KingCrow

Remember back a few years ago how the yearly event revolved around factions fighting over control for areas of Malifaux? I absolutely loved that. I felt that it caused a huge swell in people playing games and made people want to play more than just for fun. I do also remember that there was quite a bit of cheating too. My thoughts for the yearly event, if we can get the cheating under control, is that it should actually be a re-occurring event. Each year, the factions battle it out for control of Malifaux and the reward is a nightmare box and something else for that faction alone. Something that occurs in game but is not game breaking. Perhaps access to a scheme in all their games that no one else is able to use or a once per game ability that is triggered after a certain action is performed (would have to be relatively hard to set-up too). This makes each "fun game" a little competitive if the players agree and gives those factions gloating rights for that year. From a Wyrd selling/stand-point, this would probably drive sales of factions because who wouldn't want to try out these new models from the nightmare boxes and the special reward for winning the yearly event? So, what are peoples thoughts?

Sonnia Died turn 2?!? That's impressive. I've only played vs Sonnia once in my 4 years of Malifaux and I remember her being a tough one to kill. Good Job!

I actually really like this trigger and think it would be great to see on other models. I honestly wish that Ramos had this as a non-suited trigger on his ranged attack to make him just a bit stronger. It forces the opposing model to really think about how to use their AP (unless they're a beater because then the Focus just helps even more). As a huge Marcus player, I'm always wanting to see more beasts too. Thus why, in my first post, I mentioned a beast-like creature that would allow for a lot of different ways to play it. I wish that the Venomancy infect trigger would have made it so that it is built-in to Marcus's attack and we had more model's that played off the Poison condition. Although, with having the Raptor turn Henchman into beasts and the having access to Shikome and Performers, it's decent. I suppose it just adds to the damage effect that most Beasts seem to be built around. I personally would love to see another "support-y" type of Beast henchman. Myranda is great but she is mostly a transport vehicle. lol.

Arcanists Title: Joining the Circus Cost: 1 Rare 3, Minion only Attach this upgrade to a minion. Ignore upgrade restrictions. This model gains the Showgirl characteristic and +1 Walk. ...Joining the Work Force: Discard this upgrade at the beginning of this model's activation to draw a card and gain Armor +1 until the end of the turn. This would allow some play with Colette's new upgrade that is crap-tastic by allowing Showgirl minion models to gain Focused +1. There's a few other interactions that could occur as well such as the Mannequins push and... I don't remember any others. lol. Still though, this might help and could be powerful as we have a few decent minions. Edit: This might be kind of strong though. Maybe reduce the cost down to 0 and just have the discard effect be something to just draw a card. Call it "Misplaced Confidence" or something.

Compared to last year, it's basically dead. We had around 10 people regularly showing up to play on game nights last year and when I had a chance to go a few weeks ago, I saw barely 3 or 4 guys playing. Life has been getting in the way for a lot of people (myself included) but hopefully we are able to get more free time in the coming months!

I think he is actually pretty decent in a lot of game, especially when you're going to play against an enemy that uses any sort of Markers, which to be fair, there is a large amount of masters and other models that use Markers of some sort. You can move them around and screw with the enemy's plans. I think he might see a bit more play in GG18 with the emphasis on elite crews and the importance of AP usage compared to rarely being used in GG17.

Thank you for pointing that out! My mind must've totally passed over that important part. lol.

Aye, Action through Inaction is once per activation so it is slightly limited but it sounds like a fun idea to try 😁 I was thinking of bringing Sloth with the crew for a zero action that heals 3 while giving Slow. Plus there is the trigger to heal 2 on Sandeep's pull

YOU ALL NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS!!! I think I found a way to make the Oxfordian Mages even more broken - just add Aionus. Granted that's a 28 point sink but now you have someone to spread slow in case an enemy get too close, he can protect the mages (which has been the one way to truly shut down the Mages), he gets buffed by their aura, makes them fast by letting the Mages discard cards which allows Sandeep to draws more cards and Aionus can get the bonus damage b/c Mages can hand out slow. So a crew with Sandeep (with a summon upgrade and Unaligned Sage), three mages with their upgrades and Aionus with Warding Runes leaves you with 19 soulstones to still bring whatever you want. Maybe add in the Tutelage upgrade for casting shenanigans from Aionus and this crew seems scary! Each mage could have 3 AP (4 with Furious Casting and their zero with Aionus looming over them to Slow any enemy model within 10" or to beat some face in if needed. Remember - this is still a combo even if the Temporary Shielding upgrade gets nerfed!

