Xekros

My first thought is Riotbreakers or the Emmisary for Crowd Control. Probably the Riotbreakers, since they can't be obeyed themselves, unlike the Emmisary. Irreducible damage does hurt against armor, but at least Z can't make you throw it in the wrong direction. @4thstringer How do the traps ignore obeys?

That's basically what I meant, though I could have said it more clearly. AP 1: kill stalker for pulse AP 2/3: two blast attacks on the now on fire enemies This is really only good if the stalker won't die to your opponents quickly enough, as all 3 attacks on opponents is obviously better. Sometimes they don't kill it because of the demise and inevitable subsequent face melting by Sonnia.

The fact that it's 2SS makes resummoning it even better, as I don't think anything costs less than that. The first time I played it, I missed the Burning pulse on activation, so I lit half my crew on fire, which was awkward. The main problem is stacking the burning high enough to summon off of without killing the target outright. Also, depending on circumstances, it may be worth using Sonnia to kill a Stalker/Flame to light the surrounding models on fire, then get 2 blasts off of them with impunity.

Think of the stalkers and Flame as guided missiles, with the added bonus of tying up some models until they explode. They have next to no defense, and will die, so try to take as many things with them as you can. The Handler's speed buff aura and Consolidate Power are very helpful for that, but the aura only works on Minions (I was very sad when I found that out).

@Cursed25 in the case presented by the question (model is engaged and trying to not be) both have stipulations preventing that. They are different, yes, but in this case, they have the same effect. Furthermore, the point I was trying to make was that Walk and Charge have stipulations related to engagement built into them, which other movements don't necessarily have. Obviously, there are some models that counteract all of these rules, but they're not helpful for a baseline understanding.

1 - As previously mentioned, you're correct on the timing, but do keep in mind that it always works, even if she doesn't get hit, so unless they have some way of turning off Df triggers or removing suits fro duel totals, she will get that 3 inch push every time an enemy targets her Df. Also, you'll probably have some focus from enemy interacts that you've forced, so she'll probably be harder to hit in the first place due to that. 2 - The Walk and Charge actions specifically disallow it, so any other form of movement can get you out of engagement. Charging can actually move through engagements if you don't start there, but that's probably a rather niche case. Probably a bit later than relevant, but good luck.

I happened to be playing Sonnia at the time and it worked out quite well. The range reduction is leader only, unfortunately, so that bit can't help. If you can hire a second master, I'd go for Perdita, though, as Finger on the Trigger is exceptional anti-charge, and she hits like a train on full hp models.

Sonnia has been the one I've played into Asami. She prevents the bubbling they tend to like, and the range reduction actually hinders Asami's summons surprisingly effectively. And just throwing witchlings in the summons' faces to tie them up so they can't do anything

Are you overextending your exorcist to try to make use of Barrier to the Other World? Also the guardian should be able to help him not die too quickly. A tie with a crow to straight up kill a summon is really good, especially if it's immediately after Asami goes, and hasn't gotten a chance to use said Jorogumo. The Death Marshal Recruiter might actually not be a bad pick, either, if you're taking the Emmisary: stat 4 vs sz is a pretty solid advantage, especially against Asami herself. As for the False Witness, I don't have access to the card, but the Scales has some anti cheat tech, as well, and the damage reflect on df for survivability. I've played against Asami, but not with Lady J, so there's that.

If you're set on playing Hoffman, I think the others have covered that better than I can. However, if you're not, I would look at Sonnia or Lady J. For Sonnia: Samael and Witchling Stalkers have Unimpeded, and the stalkers can be MV 7 with a handler. If anything catches on fire, Sonnia ignores concealment. It would take a bit of setup, but it doesn't seem unreasonable. For Lady J: Titania's core box is entirely undead, as are Rougarou. The judge has an attack that ignores Hard to Wound. Death Marshals get Fast if they start within 6 of an enemy undead, and all the damage mitigation in the game won't help against a bury. Also, min 3 on Lady J. Personally, I would lean towards Sonnia, but more for the fact that I've actually played her, unlike Lady J, for whom I've only theoryfaux'd. Hope that helps.

