MONSTERNOGGIN

.... /Dons Sarcasm Hat For the record, both the Before We Begin and Mistakes Were Made podcasts are based in Portland. That means you have a Rudy and a Dan in your area, which makes a good deal of the Malifaux Community a little jealous as they are both stand-up gentlemen as well as huge proponents of the community. Head over to Guardian Games for beerlifaux and ask for Rudy. Rudy, turn in your paperwork! Also, these rereleases are making my inner fan boy giggle. Super stoked to see these!

That is what I was trying to convey. Thanks D6Damager. And as far as mitigation through synergies, yes there are ways around the harmful triggers, but the machine is very susceptible to being picked apart (arguably more so than other factions). As our solution to most problems is 'more bullets', not 'more protection', recovering is not our strong point. A well-oiled gremlin crew firing on all cylinders is a wonder to behold, but once one plate falls you will have time on your hands keeping the others in the air.

TLDR: yes, they are swingey. The luck factor isn't just about mitigating the negatives (of which there are more than their fair share). More than anything it's just mechanics that need to be managed (but also exploited by your opponent). The larger issue is they can be very suit intensive for their positive attributes as well. This can be easily managed with somer and lenny, but outside of those two models you'll be depending more heavily on two-card as you'll likely be spending your control hand on your master/henchmen abilities. Yes, there are builds which can reduce the luck, but you will quickly become static in your playstyle. If you're looking at gremlins, you have to accept the swings and the luck. You will win big or not at all most times, especially if you're looking at serious competitve play. If that doesn't appeal to your friend, then there's always Neverborn or Ressers.

Self attacks do work, but shooting involves randomization (not garunteed to hit) the other involves being in ml, if there are multiple models around then the point is either moot or they've effectively made you commit more resources into an already heavy points/resource sink. Best case for a self attack is 1ap and 1 cheated card. Worst case is 2ap, 3cards, 2ss. Realisticly you're looking at 1ap, 2 cards, or 1ap, 1 card, 1ss. Oh, and you've dinged him for damage so that model that had them engaged can now charge right back in with less trepidation because you just burned your masks/stones, or you spend activation's ap sitting on your thumbs healing yourself 4in away from where you actually need to be to deny schemes. Again, too expensive for a model that is swingey in their effectiveness. And yes, cursed object, d.a.m., and distract are relatively simple schemes, but I rarely take them because I don't like asking my opponent to allow me score points. Scoring full points gets tricky over the game because you are committing ap over and over again rather than just set it and forget a-la line in the sand, breakthrough, plant evidence, etc. Dead models is a super effective denial strategy (barring against ressers), especially with Gremlins. Let your opponent give you cursed object turn 2, then kill the engaged model turn 3 before they activate, then that model can't give you cursed object or distract next turn....or the rest of the game. If they give you that condition then they are agreeing to let you live to the next turn, punish them for it. And Fingers doesn't punish anyone.

He's too easily negated. I stopped taking him because I grew weary of a gamin/tot/hound/anything with a Ml range walking up and shutting him down. They don't have to attack and trigger squeel, they just have to keep him engaged. He also can easily just be ignored as well or pushed/pulled out of position with lure and other movement shenanigans. For 10ss, I'd just a soon take McTavish: solid ranged attack, equally solid melee, he can remove markers, push, heal, gain a third shot, can force opponents to drop a card, provide permanent soft cover, for your squishy scheme runners, the list goes on. Fingers is a model that caters to individual playstyles and specific strat/scheme pools. When you're talking 20% of your points allocation, I'm looking for a model that can be anchor for the crew and provide more flexibility. TO each their own, I realize I'm an outlier here, and it's shaped largely by my meta. Chatty models get removed/ignored/contained early game and then sit around and watch the action.

Before the tide crashes in... the scheme marker manipulation/chatty is what folks feel is worth the 10ss.

Player 1: Primary NB with Lilith, Pandora, Dreamer Secondary: Mah, Somer, Ophelia, Levi Player 2: Primary Resser with Kirai, McMourning, Tara Secondary: All Guild Player 3: Primary Arcanist with Ironsides, Tina, Ramos Secondary: Nico, McMourning, Sonnia, Perdita, Hoffman Player 4: Primary Gremlins with Ophelia, Ulix, Wong Secondary: Brewie, Dreamer, Collodi, Lucius Player 5: Primary 10T with Lynch, Yan-Lo Secondary: Seamus, Molly Player 6: Primary Arcanist with Collette, Ramos Player 7: Primary Arcanist with Tina, Marcus Player 8: Primary Outcasts with Viks, Von Schill If one of us is leaving the Meta for a tournament, the others will start fielding any potential unknowns by proxy to help mitigate any surprises.

^^^this. At the end of the day, they're not awful. However, there are more efficient options available.

At that point you'd be looking at rooster riders for chasing down runners. Different topic, I know, just pointing it out though.

Yup. I left out the upgrade part, it's usually a auto-take if I'm including gators. You also have the beginnings of a fun NB Zoraida crew there.

McTavish likes them for helping his Sh attack. From the shadows means they can be engaged early on to slow down your opponents big beaters as well as tie-ing up snipers early game.

*sniff*It's so beautiful.*sniff* SHOO! Go away troll!

Brewie, Rooster riders, and fermented river monks FTW... Just sayin...

