Clockwork Top Hat

Neverborn can sometimes be a little trickier as they tend to rely on "tricks" and synergy perhaps a little more than other factions always do. I wouldn't say they weren't new player friendly - I started with Lillith and Ironsides and I picked up Lilliths playstyle much quicker.

In the end I always suggest going for what interests you then l theme/model/play style wise. Remember most if not all of the starter set models are mercs (I can't remember of the top of my head) so they can be hired into any crew.

Hello  For the Neverborn you might want to look into Lilith as she has some synergy with Angel Eye's mob. Dr Grimwell works well with most of the Guild masters except for perhaps Hoffman (who prefers mechanical help) He's technically a witch hunter so has that to link him to Sonnia and looks wise him and McMourning are perfect. Nurse Heartsbane is actually very good for Guild as she offers some board control something the faction lacks.

Quick over view of the faction playstyles:

Neverborn: Neverborn use speed and deception to win games. Able to dish out a large amount of damage in melee they are usually quite fragile and most rely on tricks to keep them alive. This faction is also rife with Wp based abilities. 

Guild: The guild packs a lot of firepower and tends to prefer a few competent models to a host of weaker ones. The uild is also quite good at buffing and supporting it's models and has a counter to several kinds of threats.

Arcanists: Magic users, constructs and beasts make up this faction. While it can make use of a wide variety of elemental spells it uses the burning condition more than any other. Armour is the most common defensive ability in this faction.

Resurrectionists: necromancers who love summoning. Often use a host of cheap models to outnumber the opponent and also a big fan off horror duels and poison. Many of these models are easy to hit but hard to wound.

Outcasts: The outcasts don't have a single unifying pattern except they're the misfits and outsiders of Malifaux. This faction has the highest number of Mercenaries and a wide variety of options/playstyles.

Ten Thunders: The Ten Thunders have a dual faction master with every other faction and these dual faction masters can infiltrate members of their other faction into a Ten thunders crew. This coupled with their diverse model types allows a 10T player to adapt to just about any play style.

Gremlins: The faction that loves shenanigans. Gremlins are almost as likely to hurt themselves as they are the enemy. Also many members of this faction are constantly drunk.

For more info on the factions and masters check out Pull My Finger the Malifaux wikia and tactica.

I would agree on the second question as it says any "model" singular.

Ramos isn't too bad as a demo crew - his synergies are fairly obvious and you can show off the basic mechanics. Here also an iconic member of Malifaux and shows the theme quite well. I'd recommend using a different faction just to highlight the thematic differences in the world of Malifaux and to show off a different aspect to the game.

Guild

Outside of Lucius I think all the Guild crews are quite good for demos. And Guild VS Arcanists is quite appropriate.

Neverborn

Lilith is the NB master I use for demos. She's not to complicated but has enough depth to make her interesting and yet again she's an iconic character. Pandora shows off horror/wp duels quite well.

Ressers

Seamus - shows off a wide range of tools with lures, wp duels, various attack types and summoning yet still not to hard to understand.

Outcasts

VonSchill or the Vics. Both have a strong feel to them and both have a fairly easy to understand game plan.

Gremlins

I don't really know enough about them to suggest a crew.

10 THUNDERS

Misaki and MMcCabe would both be good options, as would Shen long

Lynch wasn't in 1e if I remember correctly and Collodi was a henchman so not sure how much he will feature but the 1st ed and rising powers both have stories featuring the Neverborn masters and Chronicles also had a few stories.

Frierkorps Librarian is something I want to try out at some point. Taelor and Sue both have a special place in my heart.

I will be painting mine like The Time from Cardcaptor Sakura.

I'm not going to repeat what's been said about the boxes but some good options for Hamelin:

Candy - kind of semi thematic she can be hired if Hamelin takes the sewer king upgrade.
Crooligans - fast objective runners and like Candy available if you take Sewer King
Iggy - offers some ranged support and has some handy tricks for a fairly low cost. Needs Sewer King.
Kade - hits hard and fast, with Hamelin ymmv. Also needs Sewer King.
Sue - I love Sue. There's not many crews he can't fit into and he has a wide range of tricks.
Ashes & Dust - if your playing Sewer King Hamelin it makes a good target for the sacrifice ability (whatever it's called)
Killjoy - not only is he a nice melee model who can pop out easily in a Hamelin crew but he also acts as a deterrent, your opponent will be hesitant to deal with your swarms if they might have to deal with him.
Frierkorps librarian - utility and support piece, I don't think it's a common take but it's there.
Taelor - melee support, and if you think you might be facing a summoner and not confident you can just blight them out of existence she is a good pick.
Big Jake - great for scoring extra vp
Hodgepodge effigies - if you find yourself running out of soul stones the hodgepodge effigy is your friend.

