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Sordid Strumpet

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Everything posted by Sordid Strumpet

  1. 1) Definitely if no cards have been flipped, I always let my opponent (and myself) do 0 actions, discard oath keepers or go reckless. Malifaux is too complex a game to win on technicalities. That only becomes an option when you have two people who both have 400 games with the same crew and master, and who wins depends on tiny errors. But it's a hobboy - ffs give each other some space to breathe. It's meant to be enjoyable, not give everyone a headache. 2) Proxy bases all the way, all day every day. That makes take backs or changes of plans actually feasible, whereas otherwise you never know if that charge would have been possible or not because nobody knows where the model was exactly. 3) Only what's written down counts. There is a reason they sell scheme & strat decks (or you can print off your own). The game is too dependent on scheme choice to be flexible with this.
  2. Adding swamp fiends to Gremlins is a benefit/synergy in itself. Gremlins don't normally have the staying power offered by waldgeists for example, and Silurids are a bit more durable than angry chickens as scheme runners and thanks to their leap, they're at least as good as equally costed gremlin runners. Nurses also offer a significant benefit to Gremlins. Firstly because of the control they offer for their own crew (making piglets take drugs turns them into excellent dirt cheap scheme runners) as well as the ability to paralyze the biggest enemy beater if needs be. Moon shinobi can also be turned up to 11 with her (give them +2 melee damage, armour 2 and plus flips to everything and watch them beat the snot out things). She also gets card draw and turns Sammy into a magnificent scheme runner/denier.
  3. Playing the rat engine was just an exercise in watching your opponent play with themselves in a corner, and then just when you're bored enough to quit, you get punched in the face. Hard. Several times. Then the game is over. At least stuffed piglets are funny.
  4. While Nelly is a thing, I don't think the activation control is really a huge thing one can reasonably complain about. The death'splosion should be mandatory, and I think maybe rare 4 wouldn't hurt (but then, why buy a box of 6?). Df 4 means anything with a moderate of 4 can pretty reliably knock their heads off, and Ml4 means you can probably just walk away from them. Taking 6 of them does seem abusive to some degree, particularly with Gremlins who don't really have to pick between spending 12 stones on a big beater or the gribblies - they get their beaters for 7 stones thank you very much. But whenever I build lists I honestly don't find myself willing to give up things I could get if I don't spend 12 stones on stuffed piglets. The corollary to having cheap really good models is that I have to pick between three stuffed piglets and a rooster rider. Or Francois. Or Burt. Hell, if I take only 3 piglets I can have Burt AND Francois. And I like giant angry chickens much better than exploding piglets. So if you find yourself feeling bad about using so many - maybe just don't for a while? Try writing some lists without stuffed piglets, and maybe you'll find you can't go back to the lists with 6 in them because you miss out on all that other awesome stuff.
  5. Got liquid bravery and quality mash liquor mixed up horribly. All those boozy things are called the same... He just holds quality mash liquor I swear there was a Wp buff somewhere that doesn't have to be on a leader. My experience comes mostly from playing Som'er to death last year and taking Sparks in every single game. Things are a bit hazy because I've been bitten by the Guildball bug
  6. I've been enjoying Sparks a lot. He can hold the Wp Aura (and sometimes he gets quality mash liquor too), and then sit in the middle scoring me show of force and giving me a 4AP glowy Burt that chops any and all threats into tiny little pieces. Sitting in the middle scoring show of force also means his aura comes into play nicely. He's expensive, sure, but I've found him absolutely worth it. Burt also loves charging when the mechanized porkchop is Nearby. Dirty Cheater REALLY comes into its own when you have 4 AP to play with... With Som'er, you can have so many annoying Gremlins hopping about keeping Burt alive, it feels almost OP to play him
  7. Given that there is no frame for murder, Rasputina can go all out killy. Depending on the faction I'm playing against I'd either be bringing Snow Storm or the Emissary. I've really been enjoying the Emissary of late, especially as you can give him armour 3 with the Wendigo and heal him with a Silent One as needed. It may even be interesting to go with both, for extra repositioning. I'd definitely be tempted to take two ice dancers, because their ice path is actually very interesting both for keeping enemies away from Rasputina, and preventing them from going somewhere they really want to go (like near the stash marker for example). Combining two sets of ice pillars with two sets of ice paths really limits your opponents options when there are areas they need to get to or give up points. Dig their graves is an interesting option with Rasputina, especially if you take Angelica with practised production to drop scheme markers near the middle where they have to be anyway to guard the stash. December Acolytes are obviously always nice, especially if you can drag your opponent out of position and you'll probably always want the obligatory ice gamin for bite of winter to make Rasputina even more dangerous.
