boots468

Anyone else looking to pick up a ticket? It's looking less and less likely I'm going to be able to make it next weekend now.

Ronin work very well with her. They are good for 6ss generally, but then with Misaki they let you really double down on the no-charging she can bring to the table, they're good against armour (Misaki is not) and also she has great synergy with Seppuku: Misaki can use your last stone to add a crow to her Bisento, at which point you are out of stones so a second one is added for free for the assassinate trigger, then she gets + to def flips until you decide to Seppuku the Ronin, and you can do it all over again. Desperate Mercs have similar no-charge / add more soulstone abilities, but at 4ss (or even effectively 3ss with the careful positioning), I personally struggle to get much out of them.

Alessandro has been in touch with me, and I've sent him the money now. Cheers, James Boots

Hamelin (via one upgrade) has the option of hiring Iggy and Candy, who both have the incite spell. Winning initiative isn't that useful when you're forced to activate a trash Bayou Gremlin off in one corner first... Von Schill has it trickier (as usual...), but as the above poster says, positioning your models expecting to lose initiative is generally a good idea. If the game comes down to needing to win initiative or you lose, something else has gone wrong first.

Yeah, I wouldn't go so far as to call her crap, but she takes a while to learn, and even once you're good with her, then very few people would call her top tier. Certainly not " real sub optimal " though. Of course, as that is her reputation, she's a bit rarer than most masters, so few people know exactly how to play against her, and she does bring some unique things to the table. If you have the horror models to summon handy, then I'd say these days Karina is better than most totems, so that helps Tara a bit and if you're willing to not have Tara's reactivate, her anti-interact (0) can really help with the right schemes. It's a shame that one her most powerful abilities (choose to re flip to see if game finishes) often can't be used in most competitive play though, as they are fixed turn limit, or you run out of time for turn 6 etc.

It's a solid crew for sure, and depending on strat and schemes could do very well, but probably isn't the easiest list for a fairly new player. The balance between cards in hand and your void creatures' DF is a very tricky line to walk, and trying to focus on trying to bury your opponent will often leave you frustrated. If you're willing to stick with it, you'll have fun with the crew, but personally speaking after a few games with Tara and her crew I put them back on the shelf and went back to masters I preferred. I still get them out from time to time, but I struggle to either do well or have much fun with them (very different things of course). Your mileage may vary, it does seem to be that certain people click with certain masters and Tara for now is beyond me personally . I hope you do better than I (and share your knowledge if you do :-) ), but don't get disheartened if you find the crew tricky - I think you have dived in the deep end by picking Tara :-) Some people find her easier to learn at first without any void creatures, so perhaps try swapping them out if you do struggle, they are very odd models to use.

Yeah, I mentally see Hannah as a 8ss model who has one very good 2ss upgrade compulsorily built in (the extra card draw) and the option to take another very good upgrade (I Pay Better), with an upgrade slot still free :- ) . As long as I don't expect too much from her other than the upgrades, I'm happy with her. She can't compete directly with the Outcasts' other 10ss beaters in a fight, but normally does more for the crew as a whole. Her 2ss bury upgrade I have taken, and had some fun with (once kept Kaeris from activating because she was buried first 4 turns in a row), but I feel the cost (and needing a non-built in suit) is a little too high. Good for Neutralise the Leader though! Specialist is very slow, you're right, but is quite often worth it nonetheless. Not always though, and personally I'd have him in the queue for a 0ss upgrade ahead of Hans, but never mind. He's still useable, but you do kind of need need pushes or I Pay Better to get your money's worth out of him.

Apologies if I'm missing something, but how are Parker's upgrade cycles a drain on soulstones? He can only attach one upgrade per turn, which he'll only be able to do if he's discarded one that turn (assuming start with all 3 of course), which will have given him a stone from the discard? Unless you're swapping into the one 2ss upgrade, the cycle looks SS neutral to me, or even generating them if you are able to get enemy scheme markers involved. Of course, him and Mad Dog do look to want a few stones for damage prevention, so mid game stone generation is always good!

I don't have the book yet (was dispatched today though!!) - but does the return attack have to be against the model that made the initial attack? If not, I may finally have a use for my Desperate Mercenaries - at only sh4 they won't do much damage to Lazarus or a Strongarm, who would happily take 1 damage to make a free shooting attack. If you have 2 models with Return Fire, you could even do the Merc's (1) action to take two shooting attacks at -2sh - handy when you don't want to hit! If you can keep it near a master or henchman too, and get the SS back when it dies, you're also only effectively paying 3ss for a disguised, significant model who's powering up your shooters.

Yeah, it's also another card-discard effect (Freikorps already have a lot of them, especially if you take I Pay Better, and the Emissary's natural (0) push is a card-discard too) and is another 10ss on a model which doesn't benefit from his aura (I find it hard not to take Johan & Effigy with VS, so that's 20ss already). I think if you are planning on taking the emissary with Von Schill, you have to change up the crew quite a lot from what you normally take, it's tricky to just substitute the Emissary in for Lazarus/Hannah/Anna/Strongarm (man, the Friekorps have a lot of 10ss options...). You kind of need Engage at Will on VS too (take two (0) actions) so he can both strip and finish the cur each turn, which doesn't have a lot of synergy with many models other than Rusty with her upgrade (which is expensive in Stones and card) or the Steam Trunk (who I struggle to get much out of ever, and is yet more card-discard effects and also another model that doesn't use VS' buff aura). It certainly has merit, but it's trickier to make work than you'd expect.

