SpectreEliteGaming

zFiend - depends on the board mostly - if you can get into melee with them quickly I don't feel a difference. Perdita is a bad matchup for sure but any others aren't too bad. Daw is a very quick crew. Just so happens that any scheme/strat pool that would be good for a killy shooty crew to take would not be a good one for Daw to take so if you are optimising your play you probably won't be seeing crews like that. I'm not a person who takes a "take all comers" crew and calls it good enough. Daw has his place.

As opposed to a master like the Viks (or any killy master really) who can potentially table an opponent early a Jack Daw game is a control game of complete denial that goes on and on... its like knowing your doomed and having to sit there and watch your fate unfold Of all the masters in the game I'd say Jack Daw is the most "annoying" to play against - in a Magic blue deck way. Sorry you can't attack or do actions and here is a bunch of discard and lure and denial plus I'll obey you or maybe push you around - also did I mention you can't cheat I've got horror duels for days? If you set it up properly and lock your opponent down - coupled with more passive gameplay - it makes your opponent feel like they cant do a whole lot and they're just chasing you around all game. His crew isn't much "better" either. Nurses and Hanged - nuff said. It could just be personal bias because I really like playing AS him but I'd have to say playing a game against Jack Daw is as unfun as this game can get

I wanted people to think I am a pretentious neckbeard. /rawr I have a small group of dedicated gamers I work with and we are away for long periods of time and literally have nothing else to do so we game all the time. Also, I can admit that I am a bit of a closet gamer. I really hate and reject the stigma associated with any kind of geekdom which is unfortunate because I really like to game the f*ck out (gtfo?... no wait). I am also active in a wide range of competitive extreme physical activities and when people eventually find out that I'm a secret geek its always the same reaction "I cant believe your a geek!" - most unfortuante when that comes from a lady. :/ No reason a person can't do both gamer conventions and tough mudders.

Jacky Jacky Jack Daw. The first comic book character I really liked as a kid was Ghost Rider - especially the Spirits of Vengeance offshoot - I've been a tormentor ever since Just so happens Jack Daw is probably the master most prone to ragequiting your opponent as well - it was meant to be. Also, Viktorias because of boobs and twin sister.

The crouching pose in Crossroads looks better than this crouching one for sure but I'm a sucker for alts anyway. Who would have known they would have actually followed through with their promise of an alt Kaeris so long ago! They didn't forget and I am impressed.

Most of the time I'd say -1... I prefer my opponent to have it unless it is indeed more advantageous for me to have it - when I play competitively I put a lot of effort into out-activation and do not seem to put myself into situations where the iniative flip will make or break the game. With 2-4 more activations you can pretty much dictate how the next turn will start. From what I've read on the forums and heard on podcasts some people do put themselves in make or break situations though, so the answers you will get will vary quite a bit - especially comparing control to aggro players.

I had the same problem when I was deciding what to do with Malifaux minis as well. I found that if you just base and paint your models on an individual basis (per model) and keep your decisions consistent it will just work itself out and look great. Example, all the "kid" type characters and a few others like daydreams and teddy ended up on orphanage bases because it seemed appropriate while I was making them individually and in the end it just happens to work. So if in doubt just do what seems right for the particular model and don't worry too much. After all I've seen a lot of Seamus crews with all different colors of dresses all over each models and it still looks great. I suppose it also helps if you have a somewhat limited pallette - I dislike light colors especially blues, greens, yellows and like dark colors and metals so everything looks relatively consistent anyway.

I'll be there. I won't brag but I might smile a lot.

SOLD! SpiderGoggles is awesome. Fatty Strongarms is a nod to the original and the stickman looks more like a metal gamin... which is great! because I need one more metal gamin!

I'm glad to see that we have individual threads of an "official nature" in order to discuss the new Chronicles... I was going to mention something but Aaron started it with Chronicles 15 and I hope it continues. Good all around - just one thing - i expect all Malifaux stories to end in misery and despair... otherwise its like a Tales From the Crypt that doesn't end in a Just Deserts... its not right.

