Four_N_Six

1 hour ago, Fetid Strumpet said:

Or Tara. The nothing beast is a mini-thulu.

I did want to find a mini with wings that I could cannibalize for that, but haven't tried yet.

3 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

I didn't find them very tanky at all. In fact, they tended to die pretty easily. Maybe I was just being too reckless with them and maybe they were such a threat that the enemy was always very keen on killing them but IME they really don't hang around long enough to really benefit from the healing all that much.

Yeah, being Minions is good - Gremlins have very little in the way of elite Minions.

I had similar experience with them in a Wong crew.  Agreed, that I may have been a little reckless, but they didn't seem to get much done before they went down.

Not like I'm knocking my new (un)dead brethren here, but if you want Lovecraftian then you should check into some Neverborn stuff.  Insidious Madness especially, along with the master Pandora.  It's why I started with NB.

I understand the concept.  Though I think of it more as a "which masters need triggers that aren't built in?"  Stones for any situation other than getting suits are going to be entirely conditional on things like needing cards or damage reduction.  So I think the original intent would have to apply to master's actions with triggers or defensive triggers which they don't have built in.  Of those actions and abilities, which ones are you likely to want to use multiple times a game?  Multiple times a turn if necessary?  Or just whenever the situation calls for it (such as Brewmaster's defensive trigger)?

You might be more inclined to hold that 1 soulstone for Brewmaster's Df than you would be for Marcus as an example, since Marcus doesn't care about the numerical value of the card, just that it has a  on it.

Granted, I was mostly thinking "head" and not "facial hair," but I'll accept Ulix as an example.  Though if we're being honest, his beard looks more fake than Wong's moustache does.

If you like Wong, then his box does just fine.  Lightning Bugs are good for whatever you need them to do, generally.  Mancha Roja is a good beater, though not always the one to take for Wong.

With Wong, I'm a big fan of Old Cranky and Sammy LaCroix at least.  Sammy allows you to take both of his limited upgrades, one of which works extremely well in the crew without being attached to Wong himself.  Old Cranky is just a much better totem than his specific totem.  Especially for Wong, since killing stuff is what Wong does, so you'll regenerate soulstones.

Burt Jebsen is another great model to pick up if you plan on being a gremlin for a while.  He fits into most crews, but works especially well as Wong's Magical target, as well as very well in a crew with Som'er since he can get so many extra rams easily.  Can't go wrong with Burt.  He even has one of the same tactical actions as Wong's totem, so you can still have it in the crew even if you replace the Assistant with Old Cranky.

Generally speaking, simply because of how many Bayou Gremlins you can end up with, Som'er will be more flexible for most games.  However, I'm a huge fan of our resident 3 Demon friend, so I'll always push for him over Som'er.

5 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

Taxidermists have hair. And depending a bit on where sideburns stand on hair-beard-scale (how high do they need to be to become hair instead of beard?), metal Pere Ravage also might count as having hair. Also, several male Gremlins have facial hair (though not Wong).

I had completely forgotten about taxidermists. 
 

7 minutes ago, porkchop said:

Into the Bayou mentions something about  how almost all males are bald but a few males can grow a head of hair

 

I haven't picked up Bayou yet, but it's on my list.  I really like the idea of the families getting fleshed out more.

Do any male gremlins have hair?  Seems like it's a female exclusive thing.  So either it's fake, or Burt was born Betty.

I'll take the bait, but what you're going to get here is a couple of masters ranked generally high, and everyone else all over the board as opinions differ.

1) Zipp - Very good at messing with the opponent, so your crew can get your points

2) Wong - He has some stuff he can do with scheme markers, and his attack is dangerous for anybody that stays even slightly grouped up.  Add in the ability to have a powerful Glowy model (or 3 if you like Swine Cursed), and your opponent will be in a bad place

3) Mah Tucket - I really like playing Mah Tucket in a similar way that I play Zipp.  The crew is hired to score me points, and then the master is thrown on top to stop my opponent from scoring.  Zipp does it by displacing the enemy from where they'd rather be, and Mah does it by murdering them with a big spoon.  I traditionally also bring another big beater (Emissary, Whiskey Golem, Mancha Roja) to roll up the board with her, causing Hell.

4) Brewmaster - One of my favorites to play, though I understand the hang-up with him.  He has a hard time getting footing competitively, but it CAN work.  Especially when your opponent has never fought him before.  Everybody says they know what he does until they're stuck in the contest, kicking themselves for getting hammered.

5) Som'er - I don't have enough games with Som'er to throw him higher up this list yet, and there are a couple of special builds I've been wanting to try, but I know I rank him higher than the lower 3.