Hannah can take I Pay Better, the others can't. It's already such a powerful upgrade (even with only 2 or 3 mercs in your crew) and her Ht 3 makes the aura easier, and the extra card she gives you makes the discard less painful. Nether Fluctuation (enemies in 4 lose most inbuilt suits) is strong if you're having a big melee too - makes some triggers impossible (Langston's decapitate), and makes all the people with built in Crit Strike / Poison etc less effective too.

Thanks for the answers - I guess don't take Misaki in headhunter until it's cleared up? Also, for confirmation on question 3 from the original post (there were a lot of questions, sorry), if she has no crow cards in hand but 1 single stone left in the pool, she can assure the assassinate trigger by using that stone for a crow, then Risky Ventures will provide the second crow when the duel happens?

Hi - apologies if these are fairly common type questions, but I generally struggle to parse the exact timings of triggers and things, so here are some Misaki questions: 1) If an opponent has a push DF trigger (e.g. Squeel), does that happen before or after Misaki's inbuilt Next Target push trigger (assuming you declared it). 2) Does the push happen before or after the damage flip? If after, is it also after markers (eg Headhunter, Finish the Job) are placed if she manages to kill her target? 3) Risky Ventures gives her + Crow to Ml if no stones in pool. If she uses her very last stone to add a crow, will Risky Ventures kick in (as determine dual comes after use soulstones)? 4) Thunder - It says "This Model is immune to damage caused by Thunder" - does this include an opposing Misaki's Thunder too? Or a Doppelganger's, etc? 5) Smoke Bombs (from Smoke & Shadows upgrade) - can the 50mm markers be placed over terrain etc (as just says "not touching other models or markers")? Also, is there any point to the action having Rg:3 when they have to be placed in base contact with the caster? 6) Can Hannah copy a minion's Smoke Bombs action? Thanks!

Can you add another to the reserves list, please - James Boots. Unlikely now, but you never know... Thanks,

The good thing about Hannah is that Sisters in Spirit ((1) Ca for +2 Dam) and Synchronised Slaying ((1) Ca for + to attack flips) are both "this model and friendly sisters", so as long as they are on Vanessa or Vik B, Hannah can copy them and benefit herself (and all the sisters benefit too without spending any of their own AP). A 3" ml attack with damage track of 4/6b/8bb, with free focus on one attack from I Pay Better is pretty insane. Non-trivial to pull off though, and requires not being too far form each other on the turn needed, but brutal if it happens. A hand of 7 is always lovely (unless you go void heavy) and Hannah's 2ss upgrade can get you 3vp on neutralise the leader fairly often too.

Yes - thanks again for running Panzer, after quite a while out of the game, it was really good to get playing again, and the whole day ran very smoothly.

Paid up! Will be first games played for a long time, looking forward to it. James Boots

Sounds like a good event, but I'm working that weekend. Hope it's a success and you end up running more!

This is 100% the reason I declared Outcasts for the Nythera event. It needs to happen!

Thanks!

Will the now out of print expansions to 1.5 (Rising Powers and Storm of Shadows?) be coming to RPGnow at all? A few of my favourite masters and models were introduced in those, and I've never been able to track down copies for the fluff. Still not 100% about 'The Event' or the Red Cage either, that all seems to be prior to the M2E books its currently possible to get hold of.

I've tried it with Von Schill and Tara so far, and it was worth its price. Tara needs more buries and with VS my opponent made the emissary #1 priority beacuse of all the shirts coming off. Shame I tried mind games by secretly declaring the emissary as bodygaurd rather than the stongarm suit with the regen trinket... I imagine a better player than me could plan better for the (0) scheme push, but taking the emissary with a normal crew does leave you down on activations (unless you take Hamelin or summon-Leve I guess) and it is not especially killy nor tanky for the 10ss cost. VS taking his shirt off three times in the middle of the oppnent's crew was pretty fun tough, as was keeping an oppenent's trapper buried for most of the game....

Yes he can - it's the Emissary's (1) action on the 0ss Leveticus specific upgrade to sacrifice himself in turn 1 to summon a horseman, only if you hire 3 to begin with. So, you have Leve, 2 Waifs, the 4 Horsemen (1 with a trinket (unless you Black Joker it) - the Regen one seems best, and probably on the Mech Rider?) with 4ss left over. I'd be tempted by the Hodgepodge Effigy with those 4 stones, but a bigger cache/ upgrades may be a cleverer move. Oathkeepers on Leve and a couple of the Horsemen maybe? I don't think it is an optimal list, but might do okay with the right schemes. Shame the Emissary is on table so shortly - you won't get to see the 4 horsemen next to Avatar Leve.

The new Emissary brings quite a lot to Von Schill - in my game with him, Von Schill took his shirt off three times, even though he didn't start with it. That big bubble of terror tests is a nasty thing for many crews. A Strongarm with Regen was also pretty tasty. It is another expensive model in an already small (and non-summoning) crew though, and it's also more 'discard a card' actions you need to plan for. The Freikorps already have an abundence of them and you're going to want to save some cards for actual cheating with...

I've seen this a few times, but surely the sniper would only get to make one shot with focus? It would be at focus +2, but the focus condition is removed rather than reduced when you use it. I've only got one game in with Shenlong (lost badly to death bubble Pandora), and I feel he's a master it'll take a while to get the hang of. Many options and tricks, and not amazing at killing or tanking either. Sidir seemed to work well with him (Shenlong likes being in the Promises bubble, Sidir likes pushes from friendlies and a (0) to use when not yet hurt), and being able to give Recalled Training and Servant of Five Dragons to Yu after they were discarded from Shenlong annoyed my opponent no end :-)