In general, gremlins by nature aren't very tanky and can eat up a lot of resources trying to make them so. To provide a counterpoint to dog's tanky bubble, here's another perspective. To score turf war, you just need 2 non-peon models within 6" of the center. That's a huuuge bubble and nothing says you have to stand on the center marker. With that said, 2 bayou gremlins/piglets hiding behind terrain with a skosh of their base over the line score the sames points as 4 henchmen/enforcers clustered in the center. I'll chime in on Ophelia as she's my master of choice. With her aim high ability, she can and models like Remi can lay down cover fire without having to randomize for your ht 1 models. McTavish also doesn't randomize into the scrum. Veey seldom does she dissappoint in turf war for me. Som'er and Sammy can hang back and pop out two gremlins end of turn to run up for points, as can Ulix with piglets. Wong can drop the blasts on the turf war bubble with a glowy McTavish picking off the stragglers. Zoraida and Brewie can obey enemy models out of the circle late turn to deny points along with dog's shenanigans. PIGAPULT/stuffed piglets. Should be self explanatory. As far as schemes, protect territory should be pretty straight forward. Murder protege as well for all the blasty/killey fun previously mentioned and the higher costed models will likely be the ones moving into the turf war ring. Second Merris and Old Cranky for all the reasons.

For the record, you're welcome. Bayou gators for Black Friday and Rooster Rider renders released. (heh, alliteration)

Thanks! We'll be droppimg the bed music moving forward. The goal is for the show to mirror our post-game discussions. Expect some banter, but also the whys, questioning, and debate that accompanies our list building. We're trying to get the starter box on the table, but let us know if there's something you want us to kick around.

^ yup. Wyrd has been burned by their distributors too many times to show their hands early. They now seem to be erring on the side of under-promise, over-deliver which is always the better option. Honestly, it's kind of fun because you legitmately can be surprised on the day of the promotion and how often can you say that?

Episodes 01 and 02 are background music free and only have intro/outro bumpers and small interludes between segments.

Luckily, the background music is the easiest thing to manipulate. We'll be messing around with formats as we find our stride. Thanks for the feedback.

I blame Dreads for this. I was wondering when you would show up.....and yeah......you and one Eeyore have nothing to do with it at all.....

Soft, TLDR answer: it depends. Long-winded, rambly answer: By and large, when I 'm building lists I either start with a master and 7 stones, OR Master and base cache and build from there. When I reach the point where I either have stones left over (scenario 1), or not enough stones (scenario 2), I will then begin the weighing of options and make sacrifices accordingly. For me, as mentioned somewhere above, a 'filler' model is more valuable than a 'filler' upgrade due to that an unused upgrade is just that whereas an random model in your list can still help burn opponents ap, maybe accomplish schemes, etc. The flexibility soulstones in the cache provide is also more useful turn to turn as it allows for more responses to your opponent. However, I also fall in line with the notion that a list should be a well-oiled machine with no wasted stones. To circle back, filler upgrades will make it into my casual lists for testing purposes. If it's a random Wednesday and we're trying out some other combos and I find myself with extra stones, then I'll add something I've never used before to see what it does, same goes for rando models. Beyond that, nope. Nope filler. I'm also finding our group also approaches this game with a different mindset. All games are treated as practice games for tournaments. No waste, no fluff, no nonsense, no gimmicks. Every game is a race to 10 while trying to keep your differential as high as possible.

^ this.

Ulix plays a little sideways compared to your average greenskin, so don't get too frustrated just yet. I'll second the goal of summoning Warpig/2 Piglets a turn. It can be very demoralizing for your opponent. I know for me the image of the 'pig ball' led me a little astray. You may want to think of it as more of a wall of pork that Ulix puts between himself and the opponent's nasties from which he plays quarterback. I find he is more dependent on AP sequencing and bubbles than, say, Ophelia. The order of operations and positioning to prevent getting bottlenecked was/is my biggest hurdle. Basic turn sequence for is something like this: Piglets drop markers, move, drop markers again due to corn husks --> Ulix summons war pig and piglets if he has the cards. Once you get a sufficient amount of bacon piled up, you can start shooting your forward line into the masses with the hunting bow or send them off to run their respective scheme shenanigans. Rinse, repeat as desired. Slop hauler(s) can hang back to keep heal up the piggies before they are sent into the fray, or can debuff the random brazen model that decides to charge the line.

Thanks for the followup, Dog, and gratz on the win! How did keeping your beaters alive go? That being said, your struggle with keeping conditions up is reflective of mine with Zoraida, Brewie, other 'obey' Masters in tournament play. I find that obey/denial Masters can be quite powerful, but tend to require some degree of cooperation from your opponent (i.e. allowing conditions to remain on key models, winning initiative consistently). Most competitive, tournament-built lists that I've encountered will anticipate some sort of condition removal. It seems like obey Masters rely a bit too heavily on drawing a strong control hand/good flips on your part and the opposite for opponent to hit on all cylinders. Most of my games with Zoraida and Brewie are fun on casual night, but tend to crumble if a turn doesn't go their way. I guess I'm saying I have a hard time recovering if a key duel or two end badly. For example, despite having Trixie, I still find myself being able to cheat in the win on initiative only about 50% of the time. Do you have a similar experience? Does my reasoning seems flawed? Or am I just having a nasty stream of luck recently?

^ this. Also, dog, do you just sit by your all day anxiously awaiting the next gremlin post?