retnab

Frozen Heart. Let me summon Cyclops and have a "cover the board in Ice Pillars" list!

Sonnia could use an updating to include wave 5 stuff

Back when I played Mei Feng i'd put it on her, desperate to keep her alive somehow Heat Wave Kaeris can also use it to good-ish effect (Df 7 and the enemy that's the biggest threat should be -3 to their stat). Generally I don't bother with it though.

It seems likely that the models in the Backdraft and Undying boxes are going to be in the book, and some of the recent Monday Previews have seemed pretty model-ish so maybe they're wave 6 stuff? But besides that, nothing yet.

So I can't help but notice there's a real lack of stickied Master threads for Guild. I don't suppose any selfless and upstanding members of the community would be willing to write some stuff up to sticky for curious newbies? (on a selfish note, I'd love to see something on Hoffman and Sonnia personally)

Is this a secret teaser to show that Horse Puncher is the next Commander? Can't wait to get the minis in hand, we're so close!

Way back when I first discovered the Internet I decided to use NAB Master in some variation for my stuff (my initials, mixed with a bit of childhood overconfidence ). When I entered university I figured it was a bit awkward having Master in the name, so I made it backwards (Retsam) and put it at the start. But then a lot of people had trouble spelling it, so I shortened it to just Retnab. And now a lot of people ask if it's supposed to be "banter" backwards, and I always have to tell them no, that's just a happy coincidence! For my avatar, whenever I get into a new game/faction I change my avatar to a member of that which I painted myself and am pretty happy with (I've also used Retribution's Fane Knight and Cyriss' Enigma Foundry elsewhere, back in the day), so in a few months it'll probably become some Cult model I especially like!

Depends on who you think they'll take, Ironsides really doesn't want to see Wong, Zipp, or Zoraida as they can all mess with him and his crew's positioning. If you think Zoraida is likely then 100% take Warding Runes or she can make Ironsides charge into her own back lines. IMO Raspy's the better drop (strat/scheme permitting), but for Ironsides i'd be sure to take a Steamfitter, healer, and someone who can get around Squeal (Joss especially). My game plan's basically just to tank them, they're usually not hard to kill when you stop them from Squealing away. If it's a schemey pool and Fingers is hired, make killing him priority #1 (Chatty is BS).

Mannequins have the crazy powerful ability to let nearby friendlies throw Scheme Markers around within 6", IMO that's the one reason you would hire them. It's just the question of whether that's worth 4ss to you, and unless you're bringing more Performers their slow speed is probably going to make that a big nope unless the pool is REALLY scheme marker heavy.

I never take more than 1 of each, and TBH I'm more likely to take one Mannequin and Cassie instead for my speedy scheming needs. Performers' Siren Call being a weaker Lure always makes me a bit sad, but they're not awful.

Oiran are usually not considered worth it, especially with the Mercenary fee (they have a helpful upgrade but it's only available to the Ten Thunders). Ice Dancers on the other hand are great! I typically only take one, but they're really good speedy scheme runners.

I wonder if any of them come from the good old Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (yes, that's real)!

Agreed, giving them one of your Prototypes so they get a second method of Glory makes them powerful support pieces!

Releases are always at the end of the month.

Fingers is definitely trash tier, 0/10 model. Wyrd should definitely just remove him from the game, so people stop hiring him when playing against me.

Just wanted to point out as well, while the majority of the conversation is on Nico, but Sandeep definitely needs a nerf and that's coming from someone who regularly uses him. I hope they don't smack him down too hard, but i'd also like to not feel like half of my other masters (especially poor Colette) are subpar options in comparison.

This is an easy one, the core rules are actually available for free here! That only has the rules, no fluff or stat cards, so if you want to know everyone's stat cards you can pick up the 2nd edition books (Malifaux 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, Crossroads, Shifting Loyalties, Ripples of Fate, and Broken Promises). If you're wanting all of the fluff you can either also buy the 1st and 1.5 edition rulebooks or listen to the stories being read out in the free podcast here (it's currently up to the 2nd edition book Crossroads)

If you want robots, Ramos is your man for sure. He can summon in Steam Arachnids and Electrical Creations, and he has the highest number of beneficial auras in the faction (I wrote a big blurb on him here). If you're wanting more of a mix of robots and living things then basically anyone in the faction covers that in different ways (except Marcus, who's pretty much all about his Beasts), but my personal favourite is Ironsides who is kind of a tank with some movement shenanigans and friendly buffs (my blurb on her is here). Pretty much everything in the faction is playable, some are a bit better than others but overall our internal balance is pretty great so just go with what aesthetically works with you and we can probably tell you how to make it all work!

It's got a bunch that's similar (using decks of cards, alternating activations, killing things mattering but not being the most important thing), but there's a lot different with it too! The scale is of course much bigger (in Malifaux you'll have about 7-10 models, where in TOS you'll have probably 7-10 units made up of 50-ish models), instead of having AP there's a fairly simple Order system that controls what each unit can do on its activation, each player can pass their activations (but if both players pass in a row the turn immediately ends even if there's unactivated stuff), and there's no Conditions or anything like that (instead, there are 4 tokens: two pairs of a good and a bad one that each do pretty different things)! There's a lot more that's different in how they play, but those are probably the biggest ones.

Coryphee are powerful but against anything that ignores Armor they die incredibly fast, so Howard is usually considered a safer choice. I'd say 1 Performer and Mannequin is a good choice, 2 of each is getting pretty pricey in-game for scheme running.

There was a beta copy of the rules given out to people during the open-ish Kickstarter beta test, but we don't know what (if any) changes happened between that and the final ruleset.

Sandeep. He's been face-tanking the complaints against him for over a year!

How magnetizing!

Ironsides is great, personally I think she's our most fun Master so I'm a bit biased there though As far as hires, it really depends on which Limited ends up feeling the best for you. The best hires for Purifying Fire Kaeris are pretty different from Heat Wave Kaeris or Grab & Drop Kaeris, so the best thing you can do is try them all out, see which one you like the most, and then go from there.

Ahh, I misunderstood. Reliable, expected damage I'd then say Envy for the ability to 0 for Focus and the crazy good ranged 2/5/6 damage track.