edopersichetti

It looks like a special box tailored for encounters. Not sure if these models will be new models, alts, or perhaps only playable in the encounter (like Carver). But seeing how Starter Box was Neverborn vs Guild and this seems TT vs Ressers, perhaps the other box (Backdraft) will be Outcasts vs Gremlins? Time will tell - if it is new models after all, it might mean a new book is coming (another one!) which is not what I was envisioning at all...

Yeah, overall I agree with you that it is not very exciting, plus only works against an opponent that does not know this is going to happen. If you see that crew on the table just spread out, then he can bomb as much as he wants and maybe kill 2 models if he's lucky

Bad players no - but certainly playing, say, a Sandeep makes your life easier

My 2 cents: these lists show how twisted you need to go to be competitive with the faction. They look designed for speed (Skeeter, Major with Saddle) and out-activation (Bayou spam) , so much so that he hired Student of Conflict (hadn't seen that one in a while!) to maximize AP. But apart from that it's all the same old well-known few models (Som'er, Zipp, Merris, Frank, Pere, Trixie). The only "superstar" missing was Burt, he probably didn't need more than one big damage source. This is not good advertisement for our faction I can believe there must have been a "surprise" factor too - I know it happened to me for sure, two of my opponents were not very familiar with Ulix and Zipp and they ended up struggling a lot. The other two opponents were a lot more experienced with the faction and gave me a much harder time (1 tie and 1 risky win). So again maybe we're not dead but once the dust settles, Guild players come out of retirement, and everyone figures out GG18, things may change. At the moment, Arcanists and Outcasts still dominate, in particular the former (and we knew that already...)

I'm not surprised either. He was the one who objectively performed best for me - so hard for my opponent to pin him down! For what it's worth, I had: Zipp (No Quarter, Dread Pirate, Rambling Diatribe) Earl First Mate (Treasure Map, Captain Can't See) 2x Skeeters (Hovering Airship, Explosives) Crier Merris 3x Bayou Gremlins Zipp was the usual flying harassment, plus thanks to the Bayous he has even more mobility than usual. He and Merris basically scored 3VP from Set Up all by themselves. First Mate was also terrific, you all know how good he is at placing/denying scheme markers. Crier also useful with Bureaucracy to deny Ply for Info. But I feel overall a Zipp crew can do well in a lot of situations. On the other hand, I witnessed the guy winning the tournament playing Sandeep 3 out of 4 Rounds and ending up with a +22 differential...plus, a good 4/5 in the top 10 were Arcanists. So yeah, perhaps we're not dead, but a far shot away from Arcanists and Outcasts. The thing that surprised me the most? 0 Guild players. ZERO. I stand convinced the latest Guild incarnation has a lot of potential in GG2018, but of course, if no one plays the faction, we can't really judge how good/bad it is...

I did, although I admit it was a very close call - I won Round 4 quite beyond my expectations, I thought my opponent had me. Turns out the trio Trixie/Wong/Burt is very hard to take down for Ironsides all by herself... Perhaps the most significant detail is that I did not use Som'er - I really don't enjoy playing him. Zipp, Ulix and Wong did very well for me, and even Ophelia held her own on Turn 1 against Zoraida (I tied). p.s. Neverborn Zoraida seems to be the new black. She was everywhere. I think she has really improved - I don't know if she'll perform just as well in Gremlins.

Sure looks like it's her! Bad Things are about to Happen to my wallet...

There's a lot of resistance by the community against Stuffed Piglets and the Pigapult. I understand playing against a shooting machine that shoots 24" ignoring LoS and Cover can be frustrating, but if it wasn't meant to be, why does the model exists in the first place? Also, there was so much noise about cheap 2SS activations that Stuffed Piglets were killed outright. Sadly, I doubt either of those will be fixed anytime soon. Lenny and Emissary: yes, this is a terrible oversight. I find Lenny still somewhat playable, but he's definitely overcosted. Emissary is the clunkiest, weirdest, most poorly designed model in the faction. I understand changing the SS cost of an Emissary is beyond what Wyrd wanted to do, but something should be done because it is completely useless. The only good news we can take is Survivors at 4SS: these can be quite useful. Other changes like -1 to Raphael will maybe encourage players to field him a bit more, but will most of the times compensate the +1 to Burt and Frank. Wild Boars also an option now. But yeah, overall nothing will change much, players will still hire Frank and Burt and make room for the extra SS. Sad, very sad. p.s. might I add Rami, he needed the SS adjustment even more than Raph, not sure why Wyrd completely ignored him...he's the only Kin that really has no reason to be played right now. The damage track is so poor...perhaps some major adjustment besides cost would be better.