Holy crap boys and girls... I honestly did not mean for this to get blown this far out of proportion... the original *gasp* "peeks in bag" comment was offhandedly made by myself... emphasis on offhandedly... in a topic that originally had nothing to do with this. Too much drama for me! *vanishes!!!* ( but you can still feel my disgusting cheaty cheat cheat presence lurking over your bags peeking at your shinies!) Ausplosions - sigh. You seem like a very difficult person. Also, you'll never catch me! nah nah nah boo boo.

I can see how a lot of people are viewing "hyper-competitive" play as detrimental to the well being of the community - and I totally understand that. Whenever you see a hobby/game or whatever else, there is a "soft" and "hard" aspect of it. In Malifaux, I believe that right now the community is mostly "soft" (no negative connotation) - as in, people are here to have fun and have a good time and be nice and build a community and friends. A perfect example of the soft side of Malifuax is A Wyrd Place podcast and facebook - genuine lovers of the hobby and the game. However, compare a game like Malifaux to a game like Magic (where "hard" play is a necessiyt in tourneys) or even players such as the author of the "deception" article in last month's Chronicles. As a game like Malifaux builds community you are going to start attracting hyper-competitive players (yours truly) due in no small part to just how good and complex of a game Malifaux is - this is unavoidable. My hope is that the soft part of Malifaux doesn't erode as the army of neckbeards descend on this great game. I am absolutley a competitive player at heart, but I am consciously aware of the state of the Malifaux community and I think its great. I won't be the one to change it. Regardless, if this community continues to build there will be more and more competitive players "invading" your hobby and hopefully you can accept this reality and still find enjoyment in the game (story mode, hardcore, and enforcer brawl is for "fun" right?) Remember that super competitive people find the same enjoyment in strategy and winning that you find in the hobby and community of the game - they are just a different sort of people and enjoy the game in a different way that might conflict with your enjoyment - this should not instantly make that person a d-bag. I find myself lucky in the sense that I have no problem fitting in and facilitating the community of the game while still trying to maximize my face-smashing when possible. I've never had an opponent be upset with my conduct or my gameplay - if they were, after all, I would have no one to play with. The art to deception, after all, is that your opponent doesn't know you did it. Be a nice person and keep your shadyness to yourself - its unfortunate that most competitive players are unaware/uncaring of of the needs and goals of most casual players, and vice versa. Even if you don't agree with my statements then at least be aware that there are "jerks" like me lurking around scotuing the field, as it were. Having said that, I believe the "best player" is the one who maximizes on every single conceivable advantage in addition to being particularly gifted at playing the game (reading articles/strategy and listening to podcasts and battle reports etc.). A Player won't win on shady principles alone - its an extra tool in addition to developing advanced tactics and knowledge. Perhaps you and your opponent are so close in skill that all you needed was that extra push - one thing that he didn't take into consideration - that gave you the advantage. Letting "luck" dictate the winner in this example would be even worse than one player just simply happened to know more than the other. Furthermore, if Player A had advanced knowledge of a majority of the models/aspects of the game whereas Player B is a newer player who plays casually. Player A would almost certainly win and this would almost certainly not be considered cheating yet he still possessed a tremendous advantage that Player B did not have. I would propose that this is unfair but legitimate. I believe that pre-game scouting is unfair but legitimate. This would be no different than utilizing psychology on an unknowing opponent - you have one gamer who is critiquing everything that everyone else is doing at all times and another gamer who plays for fun or shows up drunk or just plain doesn't have a battle plan until he reaches the table. Not everyone pays attention to "tells" and psychology - those who do have an advantage not unlike my pre-game scouting. Yet this usually goes undetected or is just absentmindedly dismissed. TL;DR - Tournament play is a huge grey area. Try to get what you want out of the game and try not to hinder others in their same quest.After reading many of his posts I have no doubt that if Icemyn and I played each other without previously knowing who we were, we would have a really fun and great game. ------ A few extra points: Observations such as "a full bag of neverborn" are more telling than you think. Unless I had reason to believe otherwise, I would assume that you are a person who plays all over the place and although you have played most/all of the masters you are probably not particilarly knowledgable of any in particular, and if you are - its only one or two with the others being "for fun." I would try to make a particilar point of seeing which masters you field more often, if I felt it necessary. Regardless, deducing your opponent is so much more than just one simple point such as master selection. There are lots of other questions that can reveal the characteristivs of a player that people don't even think of necessarily - Are your opponents models painted well? Did he paint them himself? How concise are his lists? What is his temperment? How seriously does he take the game? Blah blah blah. A "full bag of [faction] player" is not exempt from scrutiny - there is psychology is everything that a person does. "Really needing to win that starter box" has nothing to do with it. Clearly this statement, if made seriously, is made by a person who is not a competitive player. Winning for winning's sake is what its all about, regardless of prizes or placement. This mentality is often not reserved solely for "wargaming" - this is a broad way of viewing practically everything. Competitive people are competitive by nature and this spans their personal and professional life in addition to the wargaming hobby they might have, most of the time. Like I said before, you play to have fun but my fun comes solely from winning. Hopefully casual and competitive players can one day appreciate and understand these two kinds of people without instantly laballing the other party as d-bags. Besides! If you are a casual player who righteously stomps a neckbeard and makes him nerdrage - is that victory not doubly worth it!? And that's all I have to say about that.

