Breng77

On 1/25/2019 at 4:12 PM, Fetid Strumpet said:

That sentiment only works if no masters in the faction are immune to hard counters in some way. Otherwise from a competitive standpoint you can just learn that/those masters so you specially can get as good as possible with the fewest number of crews. See 2e Sandeep for corroboration of said point.

That has more to do with those masters being too strong.  You can have no hard counters if you are not particularly strong. I.e. you won’t auto lose but winning or max pointing might be tough.  I don’t disagree with your general sentiment there are problems if some masters are too good.

Not a second master to your crew just to your hiring options.  The game shouldn’t be about mono build crews

I really don’t get people revolting against a feature of the game (building crews after knowing the opposing faction, and missions).  It is not as if you need to own every master in a faction to be able to compete, you just need masters that cover the weak matchups against your other/preferred master.  So if Kaeris ends up being at a disadvantage against Sonia, and this isn’t a great pick against guild, you need a master that is a good pick against guild.  What needs to be avoided is having hard counters to a master in multiple factions.  Don’t take Kaeris against guild is fine.  Don’t take Kaeris against guild/readers/outcasts/gremlins because she has a bad match in each would be a problem to me.  In fact I think it would be nice if each master in a faction was a weaker choice against one of the other factions.  It would force more variety into the game.

On September 19, 2016 at 4:37 AM, Joel said:

I had a Lilith mirror match round one in a tournament at the weekend.  One of the few differences in the list wwas that my opponent took the Pmagic and I chose the Cherub.

we both had:

Lilith

Nekima

Doppleganger

Mysterious Effigy

 

frankly, the totem choice was the key to the game.  We had collect the bounty as out strat and had both chosen undercover entourage as one of our schemes.  I had also chosen take prisoner as I knew that he'd do what you advise with the puke worm - he'd keep it back. Meaning I would swing 6vp simply on triple walking lilith over to it in the last turn.

Likewise, I read his intent with lilith and the cherub was able to save a high card to shoot her and push her out of my deployment zone, take her below half wounds, and put her in a position for my nekima to finish her off.

Taking Pmagic automatically, without thinking it through, is not a great plan IMO.  Its not bad, but it is predictable.

To me that is you out playing your opponent more than straight crew choice.  It would be just as easy to predict that you might try to take it prisoner and kill it off/ move it up after a few turns so you need to use a different model etc.. Not saying there is a definite correct choice, but you taking advantage of poor play by your opponent doesn't equal the totem being an obvious difference.  One should always plan for everything and the cherub may have used at times, but just as often it seems underwhelming

11 hours ago, Torsul said:

I wouldn't call this a widespread problem. I would rate Cherub, Marionettes, Daydreams, Huggy and vodoo doll above the puke snake. In fact the poltergeist is the only totem which is often replaced by primordial during my games (can't rate the scribe as I don't play Lucius very actively). 

As others said the Gorar isn't only a greater ss investment but suffers from the placement restriction of his main ability paired with lackluster survival stats. On top of missing Minion synergies from titania. With Collodi I might take him some times as marionettes could be replaced with effigies and one could summon marionettes after Gorar sacrifice himself.

 Have rarely seen the cherub taken over the primordial magic.  But it is true for the others though in those cases you are almost forced to take their specific totems.  It is about the only Saving grace in neverborn if the primordial magic was in another faction you would see it even more.  

13 hours ago, Joel said:

while this WAS true, under gaining grounds 2016 things are less clear cut.  Other totems have more of a role and eclipse the puke worm in many scheme pool/strat mixes.

If Pmagic is just a rush of magic and and activation, its not doing enough.  Its ability to count as a scheme marker takes a real dent when scheme markers need to be in place every turn to score big.

Joel

While you are right that the primordial magic took a hit in the new pools, I would say an activation and Rush is plenty for 2 stones.  If you consider that rush of magic is essentially a half SS per turn (if you stone for cards) then in a 5 turn game you get 2.5 SS worth of cards.  Plus activations, and anything that you can do as a marker.  I mean in arcanists people pay 2 SS for arcane reservoir which is 2 SS for one card a turn and no activations.  

That is also true, if it could sit back at least there would be a consideration

The Gorar seems to suffer the same problem as many other neverborn totems.  It isn't the primordial magic.  Primordial magic is so good for just one stone cheaper that it seems like taking the Gorar is purposefully playing with a handicap.  

I would actually say it is only maybe a bit easier.  It helps if you have the right masks in hand otherwise not much at all.

