-Loki-

Neverborn have a couple of 3ss minions already. Wisps are 3ss minions that have some good utility such as controlling enemy AP, though not Significant, and Corrupted Hounds which lose Insignificance if there are more than 1 and they're within 5" of each other, which are rather speedy and good for schemes. I doubt Wicked Dolls being 3ss would do much on the low cost spamming front.

Wicked Doll is in an even worse place now. At 4ss it was already rarely hired, but just 1ss more for a Bunraku? Even those that hired Wicked Dolls before will probably just hire Bunraku now. Even more baffling is none of the abilities that summon a Wicked Doll use its cost, so dropping to 3ss would only affecting hiring.

Infinitys weapon list is a faction list in itself. It's hardly streamlined. They had a streamlined weapon list back at the start of N2, but it's gotten increasing bloated every book. It's gotten even worse in N3 adding more types, and some skills also affecting how a weapon works (Breaker Rifle, a Rifle with a new ammo type, on a model with Marksmanship works differently to a model without Marksmanship). It's not umcommon for my weapon listing on my printed army list to be bigger than my actual list. And then you still need to cross reference things in the book unless since there's so many ammo types and skills that affect how things work. Malifaux might have entirely custom rules for every model, so a model with a pistol might have a different Sh stat, damage track, built in effects and triggers compared to the guy next to him with a pistol, but at least it's all right there on the card in front of you. The only time you need to check the rulebook is for core game rules, rather than model rules.

Also, this is now year 6 of M2E. The developers have spent that time releasing 5 waves, each time getting better at adjusting costs for units. It's inevitable that the book 1 and 2 units in particular would be off based on how things have progressed. For example, Incorporeal and Armour becoming less valuable due to increasing amounts of attacks that can't have their damage reduced, however they were more valuable in the opening years of M2E as those attacks weren't as common. I'm glad Wyrd recognise this and have spent an errata boosting (in most cases anyway) models that are very old, and aren't focused on making sure the new hot releases are those that sell.

When all you're doing is playing around with ss costs, getting people to look outside of their auto includes is basically the entire goal. So yeah, errata is working.

I already liked Lelu, he was just a bit expensive. With his 0ss upgrade at 6ss he looks solid, so Ill be giving him a go. I almost always use Kade with Pandroa as a backup physical beater, so 6ss is good. My Pandora crews are usually down to the wire on ss, so giving her an extra cache is nice. I'm a big Bunraku fan and use them with Collodi, so dropping in cost is nice. Bad JuJu going to 7ss is super. Overall I'm happy with the changes. I wish they were more extensive and did more than ss changes outside of a few models, but I'm excited for what this does to list building.

I was never unhappy paying 7ss for Raphael. 6ss? Bargain. Moon Shinobi and the Whiskey Golem dropping 1ss is neat if you want to play thematic Brewmaster. I'm a huge fan of Bushwhackers but like many thought they were 1ss-2ss too much, so seeing them drop 1ss is good. Still likely won't take more than 1 of them, but it's a nice change. Francois and Bur totally had these price increases coming for a long time. No one should be surprised about these changes. McTavish... didn't expect it but I can see him being worth more than he originally cost.

Stuffed Piglets got their errata 6 months ago.

Mature is in a bad place because of Nekima. It's more self reliant since it gets native to its Ml and he's a great Retributions Eye carrier and is overall fine for 11ss, but 2 stones more gets you Nekima who has a raft of other benefits.