@Icemyn - I don't feel those are comparable examples at all - my deductions occur outside of the game, before the game occurs, or in regards to other people's games. Your examples are obvious cheating - in game I measure as accurately as possible, walk my opponent through what it is that I am doing and ask if that is alright with him. I don't telling them info if they don't ask for it but I do what is expected. You are essentially using my words as a copypasta to paint a very unfair picture of me. I've never said any of those things, and they are just plain ridiculous. Interesting statements, none the less, for such an "honorable" player to make.. :/

It's fine, I don't mind. I'm not skulking around in the shadows lifting up the lid to look in the bag when others aren't looking - I'm saying that say you are at adepticon and you are wandering around checking out pick-up games: What are the people playing and if their bag is open, what's in it. A lot of people are nice enough to pretty much just talk about their stuff - hobby pride and all that... there's no reason to not take advantage of this knowledge. It's war games boys and girls - not playground games... ... besides the best part about it is that your opponents might not know you did it - you just keep it to yourself and make a mental note. How can you just willfully handicap yoursef knowing that your opponent only brought Marcus? Here's an example... Cheatedfates Joe just said on his most recent podcast that he is painting up Neverborn and he's bringing it to adepticon. He has access to Lucius, Zoraida, Dreamer, and Pandora. He said himsef that he really likes Pandora and isn't good at Lucius and is moving away from Lucius. I also know he has the most experience with Dreamer and just started Zoraida. So I can deduce that he will likely take dreamer or pandora when it counts and the strategy/scheme composition should give an idea of the rest. Sooooo.... playing Outcasts with high WP and some movement effects would be a good idea, and so on... Kind of a general example because I don't know what the strat/schemes is and are we playing a casual/competitive game or a fun game or whatever. Of course, if he were to play a "fun" game and take whatever he felt like chances are he'd be handicapping himself in both mindset and optimization. I consider this to be using an advantage, definently not cheating. In my games I put so much importance on pre-game set up that I have a good idea of what to expect as soon as the game begins. The game for me is list building and total optimization... then you just play it out. Welcome to competitive play

