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Excellent changes. The rat engine completely changes the way the board state develops, which is perfectly fine for a single master, but not fitting for a whole faction. Much appreciated!

Perdita, of course!

The crew I used was Widow Weaver with Marcus. I had a Large Arachnid killing my own Jackalope and Raptors over and over, netting four corpse/scrap markers per turn. Markers that Widow Weaver turned into Teddies at a rate of one Teddy per turn. Unfortunately I black jokered an attack on turn 2 and had to go for the backup plan, which meant I never got my third Teddy. But it didn't matter, on turn 3 I simply used the Widow Weaver and arachnid for other purposes instead. Also, Angelica did a fantastic job letting my models advance while working 'the grinder', meaning the Teddies popped up closer and closer to the action. Other combos I thought of using include: Nekima + McCabe. Giving Nekima her fourth AP in Nimble is pretty crazy in itself, but then you can for funsies have Nekima kill off McCabe and get five APs. Good luck standing up to that kind of power. Sammy LaCroix + Dreamer. Sammy takes the summoning upgrade and Dreamer takes the Chompy upgrade. Mayhem ensues. Francisco + Anyone. It's not very creative, but hey, a good model is a good model.

Yep, this pretty much matches my experiences with the rat factory. When all the rats are done the opponent can't do anything to respond, and that's when Leveticus jumps forward and murderizes the most important model, accompanied by a beater of choice. Then, if you win the next initiative you're pretty much guaranteed to win the game. It works great with Victoria as well. Rogue Necromancy is an interesting choice though. I've mostly used Killjoy since he charges for (1) and has the 'attack again'-trigger. But hey, whatever works!

Some time ago, me and a frequent Malifaux sparring partner decided to try out an alternative format over Vassal. A format called The Deserter. The rules are simple: You CAN and MUST hire exactly one Henchman from another faction that you couldn't normally hire. Henchmen that have special hiring restrictions like Hungering Darkness and Victoria of Blood are not allowed. This henchman is called The Deserter. The Deserter can buy upgrades from its own faction, and can't buy upgrades from the master's faction. If The Deserter is dual-faction, you must choose one of those factions for The Deserter's upgrades. Building a crew with these rules is a unique challenge since it requires you to look for synergies that are normally not your radar. Some are obvious, some are not. Furthermore, we used some themed variants of GG2016 schemes: Neutralize the Deserter - like Neutralize the Leader except you target the opponent's Deserter instead of master. Deserter Entourage - like Undercover Entourage except you must choose your Deserter. In the end I won the match with my Widow Weaver Deserter (can you guess which master I used?) and it was overall a good time. So if you're looking for a way to shake up your casual matches a bit, try out The Deserter. What crazy combos can you find?

Muchas gracias!

Hi, rules gurus! For Malifaux Raptor's trigger "Rake the Eyes", do I choose between putting ALL cards on top of the deck or ALL cards into the discard pile? Or can I do any combination? (eg one card into discard, two cards on top of deck)

On the first day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the second day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the third day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the fourth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the fifth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the sixth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the seventh day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the eighth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Eight cheap activations, Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the ninth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Nine Defense/Willpower, Eight cheap activations, Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the tenth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Ten easy VPs, Nine Defense/Willpower, Eight cheap activations, Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the eleventh day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Eleven card Lilith, Ten easy VPs, Nine Defense/Willpower, Eight cheap activations, Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! On the twelfth day of Christmas, Wyrd Games gave to me... Twelve obvious soulstones, Eleven card Lilith, Ten easy VPs, Nine Defense/Willpower, Eight cheap activations, Seven broken minions, Six Weak damage, Five Tomes required, Four cuddled Metal Gamins, Three crazy upgrades, Two Joker start hand, and a Dark Carnival Coryphee! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! (images taken from Malifaux stat cards, Vassal, Faux Strategy Generator, The Breach)

Mini update! - Changed the crew building headline 'Mandatory' to 'Highly Recommended'. I liked the symmetry of having that term for both upgrades and models, but it just didn't fit well enough. - Francisco is now Highly Recommended. - Expanded the Intro to better present the material. - Added a line about the Nephilim using Shackle on itself. - Added another First Turn Play. - Fixed some typos and poor language.