  8. I'm not worried about Rasputina at all to be honest. Yes, frame for murder is a thing, but she can fairly easily (and arguably more efficiently) just paralyze up to three models per turn. If it's a huge threat, the Wendigo can devour it in turn 4. Plus, Rasputina can put burning on a model with the arcane effigy's buff, so if you really want to kill something, you've got a good chance to let burning do the trick. Maybe find another source of burning, just in case (i.e. Fire Starter, though that's not very thematic). Scheme running for Raspy is fairly straight forward (see one of my earlier posts RE Being able to use the ice dancers as scheme runners as well as hunting scheme runners through them with Raspy). What's more, Raspy's killyness is quite good at removing scheme runners, particularly because your opponent is highly unlikely to put FFM on the scheme runner as they won't actively be trying to get them killed - and if you do kill them, well then at least they aren't getting their schemes any more. Rasputina is acually quite good at control and buffing. She can feasibly spend all 3 AP making her crew harder to kill by handing out armour 2 (putting Snow Storm at arm 5 against shooting ) , paralyzing your enemy's biggest beater (so long as you have a 13 in hand it's all but guaranteed) and then putting up ice pillars to block your opponent from shooting or charging you. December Acolytes are also quite good at the control game with their inbuilt discard and slow (so long as they damage). So you've definitely got options to go non-killy with her and still do very well. Particularly if your opponent brings a very elite crew and blasts aren't really going to be helping a whole lot.
  9. Definitely need to get hold of those union miners one of these days, they look like great thematic scheme runners.
  10. Taking three of anything really does limit the flexibility of your list, especially if it doesn't have any capability to switch roles or, as you said, is actually somewhat countered by the play style of your master. So I'm not entirely sold on the three mages thing - maybe in killy scheme pools they'll work well. I used to run the captain a lot (admittedly years ago when I first started), but these days the poor chap is never even considered, particularly given that the Emissary occupies the same slot (I only take one big model if I can help it). I tend to use Willie's haphazard approach to work health and safety to "turn on" HPM for free (I hate flipping cards attacking my own crew for some reason, it always feels kind of weird, even though there's nothing wrong with that approach). Still stuck on scheme runners for that list though. I might have to get some soul stone miners or something as Angelica doesn't fit terribly well schematically. Of course in a scheme heavy pool there's always the consideration that Kaeris (or Colette...) just work better if that's what you want to focus on.
  11. I wish Wyrd would release Amina already... How do you find Ironsides with the new Shastyar Vidiya Guards? Are the triple mages a worthwhile choise? they are a massive investment still, even with the upgrade. Given that mouse isn't the greatest totem in the world, I'm wondering how the Arcanist generic totem would go with the mages (whatever it's called - I bought it two years ago and it's still in a box somewhere ). I might take Angelica at that point as well, though, because she can push the totem into position (and maybe get a mage out of trouble) so it can do its 2-action thing. I'm very keen to try out the list you posted above with the Emissary instead of the Captain. Might be able to give that a shot next week.
  12. Pretty much this. I would add that even scheme-heavy pools can be done with Rasputina. Firstly, when you're killing the enemy crew to death left right and center, your own scheme runners are much safer. Secondly, and particularly since the indtroduction of ice dancers, ice mirror lets you use Rasputina to hunt enemy scheme runners through her own scheme runners. On top of that, ice dancers are also entirely capable of doing quite a bit of damage of their own all the while being absurdly fast.
  13. Out of curiosity (because I'm still optimistic I"ll be in Vienna by about August this year) - how many players did you have?