Game on, indeed. Its playing on the same mentality as your opponent that is important. If I want to goof around I'll play beer and pretzel games like Cards Against Humanity or Zombicide - wargaming is srs bsns Playing someone who is goofing around is a waste of time for me. I have found good success against mech ryler by exploiting its generic build in unfavorable scheme pools and aggression towards the weak flank during the first two turns, whether it is Somer lobbing Gremlins, levy-mirror, or just plain ownage by Zoraida. Levy's allcomer list is not really geared towards achieving schemes very well and relies heavily on summoning. This forces your opponent to counter by trying to redeploy and assist his squishy rider. You can use obey, tarpits and pushers too. When it comes down to it - its all about tit for tat and trying to force your opponent to make mistakes. I've beat Levy with Daw, Dreamer, Somer, Zoraida and its always the same general idea. People are so scared of Levy they play cagey allowing him to fortify his positioning but more than anyone else, Levy suffers to actually accomplish schemes plus many schemes are unfavorable to him. Hit him hard and fast early game and he'll have a whole lot of nothing to do for T3 and on. As soon as you defeat his posiioning you can play avoidance if need be and just let him sit all alone with nothing to do in one section of the board he can't get out of anymore. Perhaps, bring small powerful expendable models and bog him down - stitched, illuminated, swampfiends to the face. Now if you're saying something like "well I play THIS master and THIS master can't beat Levy" then you're probably right and its time for you to expand. Bottom line - if you know Levy you can beat Levy - if you don't you are screwed. Also, if you want to beat Levy like no man's business, start playing Zoraida YMMV ------- About the "not knowing which master you will be playing" - I don't see how people can say this. There are so many ways of deducing what you're opponent will take out that I just don't see how you can't know. Whether its loose lips or peaking inside someone's bag during a walk around or just previous knowledge from pick up games on previous days of the tournament or what have you - you should know or you're not paying attention (willful blindness perhaps?). I don't want to undermine my own powers of deduction... but really its the little things. Did your opponent bring a bag big enough for multiple masters, whats his faction/what's on his tray and of course - what would you play if you were your opponent. Even at tournaments people are not that secretive and travelling normally means its unlikely that they will bring everyhing they have unless they show up with a Hordes bag. Add complacency to that after a long day of wargaming and you will see some consistent gameplay choices. I'm not saying to tool up completely towards a single match up - just make sure that if that match up occurs you have an answer and hopefully a good one. You should know what your good and bad matchups are and adjust accordingly (at least considering your "worst" matchup). While waiting for your opponent to go, look around and see what else is going on and make some mental notes, etc.

I am in the same place Moxypoo is, I think. I don't think a Merc tax would hamper Levy much as I usually only run him with 2 out of faction constructs - the undead and constructs characeristics is his "thing" and paying a merc tax doesn't seem right. He is very much a noob-hammer, just a little more well rounded then the Viks or something similar. I don't believe he is overpowered but he his top tier. After playing as Levy and against him from time to time - he can be reliably countered. I would suggest that Levy is no more powerful than Ramos, Colette, Dreamer, Zoraida, Ophelia, Somer, McM, or Seamus - all of whom I consider top tier... the difference being that Levy has a little extra punch to make up for his gimmicky playstyle. You've probably been playing way too much Levy and are really good at playing him to a level above most other players. Also, I have found that the aforementioned Masters all have some kind of crazy combination or synergistic tactics that seem MPE until you've played enough to look out for them. Perhaps every master being OP in some regard is what balances out the game. Maybe you're OP... but I don't think he is

Little bit of thread rez but... A Jackdaw is a type of bird - sort of like a crow and also a marvel comic book character. The male gunsmith looks like Il Duce from Boondock Saints and one of the convict gunslingers is obviously Danny Trejo.

In competitive, maybe. In casual I still build to win but I don't care if someone needs to reflip or if the opponent is a mm off a charge or whatever. But no matter what I'm always a real nice guy about it, even though I'm a powergamer through and through. If you're not playing to win you're just wasting time - it is a competitive game after all...

Oh boy... that would be like a 500 word essay. Basically - the idea is not to kill but to 1: lock the most essential models down and 2: rip all of the cards out of your opponents hand - passive gameplay is best utilized in schemey strategy/scheme pools or when anti-killy schemes are present. Your mentality should be to want to avoid and annoy your opponent. If frame for murder and murder protege are in the pool I'm just not going to take someone killy - plus you reduce your opponent's viable options for scheme selection so you can deduce which ones they selected - this is where JD comes in. Similarly, if there are lots of pro-killy schemes I just simply won't take Jack Daw - its really hard to balance JD's effectiveness for optimal play. Also, there is no reason to not take a nurse - its so cheap and so good it should be auto-include no matter how you play - also, I hardly ever run without 2 guilty (though, I pretty much never run JD unless its a scheme oriented strategy) and you should probably choose either Monty or Hanged but not both... I'd probably rather have two hanged A few other things... if you have a discard heavy crew you don't need LL and should look into Malifaux Child for more Obey. You will probably find more success by hiring small utility models to save on points because JD's crew is expensive - this is where Crooked and Drowned come in. The more I play the more I see that hiring non-tormented models and putting tormented on them is probably not worth it - you don't need a fully tormented crew much like Schill doesn't need all Freikorps or Collodi doesn't need to always be in a giant puppet ball.