Yup, the malifaux child is nice if you have a as actions on your master that target your own models, or are not targeted, Pandora lacks both of these.  The manipulative angle is good, especially if you bring say Barbaros, to throw up challange, so that you force 2 WP duals to hit him (obviously not from long range.).  But the issue wit you manipulative is it gets less effective the more models you have with it.  So if you bring say Candy, and a doppelgänger.  Having a 3rd model is almost a negative.

I have an extra mech rider box I could gift as well.  I accidentally ended up with 2.  PM me and I'll send it your way.

I don't always play the masters I listed I just find them easiest.

On May 3, 2016 at 10:31 PM, Jordon said:

I really like the emissary but I am less convinced on some of it's master specific upgrades. I think Raspy got the best of the draw hands down. I think Kaeris, Ironsides and Mei are all decent worth a looking into. Colette's is pretty meh. Finally we have Marcus and Ramos who I don't think I will ever bother with as they are too situational (Marcus) or just plain bad (Ramos). Fortunately both of those masters have plenty of other options in that price range that are great inclusions. 

As for Ramos getting access to guild constructs, well that already exists in the form of avatar Ramos. It's a shame it's not campaign specific as it's one thing from version 1.5 that never got carried over to m2e. To be fair though, I personally think arcanists have better constructs anyways. 

 

I actually don't mind the Ramos upgrade, it is not flashy, but having the brass arachnid give the emissary reactivate is really quite good.  I find the emissary to be nice for Ramos because it is very hard to take down with df 6 with positive flips, it can cast into engagements which I find huge with a Ramos crew, and his discard to allow a 1 AP action from another model can be huge.

Meh I like that adrenaline does other things than just regeneration.  Giving her regen, and not have adrenaline reduce each turn would be nice.

I quite like our emissary, it works well with a number of masters and is a versitile attacker/support piece, but then I don't rate our typical beaters as highly as some others.

I'm totally for Hoffman being dual faction arcanists/guild.  He would make more sense in our faction than some of the other masters seem to at this point.

I've used the ice golem a few times and found him best with Colette because prompt + the upgrade for a push and armor is a strong interaction.  It gives mobility to the golem and can get him to armor 3 or 4 easily (push 12" and gain +2 armor) this lets him use smash fairly easily.  Or push him up and bounce spells off him with a silent one.  That said the blessed with the same upgrade is probably better with df 6, htw, and then armor 2.

Why wouldn't you factions only matter when hiring.

Yeah prompting a coryphee can move it 10". So you have a 19" charge threat with each coryphee, then the reactivating coryphee can swing one more time then merge for 2 more swings (or a new charge). So it is still 6-7 good attacks.  

i also think we need to separate the ideas of unbeatable and NPE.  You may well be able to beat the rat activation trick.  However, if doing so is a boring game every time IMO it is a problem.

Aha...good that I only just started trying out said list.  It will still work pretty well with just one, as you can still likely get 2 charges and an extra swing prior to merging.

I like them well enough I just generally think the duet is better.  With it having higher WP and positive damage flips, and a self heal.  I will often final act prompt both my coryphee turn 1 have them run in hit a few things then merger before they die and hit something else.  Very little can withstand 2 charging coryphee, that reactivate then merge into a duet.   Typically can get 7 regular coryphee attacks and 2 more from the duet.  Then once the duet is engaging with the opponents crew it just causes havoc.  In fact I often add Myranda to the reactivating mix, then becoming a Cerberus.

I agree lots of ranged models end up hurting, quite a bit, and once they have taken any damage it becomes an issue.  Are they the least survivable model, not at all.  But for 7 stones they go down pretty quickly.  To use stones you need a trigger.  They have terrible willpower.  I find people focus on them really quickly because the duet is so good.  As such I usually merge turn 1.

The issue for individual coryphee is that a lot of things Can kill them.  I guess if your opponent has not hurt either, has no models that can chain activate, nothing that ignores armor, nothing that can reliably do 4 damage per swing etc.. Then you can keep them separate, but I find mostly I attack with one and the other merges.

The issue there is what are you deactivating?  With the right cards the arachnid can already reactivate 2 constructs, Hannah is expensive enough that you probably only have 2 constructs that are worth reqctivating.  I feel she is just too pricey with Ramos to be worth it.  For Ramos her sister is a significantly better buy.

Is was going to say I think silent ones and acolytes work better for this than Oxfordian mages, and gunsmiths.  The issue you have is furious casting to some extent.  It is good, but likely you will kill some things that you shoot at so, there will be no burning to use with the gunsiths.