I mean, I'm not saying to do anything drastic, but between Terrifying, Armour, Regeneration and a self heal, they outclass models 2-3ss higher than themselves when you add in their powerful Ml and Sh attacks (that don't actually need Brilliance to be powerful). There's a reason whenever a new Neverborn 7ss-9ss minion comes out, most people say 'they're good but they're no Illuminated'. Mostly I want to see them dropped a touch for the health of the faction. Losing one of those defensive abilities wouldn't make them worthless outside of a Lynch crew, but it might make more people start looking at other minions. I'd probably go for Regeneration, as with their self heal it just seems a bit much. Agreed with Angel Eyes. I so want to use her but out of the starter box models, she's the one I'm never tempted to put on the table. I love the idea of a purely range damage focused henchman for Neverborn, but she just doesn't bring it for her cost. This is what I was getting at with Teddy. Right now, for his cost, you take something else. He's a glass cannon, but he's just too fragile, often dying before reaching what you want dead. I do like @Math Mathonwys idea of an upgrade though. Dropping his SS cost isn't a good idea, as he's still a good summon for Dreamer at 11ss using Tannen. He's in a weird spot that as a summon, his ss cost is fine, but as a hire, he's just not great. A 0 cost upgrade to buff him is a good way around that.

Saw this in another faction sub form, and it's a fun discussion. I'm hoping to see Teddy get a Df buff. Df 5 would be great, 4 would be acceptable. Df 3 is just way too low. Also hoping to see something for the Gorar. Center circle is too vulnerable. Centerline would be much better. I kind of want to see Illuminated get a nerf? Like maybe lose one of their defensive abilities. Right now they outshine anything in their SS bracket, in many factions. Even a couple of SS above it.

Same thing happens if the Voodoo Doll is near something with Black Blood. Blood damage causes Voodoo Doll to take damage, causes Blood damage, takes damage, causes damage... Whoever runs out of wounds first dies.

Good writeup. There's a point in there that I really need to follow myself, about 'the internet' deciding if units are good or bad. A lot of the time I read that a unit is bad, I have the same experience you had with the Mysterious Emissary. The problem is, it causes doubt, and you start looking for problems with the model. This year I'm going to aim to put more models on the table regardless of the perceived use and try them out for myself. I already did it with the Poltergeist with Pandora and I'm seeing the usefulness of the model.

Why? They perform their function well.

Tell me, did 1.5E require redesigning every unit and reissuing every unit card over 2 years like 2E did? A 2.5E can be used to clean up the issues in the ruleset without feeling the need to do something drastic that comes with a full edition change.

I'd like to see all existing Neverborn types get something, though Nephilim don't need anything. Specifically: Woe - Gloom Crow. Give them Misery and something to screw with schemes like Chatty. Fae - Some kind of standard Fae. Kinda like a Katanaka sniper - Ml attack, bow that does conditions rather than damage. Swampfiend - Please give us the Bunyip from ITB.

The rise in the amount of min 3 damage tracks has definitely amped up the red jokers damage potential. Though that's more an issue with so many min 3 tracks than the red joker mechanic itself.

I like using the Scion of Black Blood. He's a real jack of all trades though. Nothing he does is particularly great, but he does a lot. His condition removal is expensive, but powerful. His gun has an average Sh, but with decent triggers and good medium and high damage. Sme with his knife, average Ml, good damage and good triggers. Also a 0 to make a friendly model take an interact with a range of 10 is super useful. If the opponent tries to kill him and fails, he gets even better at most things too.

If they're updating d totems I'd rather see it done as an errata.

IIRC those are just limited sculpts, not limited units. And while they're Champions, they're not Commanders. So they can't be the leaders.

Considering Guild are already in TOS and Sandmen are just announced, it's logical that a 2 player starter with one side being Court would have the other side as Guild.

There's no right way to implement it. Base size leaves out smaller monsters and counts large based regular sized models (Sidir is a Monster but Coppelius isn't). SS cost leaves out large, cheap models but Counts regular people that are a bit expensive (a Beckoner is a Monster but the Grootslang isn't). Theres going to be issues either way.

Or an amalgamation of mankinds nightmares or a lanky guy with an octopus head on 30mm bases aren't monsters. A monster doesn't have to be huge.

One 'or more' hands? How many does the Guild expect in general?

This is the closest I've found. If you look closely at the bottom you can see the plastic pool.