WoW! This is a great idea! Honestly, I'm surprised that someone hasn't tried using Aionus with the Mages. Granted that a 28 point sink but now you have someone to spread slow in case they get too close, he can protect the mages, he gets buffed by their aura, makes them fast, draws more cards for Sandeep and can get the bonus damage b/c Mages can hand out slow.... what have we done @WWHSD? lol Guess I need to get my mages back as I don't really prefer to use them but now I just might have to try this.

Recently bought Aionus because he looked fun and I've been wondering how to best use him in our faction. I was thinking of trying him with Mei as you can throw her into a mix of enemy models and then have Aionus throw around a lot of Slow and not have to worry because Mei is immune to Slow. Maybe could throw some Metal Plating on Aionus from Sparks and make Aionus fast (4 AP would be strong with ignoring armor and potentially +1 damage from making something Slow). Maybe bring him along with a Dancing Sabre Colette crew to get that +1 damage from all the slow being passed around. Plus he could move any markers such as Carlos's Flaming Pyre, etc. Anyone had any luck with him? If so, what crews have you run him in?

I totally forgot to update my post on here. lol. Sorry about that. I was only able to get one game in with Vogel on Tuesday (my other game I played Sandeep and switched Sloth in for Vogel - works amazingly btw). It was a Ply for info game with my Dancing Sabre build Colette crew that I played vs Seamus and his new upgrades. The highlights of the game with Vogel included drawing some cards with all the scheme markers around, throwing Censure on Chiaki (no slow or making insignificant unless discarding cards), the Beast destroyed a Shikome but then got lured in by three Belle's for Public Demo (Beast is an Enforcer), and just generally being a nuisance with Censure when he switched back to Vogel. It sucked being pulled in by the Belle's because it was so close to a building that I could switch to Vogel but then my opponent wouldn't leave space for me to switch back to the Beast with some good positioning. Although my opponent did pump a lot of AP into attacking the Beast and when I switched back to Vogel, it basically made all his attacks a moot point. I had meant to summon/hire a Dove to have the Beast attack with the trigger to drop 3 Scrap Markers from killing the Dove (it is a construct!) but the cards were not in my favor for the game. It could've been 3 easy armor from the Steamfitter but yea, didn't happen (was the theme of the game for me except for when Vogel/Beast was doing things). Vogel is strong but you have to worry about his positioning and the fact that he can get focused down if you let him. He's a fun model that is all about doing the perfect balancing act - making sure you get the most from him while making sure to keep him alive. I personally think he's a great addition to the Arcanists who have needed the card draw and control actions but can switch to a beater when needed. I think he'll be in a lot of top crews in the future. The game ended in a narrow draw of 7-7 with me remembering that I had a point for surround them in my own corner. The amount of slow and control that the crew has is impressive, especially with Vogel now added to the mix, but those new Seamus upgrades... wow... pulsing for horror duels on top of a -2 WP is strong!

Last game I played was Supply Wagons with standard deployment. Schemes: Guarded Treasure, Covert Breakthrough, DtG, SoF, and Hold up their Forces The list I played was: Sandeep - Tutelage, Commands, Enlightened Soul Carlos - Stunt Double, PP Anna Lovelace - Warding Runes Sloth Performer Effigy Union Steamfitter Oppenent brought a Levi Crew One of the riders Kentarou (SP?) Lazarus Yin Totems Maybe a few others... can't really remember. I played vs a Leviticus crew who brought a Kentarou (SP?) to carry Levi up the board. The Levi player then decided to charge Sloth who got his df trigger on the first attack and completely shut down Levi to which then Anna and Sandeep both Levi took off the field, forcing him to burn a totem to come back in the back of the field. Turn 3, Carlos and Banasuva managed to put enough burning and damage on a rider (the one with the 0 action to take another attack) to take it off the board in one turn. Summoned Gamin ran Covert Breakthrough and the rest of the crew pushed up my Wagon. Sloth is amazing with being able to heal 3 damage and then getting rid of the slow with the Effigy. Also, his Df trigger is amazingly good. Needless to say, I won the game 9-2 after tallying up the score when my opponent conceded end of turn 3.