I'm all for dropping the stats but there is no way an exploding peon that does literally nothing else is worth 3SS, especially in a faction that has a lot of cheap, useful models! It might make sense, I don't know, in Arcanists or Ten Thunders (but I'd probably still pick a Raptor for the same cost). So do whatever you wish but please fix this issue. There are so many proposals out there, they just need to be tested. Personally the passing solution is not my favorite - I'd be in favor of working on the cost a bit more or on hiring limitations, but whatever works.

This came up a lot during playtesting before release, and yet designers (and the community, I should say) were not very responsive. As is, he's more than a bit underwhelming, and I think we'll eventually see an errata to his reactivate action because right now that's not worth it. Condition removal is ok, always useful, but he IS fragile so need to be very careful with positioning. I played him in Ophelia crew with Useless Junk and with all the movement/scheme/healing shenanigans he worked ok for me, but I have to say opponent didn't really try to hit him...

Hi there! Very excited for this. The program here still reports Sunday free play but on the website it mentions 2vs2 - which is going to happen? Thanks!

Hi there! Sadly I had to miss this Anything going on next week? I'm in Boca but I'd be happy to drive over (rest of the family is away!) for a tournament or even some casual play! Do you still have Open Play on Thursdays? Also Saturday 27 could be a good day for a tournament or for some play. Thanks@@

Well for example Ressers were traditionally a faction made of tough, resilient models (I swear sometimes I'm facing a crew where every single model is HtW) but also usually slow, lacking strong shooting (which makes sense...) and not very "schemey". To compensate for being so slow, I suspect, the faction has access to one of the best Lures in the game (and one of the best models in the game overall, IMHO), the Rotten Belle. Crooligans and Necropunks are great scheme runners but they still do so "a-la Resser", being tougher than most other scheme runners and costing a little more. The faction used to win games by attrition using summoning (if I'm not wrong every single master is able to summon something) to replenish the ranks, plus a few "iconic" mechanics like Poison, Horror etc. Then in the last few waves a lot gaps started to be filled, for example with Reva the faction got a powerful long-range caster, and with Kentauroi the problem of mobility is largely addressed. Also, the faction now has a lot more options for cross-faction hiring, with McMourning's beasts and academics, Seamus's belles etc. I'd add that Belles are iconic (and very important in Resser crews) just like Slop Haulers are for Gremlins - they are so because they fit into a mechanic common across faction. For all those jealous of Gremlin healers, Gremlins sure are jealous of Resser (and Nvb) lures! Another example, Neverborn: traditionally fast and very mobile, hard hitting and at the same time subtle. Also, they tend to be squishy, with no real "tanky" models or decent healers and no shooting. More or less a faction of glass cannons, with a lot of lures and Wp duels and strong Melee. Of course there are different playstyles if you choose to play Dreamer or Collodi, but the fundamental aspects (strengths and weaknesses) remain. Compared to ressers, I see less weaknesses being addressed... Arcanist are so dominant I think because Sandeep bridged a big gap: the faction used to have a lot of armored models and constructs together with strong magic and shooting, but very little scheme marker shenanigans and limited speed (apart from glass cannons like beasts). Of course, Colette is an exception and she's lovely (the favorite of my 15 masters!) but after the errata she's not quite the same...and GG18 is not so focused on scheme marker craziness as GG17 I think. Outcasts are another dominant faction since they are very much a mixed bag, with a little bit of everything, which means that depending what you field you can have strengths and weaknesses of your choice: from one extreme like glass-cannon Viks, to the attrition of Hamelin, with a very mean master like Leveticus. You have the option of shooting (Von Schill, Parker) and some unique mechanics like Jack Daw and Tara. So I think they are very well-rounded, but this perhaps makes more sense for them since they are a ragtag faction even in fluff. Guild was the faction of hard-hitting damage dealers. From Pullmyfinger: "The Guild favor buffing their own crews and prefer quality to quantity. They tend to lack both summoners and cheap minions, and are generally the slowest of the factions - compensating for their lack of speed and numbers with a notable abundance of firepower and strong individual models. " Now they're getting some quantity too, and cheap minions, and Nellie brought some movement/activation shenanigans. As I said, I expect them to come out strong in GG18. Finally Ten Thunders: I don't know them as well as other factions but I know traditionally they are elite crews with quality models but not a lot of bodies, and no summoning. Now there is Asami but I don't find her very impressive. Of course most of them are dual faction so the playstyle varies greatly... I hope this answers your questions and explains why I think other factions are compensating and will get the upper hand - except perhaps Neverborn. As you yourself mention, one tournament, and besides the first in the new format, doesn't really prove anything. We'll see what happens but I do believe right now Guild and Ressers have improved a lot, while Arcanist and Outcasts will remain strong. Neverborn/TT just behind, with Gremlins.