6) Ulix - I really wanted to like Ulix, but I just don't think the pigs are in my play style.  I never seem to get any use out of the War Pig I summon in before it gets killed, and it just makes the entire thing feel like it isn't worth it.

7) Zoraida - The majority of my experience with Zoraida is Neverborn based.  She buffs the crew well, she can get you cards, but I'd rather be doing something else with a master than just getting cards or a little extra AP.  Especially in Gremlins, when so many of our models can go Reckless anyways.

8) Ophelia - I will preface this by saying that I wasn't a huge fan of hers before the errata.  So that isn't what broke her for me.  Maybe she's supposed to be used more for her tricks, but her damage isn't "master level" for me unless you can guarantee Thinkin' Luck.  So that means you either need to make sure you have the  in your hand, or Soul Stones to burn for it.  Not worth it if I'm trying to attack twice a turn.

The pulse just causes a Wp duel, so you're correct that they're immune to the damage from the pulse.  However, the damage from failing the duel comes from an aura, so I would imagine they still take the hit from Misery.

I would have voted either Mah, Zipp, or Wong.  I feel like Mah is underrated, so any time I can convince someone else to give her a fair shot, I take it.  She's just so much fun to play, and I run her without Trixiebelle every time I use her, so I wouldn't worry too hard there.

The only issue with Zipp is that he doesn't get an avatar.  Not necessarily a problem, though it could make for a bit of a difficult time if you're up against a master that does have one.  I'm finishing up a campaign right now as Reva, and it's definitely holding back a bit.  I'd have to look at the upgrade list to see if it would be worth it for Zipp to be in the game, though I would probably still have a ton of fun with him.  Since his attack is a Ml against Ht, getting the upgrade to boost his Ml value (it maxes out at 7, so no problem there), can essentially make it impossible to miss that attack.  Or damn close to it.  If you were somehow able to get it to Ml 7, then even flipping a 3 means that your opponent would most likely need a 9 to not be hit.

Wong would be my first choice of the options you have available with your current crew.  Burt is a good Glowy target, and so is Gracie, so you have some options.  Getting Sammy in is a bonus of course, but you can nearly afford her now.  She would only cost 2 scrip to hire.  Same thing with Swine Cursed if you wanted to really go for a powerful Wong list (assuming they're each your first/only hire of that week, of course).

Personally, if I were in this current boat, I'd get Wong with maybe 1 of his upgrades (not sure how you guys are doing upgrade cost, we're just paying their SS value to hire) and a Lightning Bug or other 5 stone model so that you don't lose any extra scrip.  By the next time you can hire models, you should have enough for Sammy and Wong's other upgrade.  Depending on the weekly event that shows up and a little bit of luck on your end, and you might be able to get Sammy and a Swinecursed, too.  Just the two of them (without the extra upgrade) is 9 Scrip.  Not really breaking the bank, depending on how many games you get in for the week.

I bought some terrain bases to toss my gremlins on to.  I'm not good at the hobby side of things, and I don't mind tossing some money to my local shop for some special bases that I just have to paint.  Found some with logs on them.  Don't get me wrong.  The damn things still barely fit, but they're on there.

5 hours ago, Daysleeper said:

We don't have "disguised" ... could always hire some Oiran though

The Corpse Candles can hand out disguised as their tactical action.  Not the best thing to be doing turn 1, since it means you would have had to activate Reva early to get the candle on the board, but it's still sort of an option.

Depending on who I'm up against, I've had a decent amount of success utilizing the Hanged's aura to stop you from becoming immune to horror duels.  Nothing fantastic really, but it eats cards and has the chance to screw them over.  It's mostly about positioning with that, since I bring Hanged a lot anyways.

I completely agree.  Only issue is that I don't own Survivors yet (though I want them specifically for Mah and when I try a Zipp construct crew).  Lightning Bugs never seem to do enough for me to be satisfied hiring them.  I try once in a while and they never seem to stand out.

The other problem is that the majority of games I get in are against the same 2 friends, and they both go for Slop Haulers as soon as they can.  A bit of a meta problem.  I have to invest some thought and energy into hiding them, which means they probably aren't attacking much.

I feel the issue with Malifaux in general is that there are plenty of models that aren't bad, that I wish I could bring more, but in 90% of situations there's a better option that you'd rather take.  Which is where you get into the nearly "cookie cutter" type of builds.  Granted, the gameplay of Malifaux helps mitigate that a bit, since you never know exactly what you'll need in a game.  However, when a master hits the other side of the table, I can be confident that I know at least 20 stones of other models that I should expect to see, if not more.  My personal play style has always been to try to move away from the normal way of doing something and try to find other options and how to make them work.  It's not exactly something I'd try in a tournament, but there are models that I "should" be bringing that I ignore (never bought Roosters).

