Trample

Von Schtook has some good tools for this. Anna Lovelace is great against Dreamer since she shuts down places. You won't have any pesky summons or LCB popping up in your lap with her near. You'll be able to control where these things can't go, which means the places they are able to go are places you probably don't care as much about. Dreamer has a lot of strong elements to him, but his ability to apply force through placement is one of the best parts of his crew. Anna really hampers that strength. She can clearly be hired OOK too. The VS crew also has some scalpels that can get into the Dreamers backfield and take out key models right away. I would personally send a fast & focused Valedictorian followed by a by-your-side Undergraduate in hard turn one to attack the Daydreams (I think that's what they're called) to shut down the engine that gets rid of good cards and, for a lot of players, have the +1 initiative upgrade. Val can likely get to one with +1 or +2 movement, fast, and a few pushes. Assuming they're near one another and Undergraduate can get to another. If not these, this combo can still take out something significant, including Dreamer if he isn't careful by keeping friends around. This crew generates focus like crazy, so serene countenance isn't too much of an obstacle. You have access to ruthless through upgrades, so you'll want those on Valedictorian and someone else (Anna, Rider, Emissary, or Student of Viscera). Anti-healing auras from either Sloth or Emissary can help you make sure you take out some of the models like LCB who can heal themselves back up pretty quick. The crew also has the ability to put out stunned, which can really help shut down Dreamer himself. The Professor has a pretty solid crew otherwise, with good card draw and resilience.

I tried Dashel for the first time last week and enjoyed him quite a bit. It was a game kinda made for him with Ley Lines as the strategy and Vendetta in the pool, which seems pretty easy to achieve with riflemen. I took Dashel, Dispatcher, Queeg, 2x Riflemen, the Steward, an Executioner, and Mounted Guard with no prisoners. It's a crew that can certainly give your opponent a lot to watch out for, with the Riflemen that can both get 2x focused shots per turn and the Executioner who can either use his trail of gore off the Dispatcher or can be thrown forward with No Prisoners. That upgrade is made for the Mounted Guard. Setup is certainly tricky, since Dashel needs to be within 6" of the Riflemen for the 2x focused and 8" of the Dispatcher. The Mounted Guard and Executioner need to be withing 2" of each other. The Steward within 6" of one of the Riflemen and 6" from where Dashel will summon a model on turn one. Queeg wants to be less than 6" from the Dispatcher and 4" from any minions that want to push, which can be really good for the Riflemen or Mounted Guard. It isn't hard as such, but there are a lot of dependencies. Post errata he seems pretty darn good. The card draw isn't huge, but it is enough. The ability to summon an Executioner is pretty fantastic. They don't last long, but they can sure dish out a lot of damage. Mounted Guard are really solid models as well. Dashel doesn't do anything special beyond the summon, but doesn't really need to.

I mentioned this in a recent thread: And I don't really think it's an issue. I do believe we can, for the most part, finish games in the allotted time (although that is usually 2:15). There are a few masters that are very difficult to do this with like Sandeep, Hamelin, and the like, but most of the masters can move smooth and efficiently through a complete game. There are slow players out there (and I don't think this is an experience thing) but the game works pretty well as a 5 turn game.

I don't think he is reading this correctly. A pair of riflemen would require a 22 to summon and the highest value he could achieve would be a 20 with the red joker summoning off of an enemy scheme marker.

Yes - I definitely see the way that reads in the FAQ, and I do see why you're saying that. We both agree on how the rules should be interpreted, so I am not arguing here, but I don't really see how they could be interpreted any other way, despite the FAQ.

I just looked up the SVG since this was bothering me, and the Nekima interpretation doesn't apply anyway. Ricochet says - Choose another model with 3" of the target. Clearly, with that wording, the target cannot be hit by the ricochet.