It does, it does...and in particular, it says just how badass Outcasts continue to be. Should we stop talking about Gremlins and open the Outcast chapter? Now that's a faction that needs a closer look...

Ok, right now the only use for them is as summons, I doubt that was the intention all along...like, the gremlin version of mindless zombies.

Sorry, that's spoken for already!

Well, for one the Flesh Construct is very tough to kill even with a dedicated beating. Another one I find extremely annoying is Yin. But there's plenty - of course, they tend to occur in Ressers and Arcanists because that's how the factions are supposed to work - which was my whole point. As for the whole discussion Frank vs Nekima I just won't go there - you can't really compare the two models. Francois is a guided missile, usually drops in, does his massive amount of damage and then dies. Df 4 is really poor plus he inflicts at least half of his 10 Wds on himself (yes, even with Stilts). So for me as long as he takes to the grave more than his SS cost, he's had a good game. Nekima works fundamentally different, and again, you just can't compare them. I just want to reiterate that, really, I'm ok with the Gremlin errata, Burt and Frank will be alright. My main concern is with the direction this is taking for Gremlins overall - over the last erratas the faction got hit over and over with nerfs like Rooster Rides, Lenny, Stuffed Piglets etc. Their strengths are constantly complained about but their weaknesses aren't addressed. At the same time, the other factions slowly but surely match them all - as I said, we just now need a few Reckless models per faction and then Gremlins will finally have no more reason to exist

This just supports what I'm saying. 3 in the top is fun and all, but if highest was 5th, they must not be as powerful as they are depicted... I think Guild will come out on top in 2018, with GG18 and the addition of new models/errata - it might need some time for players to adapt. Ressers also just received a huge boost with Kentauroi (talk about broken things...), so the only faction I'm actually concerned about is Nvb: errata was ok but nothing really crucial or that will substantially change things on the table...

Well, on the first point we'll just have to agree to disagree. I don't really get into a game without reading its rules and having at least a rough understanding of the gamestyle. If a game has awesome models but the rules or the play experience is meh I just don't buy in (there's a few out there). For the record, I used to play Bretonnia and sure I liked the medieval knight theme but I wasn't crazy about it and mainly chose to play it because I wanted a fast, maneuverable army full of cavalry. OTOH Dwarfs are without doubt my favorite fantasy race since I can remember, yet I never played them in Warhammer because I was not a fan of the static, warmachine + high shooting playstyle. So definitely mechanics are of major importance for me: different strokes Guild really struggled lately so they've been receiving lots of nice candy lately...I do hope the same happens for Gremlins as I can see them struggle in GG18 and I hope we don't have to wait a whole year for designers to notice this, hopefully something can be done in July. I'd be happy if this somehow doesn't happen (i.e. Gremlins somehow consistently winning GG18 tournaments) and I am proved wrong, of course. But I doubt it Yes a faction designed on extremes might be harder to balance but as I said before the main problem is not the +1 to Burt and Frank for which really, I am of the same attitude you just mentioned for Papa and Austringers, the problem is that other factions are catching up in aspects that were traditionally considered Gremlin strengths, while this is not really true the other way around. The last thing left that is still kind of unique is Reckless (apart from the awesome Firestarter!), let's hope they leave us that at least.