Lilith - one of my first masters and the fact you can make her work in most crews is brilliant. Also I'm a big fan of her mobility tricks and board control.

As I feel bad for abandoning my belovebeloved Arcanists my second choice has to be College. 

No they aren't in the campaign deck. The Emissaries are from wave 3 while the generalist upgrade box only covers up to wave 2. The cards are only in the books and (I'm guessing) the emissaries boxes when we get them.

Some other important thins to remember about summoning are that you cannot exceed the rare limit of a model - if you have already hired a rare (1) model you may not hire an additional one of these model. The summoned model is placed within the range of the ability, you must be able to place the model in range and in LoS if you cannot (due to other models, terrain, etc.) the action fails. Summoned enforcers cannot have upgrades. And most importantly a summoned model (unless a card says otherwise) has Slow and cannot take Interact Actions on the turn it is summoned.

Dreamer's summons through Dreams of Pain come in with 1 wound but on the trigger you can bring them out without slow. A summoned model that can take it's full ap is always wroth it even if it is severely injured. I'm guessing you've already got alps, coppelius and day dreams from The Dreamers box and most people don't feel the need to buy more alps but give them a go and see what you think. Insiduous madness, Stitched Together, Lelu and Lilitu are all currently lacing metal models so you'll probably want too either proxy or see if you can find the old metal models.

For upgrades you obviously want want Dreams of Pain - the upgrade that allows you to summon nightmares. On wings of darkness is an upgrade you probably want to consider on summoning dreamer . It gives you extra draw power to make sure you can get the cards you need to summon. Otherworldly is helpful as it gives you another way to get more cards through Playtime. If you want to summon cards are key - you can burn soulstones to give you suits or s but cheating let's you save these precious soul stones.

I suspect that when the scheme re starts it will be when they feel it's time and will most likely be announced in t's own thread and possibly with a notice on the website. Posting a countdown till November the 1st is going to have no effect on when we hear anything.

Not actually a master but Coppelius has definitely got "Kiss my eyes" by AFI.

No as you can't hire LCB only use him with The Dreamer. If you want to do a campaign crew take The Widow Weaver and get the Dreamer later on.

Unless your Pandora

Yep Taelors story which is actually her telling multiple stories. I believe it's the first one she tells where she explains how she got her arm and the relic hammer.

There may also be times when you wish to injure or kill a friendly model - to produce corpse/scrap markers or to unbury models like Killjoy or Bete Noir. While not something you are likely to do often it is possible and might surprise your opponent as they probably won't be expecting it.

Well being a henchman he can use soul stones and in smaller games where you have to use a henchman you can still play a brilliance çrew. Also in a shifting loyalties campaign game you have to at least start with a henchman. 

Yes. When you attack the friendly model the attacker must flip but you can either relent with the defending model or flip and cheat the results. There are plenty of times you may wish to do this. Abilities like black blood and handpicked men, triggerstriggers/actions that let you push models around, actions like the Death Marshals Pine Box that can aid your crew, etc.

That ronin on one knee looks kinda uncomfortable

I'm on my phone so I can't link too it but search the forum for Tyrants. There is a thread about them with the names of the 12 named Tyrants. The 13th is nameless.

Yes that's how it works. So you can always (1) walk (0) germinate (1) attack. Or (0) germinate (1) attack (1) attack.

This is useful for me as I'm planning to make one for every Master

For Lucius I'd love to do one based off the end scene with him in the Governor Generals mansion.

Mechanically I think it was because they fit NB best and they do share similarities. From a fluff point of view Dreamer is a human (or at least we believe he is) who projects himself into Malifaux and has bound LCB too him. Certainly Dreamer best belongs in Neverborn as it would seem he is tapping into the power of Malifaux (the power the Neverborn use) to create his nightmares and also I believe it's been hinted that he has some kind of link with the Widdow Weaver in the fluff.