LunarSol

It's actually a rather elegant solution to the old problem larger model count games have with creating quality attacks that aren't completely ineffective against the quantity of models mixed with the inherent advantage a large number of attacks with any chance of success has over a small number of attacks with any chance of failure. It's a system that keeps the size of units to around 10, but reduces the hero vs unit disparity to 3 to 1 to help reign in some of the big advantages of numbers. In that regard its got some clever ideas and I'm curious to see how the whole thing plays out upon release.

No doubt about it. There are lots of reasons I prefer cards, but as games are trying to be better about dynamic balance adjustments, they're becoming increasingly unreliable. On the flip side, the more reliable cards are, the more frustrating a game can be when problematic models go unaddressed. What mostly drives me away from cards these days is just all the sorting and out of game management. Malifaux isn't TOO bad, but it still takes more effort to gather a list than I'd like. Granted, its nothing compared to X-Wing and its ridiculous stack of little half sized cards. That's a game that makes a huge case for the power of digital. The digital push will certainly be interesting. A lot of games seem to really be driving that way, but perhaps all that's really needed is better printing services. I should probably take better advantage of Wyrd's card order options on that note.

Right. My assumption is that at some point the value of supporting physical cards no longer outweighs the restrictions it places upon game design. I personally enjoy them, but games seem to be drifting away from them in favor of more adaptable methods of rule distribution.

In general, I think Hearthstone really lit a fire in tabletop gaming and a need to be far more proactive in updates and rebalancing. The strengths of cards have become a weakness, but its not a fully solved problem either. I am really looking forward to the upcoming app though, simply because having access to every rule from my phone feels pretty baseline these days. I'm actually slightly uncertain if M2E is prepared for a digital structure though. I feel like there's a great version of the game where conditions and upgrades are seamlessly tracked, but I'm not sure if the current card format supports that game particularly well.

Something else to consider: Guild is probably the faction most affected by terrain. Given the lack of terrain composition guidelines, I can certainly see that causing issues for the faction. I do think there are areas the faction is in need of work, but one of the things I notice is that Guild models often have ranged attacks that feel overvalued. I wonder if one of the issues is that they are valued without a realistic number of / included or if there is just more cover on the table than intended.

Probably an oversight, but I'd also not be surprised if they let it run free in the wild and see where Lucius shakes up competitively. If something is really the worst its often impossible to really tell the point where its overbuffed. If you're going to cuddle the master that has historically been the worst in the game, you might as well give him a chance to earn it first as long as its not an unbounded oversight like something that grants infinite attacks or something like that.

Hopping into the M&SU! Ok... this one is ex-M&SU... Phiona Gage but these guys are the real deal M&SU Masters Arcane Emissary Ramos Crew and.... SPIDERS!!!! Kaeris and Mech Rider Ironsides and Effigy Mei Feng and Foundry

I assume its like the vaulting poses. They slam it down, leap over it, lid magically opens and they kick/wrestle/throw/whatever looks awesome the target into it before the lid slams shut.

A lot of the sense that we have bad totems comes from Wave 1, where... yeah, Scales, Flame (just too expensive), and (shudder) Proxy were all very underwhelming. I'd put the Chihuahua on the miss pile as well, though not because he's bad, but because he doesn't gel with Guild McMourning the way he does for Ressers. At least his cost makes him a good cheap activation. Lady J's problem is that she's just too limited to be a master. All she really does is melee damage and her ability to affect the board is very limited in scope accordingly. She needs a mix of a few more tricks and an easing up on the restrictions of some things like her condition removal and the like similar to what we saw with Lucius. Most of all though, every upgrade in her box is a mess in need of some work. It's easy to say that she's boring, but that's the real problem; she's really not master level effective simply because she's quite limited in what she can actually accomplish.

I think its partially Aaron and partially an industry trend. All the major competitive games have been looking to find ways to be able to be more dynamic with balance adjustments. Malifaux, Warmachine, and Guild Ball all received some pretty major redos in the last month.

Good but not great is probably the best answer. The problem of course is the game has enough Great or better models that there isn't a lot of reason to take Good. I'd also argue DMs are models that are better for the game being Great than Good as they are models with a mechanical and artistic niche. Particularly in a faction that can come across a little more mundane than the others, I think its really valuable to have models that are as eye catching as the Death Marshals appearing with some regularity.

It's good, no doubt; there's just WAY more reliable card draw out there for me to consider it something overly potent for casual play. Then again, I don't really believe in the casual/competitive distinction in general, so I'm probably a poor judge of what crosses the line.

Agree with list but the Effigy doesn't really do that much to make her that potent. It's just a solid little model every Guild player should own. Besides, he's also a model I'd expect a Neverborn player to have. His strongest master is probably Coloddi after all.