  14. I ended up going with Rasputina because raw damage output has something oddly reassuring to it I think Colette's fragile but hard hitting crew is not very well suited to schemes where you need to be in the same spot as your opponent, as it makes repositioning shenanigans that much harder to use when your opponent knows where you're going to be. Guard the stash just doesn't seem like a good strat to take Colette with as there are other masters doing it much more effectively. Having said that, most of Titania's scheme marker shenanigans actually only work on her own crew's markers. So breakthrough and leave your mark are quite neat against her, as she's unlikely to be anywhere near where you're putting your scheme markers and therefore won't get a whole lot of opportunity to heal. Titania herself has some nasty shenanigans placing scheme markers in contact with you and forcing damage on you if you activate near her in base contact with those markers. They're incredibly difficult to prevent, and a good way to get damage on the fragile showgirls. However, the copious repositioning abilities should mean that you never really have to suffer those effects, so the ability can be mitigated with some planning. Titania is also remarkably fragile if you hit her with high min. damage. A Coryphee duet or Joss should have no trouble whatsoever telling her to go be queen somewhere else, particularly if you can put them in the right place at the right time and buff them with a dove.
  15. I'm playing VS neverborn (probably Titania) in a very marker heavy pool later today. I'm not sure if I'll actuall end up playing Colette (got about 3 crews I really want to play), but if I do I'll report back on how the game went after. The strat is guard the 'stache Pool: Claim Jump, Accusation, Covert Breakthrough, Leave Your Mark and Set Up I'm thinking this crew: Colette (Shell Game, Cabaret Choreography, Arcane Reservoir) Cassandra (Smoke & Mirrors, Practised Production) Arcane Emissary (Illusive Conflux) Coryphee Coryphee Performer Mannequin I'm a little dubious about the two Coryphee because Retribution's eye is a thing, so I might replace them with a december acolyte and an ice dancer or something.
  16. Oops, I meant full of pins (or beautiful clothes) - whichever gives even more negative flips. I like using 3 prompts to give 3 different models negatives. I think performers got a bit of a passive boost given that so many more crews exist now that like messing about with scheme markers, so blowing them up might be more powerful. You're right about the passive duel to ward off the debuff being outside your control of course, but it's a serious drain on your opponents hand if they have to pass duels for 3-4 models because Colette prompted two or three different actions all causing defensive duels. It's also worth doing if you see your opponent stone for cards because if they have to cheat, it might very well cost them all the high cards they have in hand just to pass those duels.
  17. Agreed Something I've been thinking about is using Colette's 3 prompts to set up combos and debuffs that would otherwise be way too hard to achieve because 3 models would have to activate without your oppinent doing naything to mess it all up. I haven't thought of too many things just yet though. One thing I really want to do, but struggle to get off is a seduction from a performer followed by a hypnosis from a Mannequin to guarantee a model can be taken out with minimal resource expenditure. And then maybe with the last AP dummon a dove to boost a model that can really put the hurt on their master. Another great strength is that more often than not, you find yourself at the start of the turn urgently needing to do several things - i.e. get that one model out of danger, finish off their master on 2 health and then walk someone to tie up their big beater. Colette's repositioning shenanigans and prompt let her do all those things before your opponent can react. Conversely, you can create fatastic lose-lose situations for your opponent with her repositioning abilities and really set someone up for some damage with a summoned dove.
  18. 1) if you didn't need to set things up, it'd be too powerful. Every ability needs to have some sort of disadvantage - generally speaking its range or its cost (suit/card/AP etc.). The cost of an ability (i.e. needing to "set it up" or, in other words, having to plan for it) is a very common way of balancing auras and the like that hand out buffs. Your argument is therefore invalid as the weakness you point out is in fact one inherently built into virtually every ability. 2) How is the free suit in any way not a very valuable ability to have? You seem to always demand that an ability be more powerful for some reason, but there is no clear reason why it should be more powerful other than that it would be nice if it were more powerful. 3) Again - having a limitation on it does not make it useless. Your argument is once again invalid - what would make the ability balanced or useful in your opinion? Getting a free dove every turn? Yes, like all abilities it has a cost associated with it. And thanks to the ability you lambasted in 2), you get at least one dove for free every turn if you want it - more if you draw a high-ish mask. The dove only needs one AP after being summoned - its buff is a 0 action. The reason that prompt was overused is that it is a blindingly obvious way of making something powerful even more powerful, it's as simple as that. If you have a choice between one ability that almost always pays off and requires little to no set up, the temptation is to use that ability over and over rather than other abilities that require a bit more thinking. Unlike other obey-type abilities, prompt has a lower cost (obeys require 8 most of the time, and sometimes an extra suit) and it hands out what's practically 1.5 AP (half a walk action that's arguably better in most situations) and another action. Allowing it to target show girls without limit still lets you prompt the Coryphee duet three times, and that could almost be considered worse than prompting Howard three times. Perhaps you need to play Colette a bit more to understand how powerful her other abilities are, because people who have a significant amount of experience playing her (including highly ranked UK players) agree that the change was warranted and does not diminish her power. So unless you know better than them how to play her, you might consider the possibility that the reason few people agree with the opinion that Colette was weakened too much is quite simply that this opinion is incorrect.
