Dark Aletheia

Thank you for the response. This is great news! Thanks for all the fine work you folks do.

How long will we have to wait for the Emissary/Conflux upgrades so that we can field our old metal Avatars? This is the area that's most confusing/annoying to me.

If you take away Hamlin's activation control, he's a bit worthless. Activation control with Hamlin isn't the problem; activation control with the Viks probably is one. So, yeah, I think limiting rats/Obedient Wretch is the way to go. Also, from a design perspective, I'll bet they want to limit rule changes to the minimum possible, making the least possible disturbance. Limiting the hireability of one or two models is a small tweak; overhauling the activation system is basically impossible without a brand new edition.

I'm not saying there's much comparison between Malifaux and RK. The previous poster mentioned AT-43 and I thought it useful to observe another game with alternating activations that added a substantial change. Batman Mini game uses passes, Infinity uses ARO's, etc., both are systems meant to check activation control getting out of control. I'm also not at all suggesting that Malifaux use a "pass" system. I'd hate that, actually, as activation control is an important strategic layer to the game.

OK, so I'm glad that you read my post as adding a aesthetic evaluation of the situation rather than a game balance one. However, I don't think that's necessarily not a "valid argument"; if we threw out aesthetics, we could easily (and much more cheaply) play the game with bottle tops or chits. For the record, I'm not saying I think anything needs to be changed, just suggesting that there are more than game balance issues that we might throw in the mix. I do think that Wyrd does use some rules to enforce theme. Off the top of my head, for example, Lazarus' "hate the maker" rule. Given his fluff, it would make no sense for Lazarus to be in a Guild crew, as his rebellion is from the Guild is intrinsic to his story, though I can't think of a game balance reason that he couldn't run with Guild. What I am saying is I think rats are closer to the Lazarus rule than to your examples, meaning more central to Hamlin's identity than other masters. Again, I'm not saying what I'm offering is a "strong argument" or that I'm advocating a change. I'm just offering a fluff/thematic consideration. I just think it's weird and more jarring seeing rats in a non-Hamlin crew.

BTW, the Relic Knights 1.5 rules just dropped the other day and it addresses the same thing. Like Malifaux, RK has an alternating activation system and the new rules require you to add a "filler" card (non unit, can be used to heal and other things), if the number of models you have drops below a certain number (your "dashboard.") So, yeah, another system with alternating activation that address the issue once it was found some problems associated with it.

We could come at this from another direction: fluff and theme. As an avid Hamlin player, I always thought it strange (and distasteful) that rats were hire-able by other masters. Rats/disease are Hamlin's thing and it seems weird, from a fluff perspective, that someone like the Viks could "hire" them. That doesn't make sense to my cinematic mind and pulls me out of the game when I see rats in a non-Hamlin list. So, yeah, I agree that the problem could be fixed by limiting Rats and the Obedient wretch to Hamlin only, but I'd argue that it should happen, not because of game balance (which is important), but because it reinforces the story/fluff side of the game.

So, through a quirk, I wound up with an entire painted Collodi crew, but was missing Vasilisa. It seems like it is impossible to buy/trade just for her and I really don't feel like buying the whole crew box for one model. How necessary is she for a competitive Collodi crew?

"I survived Von Schill's Steam Trunk assembly and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."