FWIW, ran a couple games with the standard crew to see how the changes affect it. It breaks up the list nicely without feeling like it invalidates much. I suspect double austringer will go away, but a single one is still very good. The bird has excellent cleanup options for finishing off HtK and the like and deliver orders is still very strong. Francisco is absolutely fine; Papa would be considerably less so, but Numb to the World makes him far less of a liability. He's got a place, but its far less auto include and more of an option. Death Marshal may be the biggest loser, but the bomb in the box is still strong and he's still quite good at removing problems temporarily. There's a build for him, just probably not the Sonnia/Perdita standard anymore. I'd certainly love to see him at 5 stones. The net result though is 12-20 stones that are up for grabs. Dropping the DM and Austringer (and maybe Papa) creates a lot of room to fit in some of our new toys like Reporters, the Emissary, Debt/Numb, Phiona, Abuela, and Reporters. The errata certainly created a gap, but we've got some really nice toys these days to fill it.

Almost certainly Frozen Heart. Its the only subtheme that doesn't feel compelled to take Howard. M&SU is probably next, cause... Howard. Showgirls is probably technically up there, but I have to ding it a point because..... well, Howard. Actually, Howard is probably the most competitive subtheme overall.

I doubt that's the case. The sword is just like the art, where it wasn't given a lot of detail because its in the background. Wyrd just sometimes has issues where colorization and perspective that looks fine in the art fails to translate into detail on a 3D model. :\

It gets slightly card intensive to kill anything durable though. Not that its bad, just less strenuous to use on things you can one shot.

Yuuuuuuup.

Sidir really needs By Your Side baked in or at the very least 0 SS. :\

It's really good in a vacuum but 8 stones is a lot, particularly when it really only benefits mid to high cost models. That's a really hefty tax, particularly in a faction that's not really loaded up on upgrade packing melee beaters. It's hard to take a lot of models that benefit from it without falling way behind on model count (though debt helps.... a lot....). Don't get me wrong, I think he's good, my original statement was that all of those models are good and worth playing. I just think they're held back by some of the targets for the impressive effects they provide. Mostly the Guild Marshals that the DMR supports naturally. Lady J mostly lacks options compared to most masters in the game. Judge is really good, but bland without his upgrade which makes him really expensive. Exorcist is a little too specialized and the Lone Marshal has his moments but generally doesn't synergize with any of them (fittingly, I suppose). DMs are easily the best of the bunch, but they're not cheap enough to spam so they're not QUITE enough to build an efficient Marshal package around. It leaves the DMR a bit too dependent on granting the title to be really worth it and in that case, granting the title is a little too limited. It just doesn't feel like he's exceptional without dramatically revamping the crew around him and at that point you're surrounding him with dirt to make him shine. I actually like him as is just fine, but for me the main draw is stabbing birds out of the air. I'm disappointed that he doesn't do enough to make me rethink the models he seems designed to support.

Sure, but With Me! is the kind of thing a Master should be doing, period. It's really absurdly limited in its current applications (not as bad as the Flames of the Pit mind you...) and while the DMR helps a little, its points to try and make it work combined with extra telegraphing of what you're trying to do. My entire argument here is basically "the DMR himself is fine, but needed more if he wanted to be a fix for models that are a bit below the curve". Extra synergies with Last Stand is pretty much exactly what I'm talking about.

If min damage 4 was what the game was all about, then Justice wouldn't be as thoroughly mediocre as she is. Treating models as if Debt was free and part of the standard damage they do is an awful way to get Guild in a position where they are always argued out of competitive options. Realistically its a potential 2 damage over the course of the game. It's good, but is min damage 3 actually something that should surprise you from a cost 7/8 model? I get what you're saying, but this is the argument that makes the models a dud in a competitive field. It sounds good on paper, but it doesn't account for the total cost, the inflexibility of melee models needing to maintain a fairly close cohesion, or simple counter play like the ability to scalpel out the DMRs or use Pushes to move models out of formation. If the opponent is spending AP trying to kill those models directly without having more attacks than your hand or isn't taking advantage of the ability to take advantage of your crippled hand, then... sure, that's kind of a NPE. I'd just argue that if someone needs the opposing models to be that easy to kill... well, I'd hate to see them take on some of the models with tricks that negate attacks entirely.

Meh? It's a Master and 30+ stones worth of models. There are plenty of things harder to deal with just on the strength of their Df triggers without spending nearly that many stones on support.

I do like the DMR, though I wish his recruitment was once per game/end of game similar to Abuela. What I think he and Lady J really need though is a cheaper, melee focused minion. I'd actually be up for redesigning the Exorcist in that light, but he's probably close enough to good as is.

Honestly, "cost effective" is probably a good way to describe all of those models at the bottom of my list. The real problem most of them have is that they're primarily buffing models that aren't doing quite enough to make up for their below par targets or simply don't add up when the whole package is considered. They're largely comparable to the Witchling Handler, who does some cool things, but ultimately is trying to make Stalkers into effective scheme runners by making them 7-8 stones. NONE of these models are that far off, but its really hard to make expensive packages work in an alternating activation game that makes it really hard for 7+ stone buffers to be worth it overall. They're all good, just not super aggressively costed.