile models that they can draw upon.

If I remember the spoilers correctly, the Horsemen should also be Versatile.

What is the reasoning motivating having other Versatile models?

Won't it be a bit counterproductive with a theme driven M3E?

Won't it limit future design space?

1 minute ago, Adran said:

Until we know How many versatile models there are that might not  make much of a difference, but if there are only 10 or so, then the emissary might be the most cost efficient beater for your master combinations. Is that cool?

I certainly hope Versatile models are not the most cost efficient in any role in a vaccuum or it will invalidate other thematic models.

I hope that they have enough "versatility" to bring something different but not "compulsory" to each theme (eg not always the same thing and not something that is badly needed by a given theme) or else it will kill list diversity and/or reduce design space.

It would become similar to the Merc issue from M2E.

The Versatile trait is imho a hard one to balance for M3E.

20 minutes ago, Thedeadclaw said:

There's something to be said for how cool the scuplts are, for sure, but for me there really needs to be something to set them apart to make them worth $40.

I am ok with paying 40 USD for the sculpts of the Arcane or Mysterious Emissaries alone. As a matter of fact I did :D.

Yep I liked the previous sculpt better.

Here it's just another woman waving a magic staff. A sculpt and pose we have seen a thousand of times.

I understand why some may be disappointed by losing the master specific upgrades for the Emissaries.

I am quite ok with the change, it’s fluffy to see the Effigies grow.

If Masters have an edge over Henchmen leaders, shouldn’t  the Effigies the Henchmen get for free be upgraded ones or would that be too powerful?

Shouldn’t  there a rule forbidding to have the Effigy and the Emissary into the same crew?

1 hour ago, katadder said:

what if there is no master upgrade this edition? all thoughts of that are based off 2e and I know they said they want less upgrades this edition (which is bad as it takes away list customisation, which pandora will I face out of a possible 3? etc)

Less upgrades may not be such a bad thing.

Emissary upgrades were sometimes more or less successful fix attempts to some masters. I do not think this is a coincidence they appeared in the 0SS errata upgrade book.

Generic faction model upgrades were plentiful in theory but the competitive variety was in practice limited.

Masters upgrades included staple upgrades, situational upgrades and straight unuseful upgrades.

So all in all, less upgrades but homogeneous usefulness seems a good choice imho.

11 hours ago, solkan said:

The demonstration that that’s not the case:  Infinity and Warmachine/Hordes.  

I don’t know about Infinity but I have played Warmahordes extensively from the start to the end of Mk2 and I found the standard abilities to be very useful.

I don’t remember Mk2 Gunfighter to be as long as you say. Perhaps it is a bad memory on my side or a change in the last Mk3 edition .

For example, Pathfinder that is the equivalent of Unimpeded is just an icon on the card. As it works very simply (you ignore severe terrain when you move) and is very common on cards I prefer to have it in the rule book.

9 hours ago, Thedeadclaw said:

Honestly I would have been much more intimidated when starting if I had to look up all the standard abilities any time they came up, and it would have lead to me ignoring huge chunks of models abilities because I forgot they were there.

I understand.

On my side I prefer to see just a few words of common abilities so that I immediately know what the specific abilities of the model are. I find it easier to apprehend but I understand I am in the minority.

3 hours ago, Mason said:

M1E did this, and with the transition to M2E, people were generally in favor of moving the information onto the cards so that they didn't have to play with a rulebook open beside them.

Ah Ok. I guess I am in the minority then.

I’d rather have a reference card (such as the one that was shown at Gencon for conditions and actions or even bigger ones of the size of a leaflet ala seven wonders) to avoid referring to the rulebook and lighter text on the cards for very common abilities (hard to kill, terrifying, unimpeded, incorporeal, flight...).

I think it makes cards easier to apprehend and less scary for new players.

It also makes errata much easier to handle.

Speaking of Streamlining why not defining some common abilities such as Terrifying in the rulebook?

This makes the card unnecessarily text heavy imho.

I understand this may help game play, especially for new players, but a reference card may be enough, as there are already ones for actions and conditions.

13 hours ago, edopersichetti said:

Terrifying is now what Manipulative used to be. Definitely a weaker ability...

Are you sure of that?

Terrifying works every time the model is targeted by an attack action, without the activation constraint that M2E manipulative had.

The penalty for failure is lower than previously but the card drain is here. If a model attacks yours 2 times during its activation, it has to pass 2 duels instead of 1. 

With a terrifying 11, many models will have to flip or sacrifice a moderate card before taking the action (Provided Wp stats in M3E are similar to M2E).