I like that Abuela is one of the more unusual models, with the very high damage on her attack and unique talents. I think the best way to play her is to capitalize on the Obey-like action, and make sure to use it every turn. I really don't think Diestro is necessary if you want to pair her with Santiago. [-] to defense flips is nice, but both Santiago and Abuela have pretty high Sh, and Diestro really is quite expensive. Yes, exactly. Family models are generally strong (except Nino, the only one I really don't like), but they have some weaknesses that could be exploited. By my count, Perdita currently has access to 36 Guild models, and only 7 of those are family (counting the Nephilim). If you include mercenaries, the ratio is even worse. By virtue of sheer numbers alone, that makes it conceivable that a non-Family model is the best choice for a given task.

Presumably because a beginner playing straight out of the start box runs 100% family (counting the totem as honorary family member), which means an intermediate player can't exactly play more family. All joking aside, a more experienced player will recognize the situations in which Family models just won't cut it and will look elsewhere. A crew built from a pool of all available models will always be as good as or better than a crew built from a pool of only Family models.

I do post about the crew that coems with Perdita. Way down at the bottom is the section 'Starting Perdita', where I give recommendations about how to use the box to get started with crew building. I can't control what people assume, but I can say that I never intended to lead anyone to believe the guide was about Family when it isn't. And I specifically used very broad formulations such as "other Guild models that are likely found in Perdita's crew" to make this clear. However, if the default assumption is that a Perdita guide be about Family, then I have no problems making it more clear that this one is not. I'll put it on the list! Personally, I think 'Standard' is 'whatever gives you best chances to win'. If you have a well-protected tower on the field, Nino can be standard. If the opponent is running all-melee, Peacekeeper can be standard. Since the guide can't cover all possible situations, I base recommendations on how generally useful models/upgrades/etc are, and comment on cases where they are more or less so. The guide is not primarily for new players. It's for intermediate players. I tried to make that as clear as possible so that I wouldn't need to include beginner stuff like explaining game terms or very basic tactics. If it's not clear enough, I will gladly make it more so.

I also want to thank everyone that commented! I like the encouragement, and this is exactly the kind of discussion I wanted to see. P.S. I will argue you all forever about austringers.

Exactly! And I'm not sure it applies, but that also gives me the opportunity to use this bastardized quote: "The master we play, if one doesn't want to lose every battle, one plays Family or Guild! You chose your way, I chose mine. Mine is harder!" Well, as I mentioned at the beginning of the section, the ratings on models are actually quite close together, so it's expected that people have different perceptions depending on terrain used, local metagame, et cetera. But this is good, ratings are there to be debated! Francisco as mandatory, well... it was close. He really is a fantastic model, and for a great price. However, I disagree on Diestro being a default upgrade. That upgrade is very expensive and conditional. You can build a crew to take full advantage of it, in which case it's likely great, but I don't think it qualifies as a default choice. So having Santiago is like having two Diestros? That is, two stone drains that are worth a Guild Hound each? All joking aside, I just feel that he doesn't do anything special, all he does is shoot things. Putting Tormenta De Plomo on him makes it a bit interesting, but I think Hair Trigger is the upgrade of choice for him. As for Nino, well... I don't really have anything to say. I would very rarely consider using him, but that has more to do with my somewhat excessive love for Austringers. Sure you can move Santiago out of melee! But every action has a cost. You don't need to move Gunslinger out of melee, you simply activate it and whatever it's engaged with ceases to exist. That leaves the Nephilim/Austringer/Francisco/whatever free to use their movement enabler elsewhere. And the biggest benefit Gunslinger has over Santiago is not the crows, but having [+] on attack flips. That's huge. Guardian is a support model for 8 stones where you often need to spend even more resources just to make it work, that's my primary gripe with it. The fact that it's slow and has problems keeping up only makes things worse. I agree about Peacekeeper, it would be a nice model if it didn't cost 1/4 of your crew budget. Well, if you find yourself with a finished crew list and have one stone to spare (that is, 8 stones in the pool), then buying Vengeance Bullet is not a bad choice. At least it will always come into play during the game. But I would rather have a stone for defense that buying that upgrade. There's also the problem that if you want any of the situational upgrades and the avatar, there is no room for more upgrades. Vengeance Bullet is not terrible, I just have a hard time recommending it. Use Silurids! Those things are terrifying.

I disagree; you can run Perdita for any number of reasons, ranging from "I like the models" to "I want to kill the enemy master on turn 1". And Freikorps is an entirely different faction, I don't think that's comparable.