Those are 3 of the so-called "Neverborn all stars", so that's why I mentioned Graves. I also think he's fine at his cost, but then sometimes we got models that were fine at their cost and still got a nerf so...

We all agree that Slop is one of the best healers in the game. That is for a reason: its own faction tends to accumulate lots of damage, both because of poor stats and defensive abilities, and because they hurt themselves. However, it is not almighty. Among other things: - It can't move unless it goes Reckless - if it does, he either heals himself (and so 1 less in the bubble) or accumulates some damage quickly on his starting 5 Wds - even if it does move, it's a single Wk 5, so it tends to lag behind crew - healing range is 3" which is not that long, and requires to keep up with crew (see previous point) - can only target Gremlins or Pigs. This can be surprisingly annoying if you have mercs but also in-faction models like Tavish or Emissary - goes down pretty quickly. If you rely on him so much, and he dies, then your whole game also goes downhill pretty quickly So great piece, but with its limitations, and only makes sense in the faction mechanics. I keep repeating that it doesn't make sense to compare pieces in different factions, because they have different mechanics and bring different things to the table. Other factions have their own amazing models that Gremlins can only dream about, including reliable tanky models, high-end beaters (a la Nekima/Yasunori) etc.

This is exactly the kind of short-sighted view that non-Gremlin players have of the Gremlin faction and leads to all the problems we're discussing Try playing Gremlins yourself a few times: you'll learn a lot about their strengths and weaknesses!

Hi guys I have a few models (mainly Limited Edition and/or Promo) that I'd love to trade. I live in the US so good old $$ are always an option, otherwise I'm looking for a few selected models (below). Have: - LE Bete Noire translucent red - LE Miss Fire (alt Willie) - University of Transmortis box - Dead Doxy x1 (New on Sprue) Want: - Gunsmiths - Akaname - New releases: Cyclops, Wrastlers

As I replied to @SunTsu, it might be personal preference. I prefer to choose factions for theme AND mechanics, in fact most often mechanics first, then theme. No offence, but choosing just a faction/model for its looks but without knowing what it can/can't do is a bit naive. Clearly, it must work from the point of view of the company, but I find it waters down the game and makes it less interesting. It's like playing Warhammer Dwarfs and wanting to play cavalry...if you wanna play cavalry go play Bretonnia When I talk about Gremlins and high-risk/high-reward I talk of the faction as a whole, not singling out 2-3 models that are an exception. Otherwise you can say anything of any faction. Neverborn are traditionally glass cannons or anyway rather squishy, yet Illuminated are incredibly resilient, so I could, based on your logic, assert that the faction as a whole is not squishy. Gremlin players know their strength and weaknesses, others tend to only focus on the former. Reckless is awesome but you have to use it carefully and overall gremlins die in droves. I conclude by mentioning that I would have liked to see the other way around - Graves, Primordial and Doppel goin up and then telling Nvb players to "figure out a new way to play". Can you imagine the noise right now? p.s. I only own Hooded so perhaps that is why I was perplexed, he's a good model. Don't know much about the other riders as I've hardly played against them (apart from Mech, of course).

Not at all. Because each faction has its own internal balance - the same model at the same SS cost can be a bargain for a faction and overcosted for another one. Again I disagree: it's not a matter of theme, but of mechanics. I DO like the idea of each faction being able to do something better than the other, otherwise if you want both players to be able to do the same thing you can play chess Seriously though, homologation is boring, at least for me. As I mentioned in some other post, it is rather inevitable, look at colossal games like Magic the Gathering or World of Warcraft. I still remember when Horde players were not allowed to have Paladins. I can see more granularity would help, but I strongly disagree with the opinion that Stuffed Piglets were broken. "Broken" is a very strong word. What was problematic was only the fact that it was technically possible to hire 6 of them and gain an activation advantage, but the model itself is little more than a nuisance - that could have been easily fixed by limiting its hiring, not raising the cost. As you say, they are now useless Themed hiring is already kind of present, but yes, anything that preserves or enhances flavor is welcome!