admiralvorkraft

Well Ramos' box set is great for all three of those masters...

Actually Rythos42 I'm usually okay in Guild because Lucius likes to pall around with a couple of Hounds or Guild Guard for activation padding and Sonnia doesn't exactly struggle at making new friends... Most of my out-activation frustration lately has come from Ironsides. Arcanists have so many great 7-stone models... I'll try running a couple of Metal Gamin or Railworkers in my next game for padding. It doesn't help of course that my most regular opponent likes to run the Dreamer. And Hamelin. And Collodi. And ever since the Beta has settled down if he runs anything Neverborn he's got the Emissary to crap out three Changelings. He may have figured out how much this stuff gets to me.

I'm not looking for some magic solution, I just know that what I've been doing isn't working. Mostly it's something I struggle with in turn one, once models are engaged there's less of a disparity. Are there specific things you look for in setting up your positioning? Do you try to minimize your exposure or do you try to position your force to get stuck in as heavily as possible on turn 2, knowing that you're sacrificing some of your crew to get there? What does your activation order look like in the first turn - do you push your major threats first hoping to provoke a response? How do you force your opponent to activate an important model early before there's a whole lot of engagement on the field? Obviously if there's an enemy summoning system that's getting started you need to figure out how to put pressure on that, but if they've just spammed the board with (say) Bayou Gremlins do you try and take out the little guys and accept that the important models are going to get to you? I will also say that I find the game to be substantially easier if there's model parity or I have activation control in the first couple of turns. Playing to the strategy and schemes is something you always should be looking to do, I'm just wondering how you approach doing that when your opponent has 3+ activation's on you.

There's probably no better way to set your beater's up for Hand Picked Men than to poke Burning +1 onto them. After that he's a scheme runner extraordinaire. With Ironsides, of course.

Gremlins. I love their aesthetic in theory. But as a primarily Guild player it's hard to not see them as doing everything that I do, only better. I have only played a couple games against Gremlins that were remotely competitive, and never played one that I enjoyed.

My biggest problem as a player of Malifaux is that I am easily pushed on-tilt by a few things. I'll just start pushing models around and that makes the game a lot less pleasant for me and my opponent. In interest of improving my play I've tried to identify the things that get to me. I've found that the two things that frustrate me the most are Alpha Strikes (which I've gotten better at dealing with, mostly I think it's a way to make the game really boring), and Out Activation. Now the obvious solution to this problem is to either play Outcasts (with the Rat Factory) or Resurrectionists (or Ramos of course). But those aren't the crews that really interest me. So what I'd like to hear is how do people approach playing out-activated, knowing that your opponent can hold their important activations until there's nothing you can do to interfere with it? How do you set up for your next turn without becoming dependent on initiative? How do you fight back the feeling that there's simply no point in trying? I know that there are no firm answers but I'd love to hear how people approach the problem. I know this game is good enough that my problems are self-created, hopefully somebody has insight that can get me thinking and help me to find out something that works for me.

Ah, there is that. Still, by the time you've got your master on the field surely you just end up with increasingly-disposable starting Witchlings?

Wait, you run Sonnia and don't blow your own models to smithereens? That's my go-to tactic... Combined with a wanton use of Resurrection you don't even end up loosing ground by killing your own Stalkers... I don't run Perdita, but when I see her across the field she's rocking Df/Wp 9 in perpetuity because Frank is riding around in a Death Marshall so unless I happened to bring indirect damage those 10 wds may as well be 50. To address your questions, I would be inclined to go with a tougher henchman as my leader - Sidir or The Judge unless I wanted to go all Guardsmen in which case I would groan and bring Dashel. The Peacekeeper is more points than I would lock into a single model at anything less than a 50SS game, but it does rock so there's that. Pathfinders are lovely, Riflemen can be amazing, Guild Guard are surprisingly great so long as you don't split them up. I always like to have the option of a single Stalker for condition removal or a single Death Marshall for box-related-reasons. The Witchling Handler might be my favorite Enforcer in the Guild - she's fast, brilliant at support, decent damage and a summon trigger that you will never get off but that is fun to look at. My two cents.

As thematic as that may be, Silent Ones are already about a stone cheap for what they do, lets not add a pseudo Paralyze to their routine. I would rule that they cannot be placed on or under another model or marker.

In my head it looks a lot like the set for The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari...

I almost always run at least one Austringer, and they make scoring at least two points from Vendetta pretty trivial. I've even gotten to the point where I'll have them attack something else first, fake another scheme, and deliver the killing blow to their target to score the full 3. Granted, it's a super risky move, but a focused Sh 7 that ignores cover and LOS and doesn't randomize does make it more reasonable.

Thank you all for voting for me! I've been really thrilled by the responses I've gotten, and I'm honored to be chosen out of a field of such excellent work. Thanks again, I can't wait for the next round.

This is really lovely, a great Canterbury Tales sort of vibe.

Vapormancy and Kang are the two reasons why I would run Mei Feng.

Samael Hopkins and Francisco are two VERY different henchmen. Sam Hopkins can get one of the highest damage tracks in the game (min damage 7 with a stone and card if they're on fire) but he does take more finesse to use well. I rarely run the Flame, and when I do it's just as a convenient sacrificial model to bounce blasts off of.

Also, they're great for Guild McMorning because he can hand out Precise.

Union Miners with Ironsides, Rail Workers with Mei Feng or Kaeris. Solidarity is gold, and then you pile it on top of Hand Picked Men... Plus in a crew that likes to huddle having the ability toss scheme markers is super useful. Kaeris doesn't really need one more thing that can hand out burning +1 and facilitate scheme marker dropping, and Mei Feng wants durable constructs whenever possible. I don't think any of our other masters want either one of them.

Back OT; one trap I frequently end up falling into with Lucius is that I establish a defensive posture and then lack good tools to engage the enemy if they decide they just want to, say, run a Carrion Emissary into a corner and churn out ALitS while the rest of their crew establishes Protect Territory and matches me on Reconnoiter points without ever crossing the center line... The Hoffman box is high on my buy list for the Watcher and Hunters because schemes are important and Guardsmen are SLOW. A Guild Sergeant could also help.

A solitary rifleman is a sad rifleman, in my opinion. That doesn't mean that you need a bunch of riflemen though. Run him with an Austringer buddy and you have a surprisingly nasty fire base for a grand total of 11 stones. Don't expect them to survive any sidelong glances your opponent sends their way though - Df 4, 5 wounds, no defensive tech... Ah well. They do have accomplice, so if Dashel gives one reactivate you can (0) Focus, Shoot, (1) Focus, Shoot, (0) Focus, Shoot. That's three focused Sh 6 attacks at 3/4/6 or 4/5/7 if you flip/cheat a ram. I loathe Dashel, but I can't argue with the massive holes he helps me put in things. Long winded answer to a straightforward question. *Disclaimer: These observations are based on real-world performance in Lucius lead crews, YMMV

Hunters are also great for doing whatever it is that Lackey's Are For.

Well you guys are just no help at all. Otylia shows up wanting to play Neverborn and here we are, 12 replies in, and no one is trying to convert them? They even gave you both a way in. Kids these days...

So where are they, eh? I've got a snarky-British-battle-report shaped hole in my life...

A&D is the only model that can score outflank all by itself...

She also hands out Fast like candy, and with the right crew build it's the sort of razor blade stuffed candy that your parents may have freaked out about...

Though with grab and drop you could end up accidentally removing the whole condition. Just means you have to use it that turn I guess...