I played Sonnia several times at the end of beta, so here's a few things to keep in mind: Unfortunately, the Handler's aura only affects minions, so you can't use it for the totem, though it does work for thralls. That said, using the totem to walk twice and then Hovering Flame is a very good way to start your burning engine. It's actually best if it dies in the middle of the enemy crew, since it will pulse out burning and damage, and if you kill literally anything with Scorch the Soul you can summon it back. The totem will cause everything within 2 to gain Burning +1 when it activates, don't start it in the middle of your crew if you can help it.Don't worry too much about the opponent removing burning. If you can force a single shot of Sonnia through, they'll be on fire again, though I would recommend leading with Sam, as he applies burning on all his shots as well. Additionally, the Ricochet trigger will apply burning, since it's damage from a action. Don't forget to use Creep Along and Consolidate Power, they drastically up your mobility. I don't know if that really answered your question, but I hope it helps.

Not particularly helpful, here, but the more I look, the more it seems that guild are really meant to be played as the faction, as each master does fewer things, but does them very well. For example, Sonnia is the best blaster in the game, and much less affected by condi cleanse than people think, whereas Perdita is one of the best shooters, and can literally one shot many minions, especially schemers. That said, both of those options are pretty hard countered by Stealth, but they each have a solid melee piece to throw at those problems. The only thing I hear consistently is the Pale Rider: great mobility, good offense early, great offense late, decent survivability, but mobile enough to not be in the wrong place, and can cart your other pieces about so they can save their actions for Flaneburst (for example). There is a lot of "kill first, ask questions while killing" going on, but that's kind of always been their schtick. I guess my advice would be one of Sonnia, Perdita, or Lady J. The first if your opponents tend to bring a lot of grouped models, the second if they like to spread out, and the third if they like to summon, bury, or are ressers. Are there issues with this design? Sure, but it seems more like a faction thing than a particular weakness of masters.

From what I remember: Basse's crew uses the dust cloud markers. 6 is probably a touch low, since every human model can put one up each turn. Hoffman uses power tokens. 6 may or may not be enough, I've not played as or against him. Sonnia puts 2 burning on everything she touches by default, so if you plan to play her, get more burning tokens. Papa Loco can put out a Blown Apart marker (only one at a time). The strat and explosive tokens could be a good pick up as well. There may be others, but that's what I know of. Thanks for reminding me that that company exists, I may pick up some of those myself. If they make Analyze Weakness tokens, get a couple of those, probably, since at least Perdita and Hoffman can use those.

Ive noticed that too, and I'm not sure why; he seems solid enough, especially to pick off scheme runners. Do you tend to field him on a flank and send another ranged threat up the other side? I must admit my curiosity: is that in theme or using versatile models? Also just how?

@Cursed25 Youko is more completely active denial, whereas I feel Lucius is a bit confused in his place in the faction. When I initially heard that Dashel was going to be a master, I was thinking that Dashel would be the summoner and commander type master (probably with Issue Command instead of Lucius), Nellie would solidify her role as the unstoppable schemer with bits of denial, and Lucius would play like "the things you came for were never here, your people are actually my people, and you've just implicated yourself in whatever I feel like." Similarly, while I do like the false witness as the dual keyword model, I would have liked to see the undercover reporters instead to fit that style better.

The disengage seems pretty easy to block, though, since the push is specifically away from Lucius. I don't necessarily think he's bad, I just think I'd be disappointed by him after the 2e version. Really I was hoping they'd go for more of Youko's design for him, and add Red Tape tokens. I did very much enjoy putting Red Tape on Teddy or Nekima. The opponent filtering does seem neat, though, that improves my estimation of him somewhat.

Wow, that got a lot more traction than I expected; thanks for the replies. A pity about Lucius, I doubt I'll play him much at this point, might get the same sort of feel from Nellie, at least? I did play him Neverborn in 2e (I'm switching to guild for 3e), but my core crew was essentially a trapper, two autumn knights, and a rougarou when they were released. Seems a bit odd that they toned down Issue Command and then game Zoraida her Ensorcel trigger, but I'm not a game designer, so maybe it makes sense somehow? I'm glad the ¡A por Él! Thing works, that should be fun. I'm not suggesting that Perdita have both Expert Shot and Sharpshooter, rather that she replaces Expert Shot with Sharpshooter, and Niño replaces Sharpshooter with Expert Shot. I've just realised that I've been saying Expert Marksman (the upgrade) when I meant Expert Shot (the ability), apologies. I realize Perdita could take the Expert Marksman upgrade, but then you can't take LLC, which looks like a generally better investment from my limited experience.