  19. Absolutely. Especially if you combine it with dirty cheater.
  20. Prompting a single model three times after said model had been buffed to the eye balls was reminiscent of the 'death star' tactics used in WHFB, and that tactic was extremely toxic to the overall health if the game. The Colette thing wasn't as bad, but it had the same flavour and just felt disingenuous to use and play against.
  21. If Wyrd decided it was necessary (and given that my own experience suggests so too), I think I will go with their opinion over yours Colette is still one of the most powerful Arcanists (and arguably overall one of the most powerful master).
  22. From a game play perspective it was necessary because Colette was quite boring to play against. She's not better by any means, but like it's been said before - having to rethink Colette will make people better players as they're now able to use her in more ways than before.
  23. Making prompt slightly weaker was sort of the point...
  24. @Flint Your complaints can basically be summed up as 'she has weaknesses'. The thing is, ot make a model balanced it must have weaknesses. Game play and tactical decisons revolve around minimising your weaknesses and exploiting your opponent's. Your arguments simply hold no water. When I play Colette, she tends to prompt at most twice. I usually play Cassandra, a duet and a December Acolyte - all of which are great prompt targets, and you can still prompt every single one of them. Giving a big beater 3 extra AP and a potential 9" extra movement was very neary broken. It also made Colette the most dull and one dimensional master around - basically Perdita, but with someone else doing the damage. Bang, bang, bang. Done. Being predictable only goes so far to make it less powerful. That's like saying the ability to remove a model per turn for free is balanced because it's predictable. You've managed to argue both that Colette is unbalanced because she has weaknesses, and that prompt was balanced because it has a (very contrived) weakness. You can't have it both ways mate. I do, all the time on enemy models. It might draw out a card or get me some free damage.
  25. I've just thought of something. Mind you, I'm winging this off Pullmyfinger as I have no book(s) on me. Killjoy comes out when a friendly model is Killed or Sacrificed. Run the two Coryphee, reactivate one with prompt and then on the second activation of the reactivating one, make a Coryphee Duet. The Coryphee Duet is probably somewhere near your enemy by now. Now that you've sacrificed a friendly model, Killjoy pops out AND you have a Coryphee duet (which is so fast it'll be out of his threat range in no time), all without losing anything important. This strategy would be ideally suited for close deployment of course Having reactivate on the Coryphee plus the Coryphee duet activation should make sure that the last thing that goes is Killjoy, letting you safely ram him straight into the opposing crew without giving them a whole lot of options to deal with him. As an added safety net, bring an Oiran and hit Killjoy with the Unbeknownst trigger so he's not allowed to hit showgirls any more (it's a bit suit dependent sadly, but with surge on prompt you should have a card with the right suit in hand and then just relent with killjoy - he'll heal that damage up in no time). The Lure (Oiran or Performer) can also help getting an enemy model in range for Killjoy to charge instead, of course. Worst case scenario: summon a dove and put it in the way so Killjoy can't charge anything important. Beware of anyone with obey (Hamelin, Brewie, Huggy, Zoraida and co.). To make sure Killjoy fits in thematically, green stuff a tutu on him and paint him up like a penguin to make him the most horrifying showgirl in the world. I hope I'm right about these things - please point out if I'm not. But I'm kind of keen to try this.
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