Kind of like it never really made sense to let Hannah use her bonus action as a charge, it doesn't really make sense to apply the term another in this way to the ricochet trigger. Even though that is what the FAQ says, I don't think any reasonable interpretation would say that the ricochet trigger should hit the model you just hit. It's silly. Now, Wyrd doesn't exactly rush out clarifications or FAQs, so we should all just apply our common sense to this one and not let it become the "I'll just keeping doing it this way until Wyrd fixes it even though I know it's wrong" that Hannah was.

Really, flesh constructs scheme just fine in my opinion. With their access to fast they can move almost as well as the punk and are a heck of a lot more resilient. They are only one more point than either of those OOK.

Great report - really well done guys!

That's pretty lucky. I've been playing him a lot lately and would say his card draw is very swingy. There are games where I seem to draw a card every activation and games where I only draw one a turn. It is pretty improbable to fail the entire game though! You can cheat on a miss to cycle cards if you want to and several models have suits built in, so it usually comes up sometimes.

Summoning is pretty powerful, but I don't think summoners are sitting alone in the top tier. Dreamer is certainly one of the dominant masters right now. Sandeep and Asami are very good. I don't think we're in an environment where masters like that are outshining the rest of the field (well, Dreamer is the best Neverborn master). I don't worry too much about running up against one of these guys compares to some of the other non-summoners in a game like was true with Nico in M2e. I am not more concerned about Sandeep than I am Colette when facing Arcanists for example. So it doesn't feel overpowered from that sense and that is my completely unscientific gauge.

This is completely true - the TOs do have the option to run things the way they like and it is a great casual game. My point though was that even in a competitive environment I don't think Malifaux is a three turn game. I think you can finish games in tournaments.

I probably wouldn't. One should, in my opinion, bring a crew they have a reasonable expectation of completing a standard game. That doesn't mean you always will complete the game, but it seems like a good point of etiquette to make the effort to do so.

It's almost like a ~10" leap with the mask (assuming you have a well placed target).

Very cool model. I would guess he sees the table quite a bit - although I have no idea what the rest of Syndicate might look like!

I listened to the new 3FW episode today, which was a tournament report recorded several months ago it seems. Late last year, GG0. Near the end they got into a discussion during which they stated pretty empathically that no tournament game would normally go beyond 3 turns baring a tabling. They were unequivocal on this stance and stated that anyone who thought a tournament game would go longer had their head in the sand. Is that everyone else's experience? It sure isn't mine. I've probably played in 6 or 7 tournaments M3E tournaments. I don't recall for certain. I certainly don't remember each but with the exception of one of those events, which had 1:45 rounds, my experience has probably been an average of a little over 4 rounds. I would guess, with no recorded empirical data, that 20% are done in 3, 40% in 4, and 40% in turn 5. It isn't uncommon for me to finish a game. Our meta has some really good players and some beginners (I'm somewhere in the middle - I've only won one of those events). Now, I will say that we're often running 2:15 rounds, so we're generally working with a bit more time. Some masters certainly take more time. Sandeep is really slow for example with all of the auras and summoning. I suppose if you play mostly crews like that it would make a pretty big difference. I've played several factions in M3E (I have trouble sticking in one place) and against all of them and there are some pretty wide variations in speed. However, the (paraphrased) statement that Malifaux is a 3 round game and we need to wake up and recognize that fact was, in my mind, a bit silly. What's your experience?

Necropunks. They don't do much, but they do what they do pretty well. They are about as survivable as you get for a 5 point scheme runner with armor +1 and HTW (although only 4/4). The suited leap is pretty fantastic. When breakthrough is in the pool I take a punk and he just does it. Sabotage too. In certain situations they can take out another schemer. If you have the cards in hand for onslaught you could get up to 4 attacks and, since he has entropy it's OK if you leave your unactivated opponent on 1 wound. In Von Schtook they're often cruising with focused +1, so you can get that 4 damage on one attack. But you should probably be scheming with them.