For the Family, can I use ¡A por Él! to Concentrate after I've used Family Values to concentrate with the same model? I'm thinking so, since ¡A por Él! says it happens "after the end of this model's activation," I just want to make sure so I don't accidentally cheat. Secondly, unless the lore changed significantly, does Perdita still have the whole "bullet bending" shtick going on? I ask because I'm not really seeing it on the card; to me it seems that she should have gotten sharpshooter instead of expert shot, trading with Niño, maybe? Lastly, and largely unrelatedly, does Lucius still play like Lucius from 2e? He was my favorite master in the game after his rework, but I'm not seeing any of the interesting pieces of it on his card anymore. Things like Devil's Deal or Guild Intelligence were a lot of what was useful, and I also got very good mileage out of the Secret Service trigger. I hope I'm just missing it or it's somewhere else in the crew, but if he's just an Issue Command stick that sounds really boring, to be honest. That wound up a bit more negative than I intended, especially as I presume it's quite too late to actually change anything, but I can elaborate on the Lucius concerns if anyone's interested for some reason. Thanks for reading, hope you all can help.

I must admit my surprise that The Claw wasn't mentioned, as I've never even heard him talked about, let alone taken in a list. With that said, I'd consider making the trigger on his challenge a , or just write it into the ability, since it's already very conditional, and can be prevented anyway if the opponent really wants to, so it's not very useful against the targets you actually want to use it on. Additionally, the range on the version of the spear is identical to his charge threat, which makes it unlikely to be used, due to the extra complications inherent in actions. Maybe give it a trigger to use the (0) immediately afterwards but only if you use the , but make it on a or written in again, due to the conditionality of it. @Da Git For Aeslin, I've always gotten the opposite feeling of what she's trying to be; specifically, ranged support for the minions who should be taking the charge for the Queen's advisor. Not to say you're wrong, but I feel that the rest of that thematic crew has enough in the way of melee disruption, and other than Candy, I can't think of any ranged support style henchmen in Neverborn. To wit I'd say make As Leaves on Wind apply a to all enemy Ca actions that target a model within 6, and remove the from Rot and Rend (and the Wild Magic ability, as it's no longer relevant). Side note: would there be a reason to keep the on it at that point, as both that and A Wicked Silence are Ca 6 vs Wp for disengaging? I do agree that the Gorar needs help, though, and those do look good. I do agree about the episode's thoughts on Candy as well. I haven't had enough experience with the others to make any sort of relevant comments.

Thinking on it further, my issue is not with the non-living models thing, but with the lack of altering summoned models. Secondly, I'd simply add Fae to the emissary on its own upgrade for Titania. These are less errata hopes, and more what I'd have liked to say had I access to the beta. @Luca 2.0 My concept for the change to the summon would disallow Will-O-Wisps from summoning the doll, as it would no longer be a (2) action, barring the ability within the action to allow Zoraida to take it as a (1), specifically. I do agree that allowing a heal per damage would be a bit much, as it's pretty much Regeneration +1 for each model which activates near it when healing a max of 1.

It's funny, I thought of making this same thread myself, but this works just as well. Without further ado, my thoughts: Change Legalese so that Purposeful Misinterpretation prevents the enemy from scoring with scheme markers within 4, instead of converting them to your own at the end of game. Perhaps a bit too powerful, but 4 does mean that Lucius has to be on the front lines himself, where he doesn't really want to be. Secret Assets' Hidden Sniper is justifiably costly, but it's incredibly rare to get the trigger (I don't think I've actually managed it yet), so perhaps add that onto the Sh? Might make it too powerful at that point, though, due to the cost reduction of Devil's Deal, though that can only give the action 1 suit. Allow Zoraida to summon the voodoo doll as a (1) action, once per activation. Whether that comes in the form of simply making it a (1) action and disallowing the Will-O-Wisps from taking it, or adding a bit to the end that says Zoraida herself can take it as a (1) would have to be tested. Related, to an extent, is that Alpha from Marcus needs to not be able to target Masters/Leaders (not sure which it is), and/or allow Obey (at least Zoraida's) to target Leaders as well. Personally, I find it very odd that the weaver of Fate cannot target masters, but some guy in the woods can take an entire activation for them because some bird scratched at their eyes and they're a bit angry now. Challenge of Winter on The Claw needs to be buffed somehow, either by building in the trigger (whether that's adding a crow, or simply putting the trigger text within the ability), or removing the ability to discard to prevent the condition. Other ideas welcome as well. Sorrows' Life Leech could do with healing them if it deals damage, just to allow them to stick around for a touch longer, either 1 if it deals damage at all, or 1 per damage dealt. I also agree with upping their defenses somehow, or make them 4 SS. Some minor changes I wish to see to the new upgrades: Royal Indignation: Allow non-living models to become Fae somehow, possibly by simply making all Minion and Enforcer models Fae, and the living ones undead. Also, add summoned models to the list of models affected by the ability, so as not to have hired in, undead, Fae Changelings running about next to their summoned, living, non-Fae changelings. Woe is Me: Change the available summons to Incorporeal, Woe minion(?) models, raise the cast some (maybe 6?), and make the TN 10 + SS cost, as with most other summons. Given my wishes, it would also function similarly to Molly's summoning, but that would probably be too powerful, due to the Wp shenanigans in a Pandora crew. Aeslin has been mentioned, but I think simply removing the from her attack, and, therefore, the related ability from the front of her card, would go a long way to reducing her in-game costs. Perhaps give her something to take hits on beyond her 9 Wds, or some way to heal, so that the to Ca actions is relevant. Thanks for reading, that got longer than I expected