6 minutes ago, Adran said:

When you buy a master it has 3 ap. When it leads it has 3 ap

I missed the spoiler about this one. I thought Masters had 2 ap when purchased as non leaders.

I get your point now.

10 hours ago, Adran said:

How much would you value fast on an expensive henchman? Because it gets 5 extra actions as a leader so it's printed cost is not the best guide to its comparable value as a leader.

I don’t get what you imply.

If point balance is done correctly a fast 14SS model (masters) will be more valuable than a fast 10SS model am I wrong?

Buh anyhow Mason has implied that the effigies as totems balance the difference in SS cost. I see no reason not to trust him :D.

It would mean that the NB retain a competitively viable Puppet theme, if this is the case and Hinamatsu still has a related keyword attached (and we don’t know Vassalisa’s fate, perhaps she did not go away with Collodi).

I couldn’t not be happier about that.

2 hours ago, Kyle said:

Henchmen gain two distinct bonuses while they’re the Leaders of their Crew. The first is that, like Masters, Leaders can take three Actions per Activation in M3E, which helps them compete with Masters. The second bonus comes in the form of each Faction’s Effigy model, which has a special rule allowing it to be hired for free into a Crew with a Henchman Leader. This allows each Effigy model to effectively serve as a generic Totem for its Faction’s Henchmen, which further helps to ensure that matches between Master Leaders and Henchmen Leaders are balanced.

This is a very good idea ! This will probably add a lot of diversity to the lists.

However, if the masters are worth 14 SS as the spoiled ones with a free totem and the Carver is 10 SS with a free effigy, isn’t there still an imbalance in SS between both types of crews?

Or are effigied a lot more expensive than totems in M3E?

46 minutes ago, Mason said:

Remember, Charge is only a 1 AP action now, so models can maneuver a bit with 1 AP and then Charge with their second AP, giving them movement and a free melee attack. They balance each other out.

Thanks for the reminder. Perhaps my remark was due to a M2E mindset.

The shadow system seems to imply access to a lot more cover if I understood correctly so maybe shooters are not as strong as I fear they could be.

How does 3D movement work? Especially regarding Place effects and Incorporeal models.

27 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Flight: When this model declares the Walk or Charge Action, instead of moving normally, this model may Place itself within X", where X is equal to this model's Mv. This model does not suffer Falling damage. 

Do Flight and other place effects thus prevent a model to be targeted by disengaging strikes?

28 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Pushes are nothing more than movement that must be in a straight line. The biggest change that Pushes underwent is that they are now slowed by Severe Terrain, as opposed to ignoring terrain in M2E. This made Pushes extremely valuable on models and revalued the importance of both Severe Terrain and the Unimpeded Ability, which lets models ignore Severe Terrain. By making Pushes affected by Severe Terrain, we lowered their strength, which in turn allowed us to make better use of them.

This is a great change !

29 minutes ago, Kyle said:

This also means that barriers with Height – such as walls and fences – now prevent models from Charging over them, which makes them useful as roadblocks for ranged models.

This is a logical change.

However, if I understood the spoilers correctly, with 0" melee range being a thing, don't we run the risk of seeing ranged models behind walls become a bit overprotected?

32 minutes ago, Kyle said:

So that’s it for movement! As you can see, a lot of M3E’s movement has been streamlined without sacrificing its flavor. 

All these changes seem intuitive and very interesting.

Are you speaking about these 2 sculpts?

I wouldn't call either of them boring but it is just my opinion.

Personally I prefer the first one because I do not picture Misaki as freely showing boobs and legs but that's my personal opinion.

On the M3E arts that we've sene so far, the only dynamic part is the cape and the faces are without any expression (except for Marcus & Myranda).

I doubt this is a consideration but I may be wrong.

Wyrd’s business is to sell new minis not help convert old ones.

Models are computer designed and prototypes are 3D prints.

I doubt green stuffing and using old sculpts is the cause of the currently lack of pose variation.

Mould cost and model assembly considerations seem more likely causes. Or lack of inspiration.

But my thing is painting not sculpting so I could be wrong.

You're a glass half full person .

When I look at below art, I picture the minis that will result from it and my mind screams "Vanilla", "Meh", "Just another stuff we have already seen a thousand of times".

Imho the poses are uninspired, very static and unoriginal. Von Stook is so disappointing... we are talking about a mad man with a university of zombies and nothing transpires of it in the art.

And the lack of originality has been present for a while now. Take the example of Alt Nekima (left) and compare to what PP did more than 10 years ago (right)...