Resser faction masters are very hard to assassinate - aside from a blatant screw-up it will be hard to pull them off. I've been reading up on and hearing a lot about Molly (especially from both Cheated Fates and MWM podcasts) and I am really starting to want to go over to the darkside of Malifaux for a bit. Molly sounds aweeeeeesoooome. Drop a punk in the face and get Belle'd around sounds like a ton of fun. I think the biggest problem with this game is that evey faction is awesome and every master is awesome and every awesome playstyle is mostly accounted for in some way and you just want to play every single one but could never have the time to do so. :/ Is that a problem? Been splitting my time between Zoraida and Levy lately - no abom masters to report yet and I've been focusing so much on researching and table time for Adepticon I haven't been goofing around much with my games.

@decker - Yeah, you probably need an DE but I usually would rather have 4 aboms than one engine - if I am playing summon heavy I'll be playing core crew in Recon or something when body count is more important. Otherwise, I probably won't have enough Aboms on the board in one area to even try to attempt it + focusing on summoning a DE gets you off task and its not worth it I find. I really only get a DE on the board when I hire it and I would only ever hire it playing a Rusty Henchman-led crew. When I play summoner Levy I feel I would need at least 6 aboms - 4 isn't enough for a summoner list. If you are concerned about cost I would suggest possibly staying away from Levy much like the entire Resser faction - it gets pricey. Eventually you will want to dabble at least in your PoI tree. It's difficult to say "all I am buying are these models and that's it" - if you feel that way don't start with Levy - his options is his biggest asset and expanding your collection is practically inevitable, and I would argue necessary. Uh oh, here comes the obligatory "I play a core levy crew just fine" comment - of course you can, but when this game gets "figured out" and the whole "tier-list" master lists and hyper-competitive tourney scene shows up you're going to have to push yourself to stay on a competitive level. Single master "take allcomers" won't be good enough. When the competitive scene expands and starts to get really fleshed out you're not just going to see Mech-Ryler Levy builds anymore and building to hate is going to become more important. Nothing is better than building a optimal hate list for exactly what you're opponent is playing if he slips up and lets you know what he brought. Nothing's better than "winning on deployment" with a ridiculous hate list in a competitive game. Perhaps not in casual if you actually want to keep friends but in competitive nothing should stop you from wanting to completely stomp your opponent one steps away from ragequiting I know a lot of people are still in the "take allcomers" list building mentality with Levy, and if so you can get away with a very basic (but boring) build but if you really want to play Levy and do crazy cool combos and stuff you might be investing more money than you want to.

Best of both worlds - take Judge and Frank! Problem solved Apart from minion Lucius lists and the dual faction masters playing core - I've been most impressed with guild when they are run with Elite lists heavy on the henchmen. You have fewer models (5-6) but your crew is a rock.

Fluff SPOILER: Sweeney Todd got "deleted" - no luck there I was thinking - an arcanist jester or penguin character would be great too - one that replaces its face with a comedy or tragedy mask depending on its function - all clockwork parts underneath - Go Steampunk!!!

Don't know how to feel - indifferent I guess. Don't like the head either... I'd buy it anyway, I guess.

Whiskey Gamin!!! Yes! I would love to see more circus stuff - killer Penguins and scary carnies and all! I can't wait to see the asylum crew - I'm all over horror stuff like that too. I'm trying to think of what Justin alluded too - I'm guessing these conscience-stricken Neverborn will be making an appearence in the starter box because of the whole "wretch" theme... perhaps Angeleyes feels sorry for us pitiful humans? I've said it before but I really think we will eventually see master rotation (like in 2-3 years, haha) where some masters phase out and get replaced by new masters to keep things new or fresh - they have synergy with the same core crew but also bring their twist to it - or just a slight tweak to balance or change things up productively without errata and making money atthe same time (PROFIT!). At the same time, you would be allowed to use your old master in a sort of "legacy format." ie. Leveticus goes apeshit in his quest for awesomeness... he "improves himself" (like Donald Sutherland in Virus) and suckers Rusty Alyce into it at the same time in an attempt at transcendence or something. He dies in his efforts to become a Tyrant and new and improved Rusty Alyce now gains sentient control over an army of scary abomination creatures (aka crew compsition is faction + any model with both "construct" and "undead" characteristics). Samuel taking over for Sonnia because she finally just runs away to isolate herself completely and is never seen again, etc.