A bit of thread necro here (I think, what's necro time on this forum?), but the question seems to have gone largely unanswered, so I hope this'll help: I'm definitely in the minority in this opinion, but I'm not a fan of Teddy in Pandora crews, or Kade, for that matter. Insidious Madnesses are fantastic, both for their scheme running ability and their Wp shenanigans. Widow Weaver works well for a positionally anchored game, but will do fine even if you have to spread out, just keep her in cover. My Pandora build is the brawler style, with The Box Opens, Fears Given Form, and Aether Connection or Fugue State, based on Strat/Schemes. FGF is a Df duel, as well, so that can get around some of the Wp issues. The best advice I've heard for her, as well as her crew, is that most of the things she does don't require cards, they simply happen. Because of this, you can save nearly all of your cards for defense. Learning to use Incite properly will make or break Pandora's crews, since, as noted, they are incredibly fragile. For this reason, I recommend Iggy as a model to pick up as well. He brings another instance of Incite and some ranged burning, as well as another instance of Martyr. He's also an Enforcer, so can take an upgrade. His other (0) gives all unactivated enemy models within 6 to take -2 Wp, which pairs with Melancholy, below. Depression is still more activation control, which provides the Melancholy action to every other Woe is LoS. Melancholy applies a condition that, effectively, forces the model to go last. Needless to say, if you can tag a model with either Melancholy or Incite, then put Candy next to them, it will hurt, especially if you give her FGF as well. The Poltergeist is surprisingly good at tying up models, despite his Ml 4 attack stat. His Distraction Ability has the same range as his Ml attack (which is resisted by Wp), which makes him hard to get away from, paired with Incorporeal, Regeneration, and the ability to use Martyr to siphon off even more Wounds. Insidious Madnesses are a strange proposition at first glance: you simultaneously want them off on the edges running schemes, or right in the middle of the enemy crew. If they're outside of 2" of the enemy, they become much easier to hit. Returning to the cardless advantage (as I end up calling it) Induce Phobia's TN 10 Horror Duel doesn't look like much, until you realize that they're probably down 2-3 Wp from the Widow Weaver, and possibly on negative flips from the Poltergeist. If the poltergeist ins't there, they still have to discard a card to cheat in the first place due to the Madness' ability. As for the Sorrows, warp them into place then go defensive. If you're already in place, try for a Doldrums. Yes, it's Ca 5, yes, it's a (2) action, and yes, it probably will go off regardless, if your other models are set up. Remember Misery for every duel, as pretty much everything in this post targets Wp. One huge advantage is that it gets around Armor, because it's, for example, 3 instances of 1 damage each, as opposed to 1 instance of 3 damage. However, be careful of Black Blood, as that will trigger for each hit, dealing as much damage to you as you have to them.

@Aaron The OP for Lucius' Elite Training says melee actions, but the card says . This is probably simply me getting hung up on terminology, but, as I recall, melee action means anything with Ml, as opposed to . Just a curiosity, and I'm very excited to try out Lucius (and the Scribe) after the buffs. Edit: I do think is better, as it's more versatile. Additionally, the austringers' raptor attack still says it ignores cover, despite no longer having the .

I don't have the cards in front of me, but the place from the Sorrow's ability is more versatile than the walk of the IM. Additionally, they have an extra wound, so they're that tiny bit harder to kill. I'd say IM would be better if you're looking to simply be at a place and specifically not near other models, otherwise the Sorrows will work better. Then again, I do main Pandora, so that undoubtedly skews my opinion somewhat.

I'm sure this has already been mentioned somewhere, but in one of the Kickstarter videos (I think), I saw a Abyssinia/King's Empire dual faction card. While I know this isn't actually a Merc type card, it has a similar effect to the side based mercs from @Manic Mouse.