I enjoy playing Seamus quite a bit and he certainly can be powerful, but when I have him on the table I always feel a bit short on cards. To do what I often want to do, which is shoot once with focus and an additional time without, from a location of my choosing, I need a lot of cards. I needed a 4 of tomes to get the focus from the nurse (although he can do it himself). I need an 8 to get my Mindless Zombie out from the Emissary. I need a 7 to Secret Passage to my shooting spot. Now I need to hit. I'm focused, so have an advantage but my opponent knows what is coming a very likely saved a card for this. I may very well have to cheat a severe to hit. Now I have to hope I have a severe left to actually get that high damage and remove a model from the table. That's a potential of 5 cards to set up a single shot with Seamus in a crew that really doesn't have any card draw (well, Seamus likely has the Whisper). With the Whisper too, it is probably just me, but I seem to see a BJ, 5, and 6 with Seamus when I'm using it and you're wondering what the hell you're going to do with Seamus now! I never have that problem with the Whisper on Von Schtook for some reason. The last time I played Seamus in a tournament this kind of thing played out over the first two turns where I just couldn't get the cards to accomplish all of that and so Seamus killed nothing until turn 3. That's not a sustainable path to victory for Seamus. When his cards are there he can be a powerhouse, but he is too card dependent to be reliable in my opinion.

I think you've got to start with at least one executioner, but I would probably be tempted to go with two of them. They'll get the card draw and walk (likely) from the Dispatcher on turn one with Trail of Gore. They'll likely have focused and perhaps fast depending on your setup (Guild Steward, Queeg, Dashel). I would think they would be a pretty good alpha attack. I would likely save as many cards as possible for these guys and send them in on anything you can turn one. You'll either do a lot of damage or own the center of the board (or both). Maybe Dashel, Dispatcher, Queeg, 2x Executioner, Steward, Warden (to protect Dispatcher), and a Rifleman. 7 stones.

That one sure doesn't sound like fun! Was your opponent particularly inexperienced? It sounds like the game was out of hand before the end of turn 1, but certainly over by turn 2. Those are sometimes the kinds of games that are better to reset and start over.

This was, in my opinion, a silly argument prior to the errata. He was a free model that gave a push and focus. There are a lot of crews into which you'll hire a model just for a turn one push or just for a turn one focus and this guy did both. Now he does more.

In case you were interested I went with option a for the game against Youko. As expected I limited my opponent's opportunity to score points in this game (he got 2 because he went pretty hard at Von Schtook and flipped moderate and then severe on negative flips to kill him). I also limited my ability to score points without as much killing power as the Professor would normally bring. I too scored only 2 strategy points. Luckily I did win on schemes, so overall 6-3. I'll try in the other way next time around with a bit more of a standard crew.

With a public enemies match coming up in a couple of days I'm taking a look at that strat a bit more. I haven't actually had a chance to play it in GG1 yet. It seems to me that the Professor has three different potential approaches to this strategy, and I'm not sure which one to take: a) Come to the table with only the Valedictorian (+GST) and the Professor as multi-point models. Fill up the rest with Undergraduates and Bone Piles primarily. The list has only 12 points and, although you can summon more, it will be very challenging for your opponent to get more than two strat points on this. You might struggle to get more than that many as well since you left most of your firepower in the box. You try to win on schemes. b) rely on your resilience and healing to keep your team alive and deny your opponents points in that way. Bring Sloth to assist in high power healing, but you also bring more damage output with Anna and perhaps Dead Rider (not Emissary since you're giving free points). Maybe you can be +1 on scheme points here. c) maybe a variation on B, but your focus is targeting and killing models with bounty tokens late in each turn. You'll get some of your own as a byproduct of that activity. You're counting on him going for his kills early and, when he gets them, taking a fast Valedictorian or Dead Rider and an Undergraduates to kill that token-carrier. Kinda like the way Rocky likes to fight. Probably a list pretty close to the above. Ressers have such tough 6 point models that it seems like a legit approach, but I wonder if that's a trap. How would you approach this one with Von Schtook?

Thanks for pointing these out. I haven't heard of two of those. I have checked out Harefaux and you're right, the promos are fantastic. The Von Schill ads were my favorite!

I still have a Pandora avatar I would like to trade for a Rasputina avatar.