Trample

Hmmm, I think that is accurate. TNB will lose the initial fast when Expedited but you could give it fast again with the second echo. Even without the second he's taking 2 damage from fast, 2 from echo markers at the end of Tara's activation, another 1 at the end of the opponent's activation (assuming you discarded the first). That's 5 damage if you now discard the second echo marker and don't give him fast for the second time. If you mend with the second one you could drop that to 3 damage. There are a lot of options here. It's going to be almost as wonky as OG Tara.

No. The attack action and the damage flip are two separate events. The ability to ignore negatives applies only to the attack action. The damage flip occurs as a result of a successful attack action.

I can't wait to rewind on Mad Dog, giving him 2 damage and fast with the trigger and moving him 2" (one 1 more damage) at the end of Tara's activation. Then, on his activation he charges with run & gun, shoots 3 times, and teleports back to the safety of the echo marker at the end of his activation. Beautiful! She might operate a little bit like the M2e version of Nellie using rewind to give 1-2 models fast and an escape option.

This version of Lady J is very powerful. She and her crew can lay down a ton of coffin markers and bury pretty much the whole enemy crew. You're going to be running 3 death marshals and 33 every time I would guess. She is scary. If you can kill her though her crew is done. They have to lock down / bury / kill the enemy and scheme later. If you can take her out, and I would put everything into it, the crew is toast.

If I were looking for the best melee master against a non-terrifying crew though, I would probably reach for Twin Blades over Iron Heart.

Iron Heart VS looks like a ton of fun to play - just like Commander VS is. I like that he isn't strictly better than Commander, but rather a different approach. He has great economy in attaching upgrades and giving them to his crew. He's definitely going to want a decent pile of stones for the crows needed for the adaptive armor trigger. I see the Servant upgrade on him in every situation. He should be taking out a model every turn. It's a bit harder to get focus on him now, so double engineers might be good here. Although Hannah can copy it Von Schill's Foul Mouth and use it on him (can she if the trigger attaches upgrades - maybe not). VS (SoDP), Trunk, Hannah, Arik, Engineer (x2), Metallurgist, Prospector +4 stones I really like instinctual on him (too bad metallurgist doesn't have it) since he'll certainly use his foul mouth every turn, probably healing Arik or Hannah. He'll still have another for a leap or one of the other equipment options. Should be fun!

Yeah, I caught that. Arik is gonna pissed when he wakes up and sees that Leopold running around in his outfit!

Do you suppose Yannic can make the Desperate Mercenaries worth it in this keyword? They can push 2", interact, shoot, rapid fire to draw a card and shoot again with Yannic's aura. Previously these guys would never rapid fire, but Yannic makes it worthwhile. The push also gives them an opportunity to almost always hit the interacts and shots. So, 4 points for a 14" stat 5 gun they can shoot twice per turn and draw a card every turn. It's 15 points with Yannic. You can hire Yannic with 2x Catalan Riflemen they can do that turns 2+ since they have to start the engine with an interact before using their 0. They're also +2 points (for the package). Either way, there are a number of discards in Mercenary that make Yannic a decent option with the Viks, Ronin, and Big Jake.

I'm not too worried about the balancing factor of the new master titles. Wyrd has done a pretty good job of keeping things in decent balance. There will likely be some at various ends of the spectrum. The introduction of titles certainly rewards knowledge of the game and its matchups even more so than it does today. Already that is a pretty big factor in outcomes, although not nearly so much as it was in M2E. In the previous edition there were many more gotchas than there are in M3E and knowledge of your own crew and its capabilities is likely the biggest factor in most wins. The titles are likely going to stratify the player base a bit more. The gap between highly-competitive, semi-competitive, and casual players will likely increase. Having said that, the casual player does now have the chance to invest his or her time in a couple of different playstyles using alternate titles of the same master and a similar crew. That could perhaps make up for the increased knowledge requirement. It is a game that requires a decent investment in knowledge accumulation anyway, so it likely isn't that big of deal. Overall I am really liking everything so far and looking forward to seeing what TFW reveals tonight!

I'm completely with you on the Sucker Punch-themed M2E Viks. They're my favorite as well. I do break out the Easter Viks quite a bit too, just because they're fun. I don't mind the M3E Viks and they are more action oriented than the M2E models, but they aren't as cool. It'll be really interesting to see the Twin Blades in model form. I can see Wyrd putting out a really nice looking model that I'll wind up with anyway.

Still looking for them in my app. I wouldn't think it would take that much time to populate and mine is set to auto download. Hmmm....

Agreed. Please let us know your findings on the measurements.

I would actually bet against the pairings that make as much sense as Marshal/Obliteration, which is a good thing. There is nothing really to connect Mercenary/Ancestor or M&SU/Syndicate or Oni/Nightmare. Not that I can see anyway. The Marshal and Obliteration however would both clearly benefit from bury and would be so logical to put together. It just hasn't been the trend. You probably have a better chance at Performer/Marshal based on that what we've seen so far. I really like what they have done with some of the linked themes that tie the keywords together in interesting ways. The drudge is probably the best so far in providing a valuable mechanic that boosts both keywords in different ways and adds to the playstyle of both new masters. Kenshiro too boosts both the Viks and Yan Lo is pretty cool ways (both versions of each). I can't wait to see him on the table. The titles are very well done so far. The playstyles are different enough to be new for each but compelling to try. Definitely a home run!