Well bugger.  Screwed again.

I use them with Mah Tucket quite a bit and they do pretty well for me.  For the cost, it's a model in a melee crew with melee expert so I get an extra attack.  Worst case scenario I've just had them double focus and take a bite.  Had a game where one red joker'd the damage against Killjoy (being immune to terrifying helps fill a gap some other gremlins can't).  They're not perfect, but in situations where I just need a couple of cheap models to tie up something in engagement, I like them.

His buff can essentially make Wong impossible to kill.  Heals every time he flips the suit, not uses it in the final duel.  With all the cards he flips for randomizing, and attacking, and damaging, and then the pulse effect, he can easily heal to full in a couple of attacks.

Theoretically: randomizing into 3 models.  So that's 6 cards, plus 1 for the attack, plus estimate 2 for the damage, and another 4 (at least) for the pulse.  So with 13 cards, that should roughly be 3-4 points healed.  Unless he's shooting into a bigger melee pile, then it just goes up.

I suppose if you have to, you could use d4 for suits, and just assign each suit to a number.  If you go on the d12s for normal flips, you'd essentially have to have each player with multiple d12 and d4 to generate a "hand" to cheat with at the start of the round, which will get messy, complicated, and probably take a long time (6 different rolls each to ensure the number and suit stay together).

I understand some people don't like the cards, but those people are wrong.  I started playing Malifaux almost 2 years ago, and as soon as I did I decided I instantly hate dice.  Can't stand playing Pathfinder anymore, I just want a deck of cards.

I really do enjoy Zipp in all the strategies.  And I'm sorry to say that I completely disagree about Extraction, that's one of my favorites to use him in.

If you can guarantee the mask in your Ml attack (Earl), then Zipp can displace 3 enemies a turn.  Since it's a 5" placement, it's essentially a guarantee to put them out of range of the marker unless they were practically hugging it.  Even if you don't have the cards to ensure 3 successful attacks, in order for your opponent to play it safe and not risk the odds, they'll need 5 models around the extraction marker just to ensure getting 1 point.  Anything less than that and they risk you stopping them from scoring.  On top of that, if they want to guarantee even a chance to move the marker in their favor, they'll need even more.  I don't see anyone throwing that many models around the center just to guarantee one point, and after that you can stop them from scoring it at all once the marker moves closer to your deployment zone (or whatever location serves you best).

You can have Zipp clean house and use his final walk action to move back to the marker so he's one of your models scoring the point and favoring it to move for you that turn.  Essentially getting 4 points with only a couple of models.  Especially if you use First Mate, who can also push opponents 6" and denying them even more.

I tend to throw it onto dangerous models.  I don't particularly care if I get all 3 points, as long as I can get 2.  "Sure, you can leave Izamu alive, but he's going to wreck you."

For me, FfM is a win/win.  I'm either getting 2 points, or you're leaving a dangerous/important model alive.

In gremlins, I throw it onto Earl a lot.  People don't like letting Zipp have his built in  for defense and Ml triggers.

Okay, so I'm sold on the Burt/Sparks/Earl combo to get even more critical strike going.  With skeeters to move him around.

He's one of my favorites.  He's always with Mah.  I've been meaning to bring him with Zipp, too.  In a Zipp crew, Mancha has a charge of 12" pretty much any time you need it.  Just drop Noxious Smoke next to him when he needs to haul ass, and ass will be hauled.

I tend to forget about his second (0) action, but challenge is always nice.  Especially if you're running with Old Cranky.  They take the challenge in order to target Cranky, or they target Mancha while he's on  defense.

I was initially thinking about the group being brought in to cover up something in town, but wasn't sure what that could be.  Though a bad batch is a good idea, I might use that and elaborate a bit.  Maybe someone in town has information that could expose some of the more shady dealings of the Honeypot?

Seamus is great with his core box, really.  A couple of friends and myself are in a campaign right now, and I started essentially with his crew box + Datsue Ba.  She's a nice addition for his crew.  Her being able to summon Seishin really helps Seamus block line of sight so he can get Back Alley working.

The Hanged are great in general, but let me tell you, they're a pain in the ass in a campaign.  Increase their station to Enforcer so they can equip Decaying Aura, and there's a campaign ability that makes it so their damage can't be reduced.  So essentially, they always hit for 1/2 remaining wounds.