LunarSol

I've had decent luck with Santiago using Deadly Pursuit and Expert Shot to clear off things that get too close. That 8 cost is... high.... and I'm not going to pretend there aren't better things to fill the spot, but I've generally gotten solid results when I put him on the table.

I get they don't want her getting the extra attack without spending a stone, but Leap not being built in really hurts. She's just a little subpar compared to other melee masters in terms of raw stats and the Marshal keyword lacks a coherent mechanic to make the models feel like their more than the some of their parts. She's pretty good, and way better than she was for most of M2E, but at the very least, could REALLY use a way to deal with Terrifying.

I'm a Melissa away from being caught up with M3E for Guild. Updates for crews below: Guard Journalists Versatile

Vikorias' Mercenaries Outcast Versatile Apparently I never took pictures of the Guild/Arc versatile models. I'll have to do that at some point.

Updated Lucius's Elite Ironside and the M&SU Mei Feng's Foundry

Guild complete! I’ll have to get a group picture. Removing the pic above now that they have a boss. Frontier

Crossroads

I've just found them super useful. Their damage isn't incredible, but ignoring Incorporeal, Hard to Wound, Terrifying, Manipulative and Friendly Fire makes them really consistent. They often get some early shots in, then one of the J's rushes in to engage and they either get to finish it off to free a beat up to keep going or put in damage on whatever tried to take down my beater. That said, they definitely get a lot better against undead. Luckily, False Accusation is actually quite powerful as a free action in the crew in general. Mental Trauma is nice, but just opening up something to Into Dust can burn the opponent's hand and stones a lot quicker than they'd like. This is particularly true with 2 of them, as up to 4 of those shots gets people cheating some high cards against an ability that "only" makes them count as undead. Don't discount Final Rest either. It's a good size pulse that can really mess up certain crews and even when it doesn't the heal having essentially unlimited range can bring one of the J's back to a point where the opponent is just out of options to finish them off. I generally run the pair along with a recruiter as a little module of its own. Getting a couple DMs out of them almost makes the recruiter worth it.

Ah, you’re right. I’ll just have to settle for being able to back off and shoot twice. It’s still a massive difference in his effectiveness but good to remember.

It's pretty easy to keep fast on them even in the later turns. You just sometimes need to activate someone to catch up to them first. Similarly, Creep Along and similar abilities sometimes just require you have someone walk ahead first.

Marshals are in a pretty good place overall. GREAT - Exorcists are one of the best models we have access to and are quite good at draining resources from the opponent while softening up targets. I pretty much always include the pair. - The Judge is pretty amazing. Sometimes does more than J. GOOD - Death Marshals are fairly good runners. The 0" on Pine Box basically kills it, but every once in a while it comes up. Mostly though its just that they're durable and can tie up enemy models for the Exorcists to shoot repeatedly. - Lone Marshal would have gotten his own place in the worthless pile if not for the startle change. With it, he can do some pretty crazy tricks and solves some of the issues I was having with the crew's tendency to try and brick up. I've gotten a few schemes by charging an opposing model to bounce to the other side and using the free disengage to get in position to drop as scheme marker. That one change flipped him from one of the most easily nullified models in the faction to one of the most versatile. SITUATIONAL - I haven't had a lot of luck with Jury. The whole bury aspect of the list just doesn't seem to work, so she mostly just threatens other crews that rely on bury. I haven't played her recently though, so maybe I need to give her another shot. - The Recruiter is.... lacking good targets. I often take one just to give my Exorcists a second chance, but I'm not sure its worth it. - Domador is in a weird place. It doesn't feel like it really fully works, but you can do some scary stuff to Rezzers sometimes so its worth having in the back pocket.

Finished up my Guild for the M3E launch... still need to do Crossroads I suppose, but ready for some new stuff: Nellie's Journalists Updated below! Lucius's Elite Updated below! Frontier.... boss found! And now we have a useless post.

And a couple more as I'm working through that formerly nebulous pile of things labeled M&SU: Augmented Machina

There's really nothing like a good organization system to get things done! The keyword system has encouraged me to get to fully painted faster than anything before and it seems like a good opportunity to start a new thread of complete masters and their crews. Planning to post the complete crews here and go back and update the pics when new things are released: Witch Hunters Marshals Family Guard Updated now that I finally have Dashel's totem!

Thanks. Appreciate the insight. M3E has been good motivation to buckle down and get things painted. On that note, I finished up the stuff for Magneto and Xavier: Steamfitters & Saboteurs Large Arachnids Ryle & Riotbreaker Medbots & Drills Thinking about grabbing some shots of everything that fits under a keyword one of these days. Might start a new thread for that.

I'm not super fond of Dashel's new art and the model will likely follow. There's nothing exactly wrong with it, but I really like his current shouting orders look.

The only problem with the Lucius box is its the one most certainly in line to be replaced with 2 new boxes; likely with exclusive models. Dashel will be getting his own box eventually with his Totem and Lucius is likely to get a new box with a new Henchmen at least.

I think you'll find across the board there's a little more of a ceiling on individual models. There's also less focus on individual models that do outlandish things as is there is on crews that do outlandish things together. Personally, while I find some character lost in the enforcer level stuff, the game more than makes up for it by really making the masters stand out as unique and full of flavor.

and the Guardsmen Sergeants Mounted Guardsmen Not Mounted Guardsmen Riflemen Captain Dashel and Stuff and skipped painting earlier....

This really hammers out a good chunk of what I've got left. Still have to do a few things, but getting very close to the Guild being fully painted, starting with the Death Marshals: Death Marshals (and Recruiter) Exorcists (and Recruiter) Lone Marshal & Pale Rider Governor's Proxy and Jury Domador de Cadaveres & The Scales of Justice

Games seem to take off after a tournament at one of the big cons (LVO, Adepticon, technically GenCon but that seems to have lost the minis crowd). A large tournament well covered with pictures of nice tables and painted armies will likely determine how well the game continues to fare. I feel like minis are in a weird era where players are more aware of their launch and putting more stock in how big the game is at launch. It's likely bleed from the digital market, but minis games have never really worked that way. They've always been small things that blossom over time. It seems even more true with Kickstarters where people assume the campaign community somehow translates to their local shop. In any case, it feels like we need to be a little less afraid of a game not making it, because more and more, it just feels like a self fulfilling prophecy.

People are generally less concerned about their government secretly exploiting them when they have to sleep at night wondering if a dead relative is going to show up and tear them apart or if the bed might come to life and eat them.

So.... the wait for M3E has me realizing something I'm not terribly proud of. I have a LOT of unpainted Malifaux stuff. Some of that is just because of the way you tend to buy a box for one model in second edition and some of it is just a collection a little out of hand. In any case, I'm knuckling down and doing some serious painting for the Guild. Sanctioned Spellcasters Quellers and Handlers Torch and the Blade Pistoleros de Latigo Monster Hunters Hermanos Now the challenge. Can I get every Guild model done in time for M3E?

Sonnia for me. I'm always a big fan of the Sword/Mage archetype and the blend of range blasts, flame wall board control and bits of flaming sword makes for more dynamic combat than the usual sword and board melee style.

I'd find it very odd to completely lose Mounted Guardsmen from the faction. I'd think it pretty likely to lose Wastrels and the rest though.