Looking forward to seeing the new Viks in action. I'm wondering if there 3E box models could fit onto a base together. I've always liked them, and I think I like them better than what I see in the new art, but haven't bought them since I have two sets of Viks already! It looks like you might be able to have one of the 3E models essentially leaping over and maybe even stepping on the other. Does anyone know if the sizes would work out for that?

Thanks for this! Good report length. This has about the right amount of detail to keep it interesting but still short enough to actually watch.

Good list. Add Sabotage for Student of Steel.

Ah, you're correct. Reading a bit too quickly!

I really like this Von Schtook title! There are so many fun options for him on any given turn. It looks like his staple with be Study of Anatomy powering up his own team with 2-3 effects each turn. If all goes well it'll be a place+shielded+attack other stuff. Pretty awesome for a Student of Viscera who, since it isn't initiated from a trigger, can still get the awesome triggers on their attack. I do like the balancing effect of making it a non-charge action. Those can be a bit much on obeys sometimes. The shockwave attack isn't too much, but a shockwave 3 with a scheme marker! Nice! As others have said the free action is fantastic. I can't wait to try him out!

Definitely the diagonal has more room, but even in standard or wedge you can take the same approach. In fact in standard or wedge you have an easier time getting them deep into the table half if they're on the edges. A speedy crew can get to all of them and move them on turn one and be in a position to do the same on round two. Consider a crews like the Viks and how easy that is in standard deployment to move all 4 markers on the first turn, forcing your opponent to choose how they invest their AP. A crew like that can then be positioned to move them all again, at least once, in round 2. I approached it that way with Zipp in a tournament game in Des Moines last month and by the end of the game I didn't have much on the table but won 6-1 (should have been 7 one but I completely forgot to count the second point of Bait & Switch). My opponent didn't score any for the strategy because I poured so much AP into getting them back far enough that he didn't have enough to kick them back. That was in wedge deployment. I like (on paper, I've only used Outcasts for GG2 so far) crews like Swampfiend, Nephilim, Forgotten, Frontier, and Chimera for this one using that approach.

I can see why you say that. Recover Evidence was one that did require you to go to where your enemy was to get the marker at least. You could certainly eliminate them from a distance, but I see that strategy as very brawl-oriented. BTL is one that I've been playing similar to how I would approach Plant Explosives, which is focus on overwhelming with the markers early, defend and prevent from that point. So with BTL I try to get all of them moved into my opponent's half on turn one and again on turn 2. There are folks who approach this as kill first, move the markers and score later but I plan to have invested so much in the strategy by that point that they won't catch up. So to me it's more of a movement-based strat than a brawl-based strat.

Hmmm, gonna have to think about that. I haven't done the analysis you have on scheme types, but at first blush your impressions differ from mine. I see more scheming required in pools than brawling versus GG1. I see more movement, scheme markers, and positioning required here than before. I played in a tournament recently and ran Zipp twice and Von Schill once in the three rounds, so I gravitated more toward the scheme & movement types. The former because mobility and scheming/anti-scheming was so valuable. I agree that Viks, Nekima, and Marcus have improved, but I believe that's because movement is more beneficial in this GG. The power creep concern shouldn't be a worry yet. Malifaux has been a very balanced game and we have only the vassal games as feedback on explorers at this stage. We may still be concerned about their power in 3-4 months, but I think it's worth waiting for some in-person tournaments to see how they fare. Many players, like me, don't have any interest in vassal and I'm not sure it's a great representation of the game (I'm also not sure it's not). The errata delay on them is, IMHO, a good move. That's just a knee jerk reaction to the post, mind you. I haven't done any analysis on either the success of explorers or the specifics of the pools we see in GG2.

Looking at the new Dreamer title, it occurred to me they could do something similar with the Viks. Perhaps they start with just one on the table with the other buried and have a mechanism to unbury. Perhaps it's a a health-related trigger such as when Vikky gets to half (with more boxes of course) unbury other Vik in base. If it kills a model, bury it and heal original Vik. It would be interesting to see decisions by both players around a mechanism like that. Do I try and take her down and risk they other popping out?

It's interesting to probably only me, but when I first looked at this GG, as is evidenced in some of the above comments, I thought Parker would be great. Perhaps he still is, but after this GG has marinated a bit he's not one I get too excited about. It'll be interesting to see if that changes after a few months into this GG. On paper he looks great since Draw Their Attention and Fistful of Scrip are more effective in this GG, but as I build crews for certain pools, there aren't many where another keyword doesn't rise to the top in my mind.

While I do think the new Wanted Criminal upgrade is good, I have to agree that there are better options in most pools than Parker. Zipp, Von Schill, Tara, and perhaps even the Viktorias can cover about anything in GG2 more effectively than him. Mind you, that's my opinion with maybe around 10-12 GG2 games under my belt. I've tried him once and he was a bit underwhelming. I believe that's been the only game with Outcasts I've lost in GG2! I do still like the changes to Wanted Criminal. I hear you on Leveticus. While not being snowflake-y, I don't like playing the go-to masters so much.

I played Von Schill in the second round of the tournament this weekend and my poor opponent hadn't faced Freikorps before. Although I explained what the crew did and that Hannah and Arik can put out a ton of damage, I think he was shocked at how easily Arik deleted Howard Langston. Those two models can do a lot of work. While much of this discussion might not seem relevant to the original post, I do think the evolution of the discussion helps to highlight why there are much better options in Freikorps than Lazarus. I really want him to be good, but there is almost never a situation where he is a useful addition to the crew.