Hell, you could even make it a 1 ap action. Perhaps, so as to make his melee build even partially viable, add a trigger something on his melee upgrade that allows him to take the 1 ap action. Although I still don't think that would make the melee upgrade even worth it still. lol. This way he has to ALWAYS dedicate one ap to at least set up the Beacon ability and if he wants to get the most bang for his buck, he has to activate early to allow his crew to use his abilities or use his "free" AP to set it up. This then can make the Sandeep player choose between setting up the Beacon ability or having the Effigy companion-ing into a summoned Banasuva, amongst doing other things of course. I think that can be a huge decision for some Sandeep players.

It might not change the initial perception but when people see that those 0 action interacts aren't happening as often or the Sandeep player is needing to cheat more to get them to work, that is less cards in their hand and so less opportunities to cheat to make something else happen. I can definitely see it making an impact on the game just like how the Rider was impacted when Wyrd increased the TN by two to summon anything. Yes, Sandeep is more complicated than most masters but it's just like playing vs any master that has access to lots of abilities. Just like Lilith who can swap models around the board or all the other masters that have all sorts of abilities. Being able to react to these plethora of abilities is what separates good players vs the not-so-good. But just a few cuddles such as I mentioned previously would be more than enough to hopefully calm down most of the Sandeep hate. He would still remain very viable but would at least allow some counterplay to the opponent.

I see you liked my suggestion from the other discussion about adding the to the Arcane Storm ability. lol. I honestly do believe adding this and increasing the TN's on his base card by one or two could make a huge difference. It would allow for the opponent to at least try some counter-play with using cover and requiring at least a 7+ on Beacon'd abilities would make a decent change in how cards are used by the Sandeep player. For survivablity, Sandeep can still go down to sustained assault from a heavy beater and forcing him to use his soulstones extremely limits his summoning and what-not.

Aye, adding the would drastically change how Sandeep and those that use his ability through Beacon would act but would slightly decrease the effectiveness of the ability. Plus, it would allow the opponent to more thoroughly strategize against the Sandeep player as that is one of the main complaints about him. I had just mentioned bumping the TN of his abilities by two (although I think maybe just one at this point) as it might help because people would still complain how hard it is play against him since he is a generalist master and is still really good with his abilities.

Would you agree that at least putting a on his Arcane Storm action would help tone him down a bit? I had a game the other night where I had a hand full of high rams and I managed to knock Leviticus off the board before he activated and severely hurt a beater. If they had benefited from cover, it would've been a different story I think (although yes, I could've just summoned the buffing Gamin and not had to worry about cover but that in itself requires an AP and probably card/stone to spend). I honestly don't think that needing a 7+ to make his actions work would be too terrible. The interact is essentially giving him and other models a free AP to interact and placing within 6" as a zero is immensely strong as well. This places more strain on his control hand than before and he is already hurting when it comes to using his cards with summoning and what-not. Perhaps maybe raising the TN by one would be better than two but I could see this stopping people from complaining about him as much. In my opinion, he would still strong but putting more emphasis on how the players control hand gets played would mean that he requires more skill to manage properly.

I mentioned this before but it seemed to have been lost in the heat. As a Sandeep player, I think an easy nerf to Sandeep would be to add a to his Arcane Storm. This then restricts it from being used in melee, randomizes into Melee, and allows the benefit of cover which then either requires AP for focusing or proper positioning for the Gamin with the buffing upgrade. Maybe also increase the TN's for his base card abilities by 2. This would then be on par with other abilities like the Rider's summoning. The Sandeep plauer would have to decide on using those 8's for summoning or allowing other friendly models to get the Beacon abilities to work. These nerfs would still keep him competitive but make his decisions harder as to how to use his cards.

I think if there was a nerf to Sandeep, putting a on his Arcane Storm would require having the + to attack upgrade Gamin near certain models or would require focusing to make it work. This at least requires more attention to proper positioning of models or more AP to get it to hit and make use of the discard to get Sandeep his 4th AP. Also, this would not allow his Arcane Storm to be cast in melee which is a huge upside to this ability. I am in whole agreement that most of the Arcanist masters are still sorely lacking in the competitive scene. I think our biggest issue is that there are so many ways to bypass armor and the lower tier master rely upon that to survive (Mei, Ramos, Kaeris). Even though we can now give armor to masters with the Steamfitter, it still is almost a moot point when most factions can bring anti-armor and still punish the masters and models that rely upon it. Ramos is at least a little better with his new wave 5 upgrades to give him a different playstyle but Mei still has the issue of needing to stone for her triggers or having the perfect hand or she is relegated to being a support model and then most likely dying to a beater from the other faction. I almost wish that Mei would have the "Fake Soulstone" ability that Colette has to ensure she could get at least one trigger off a turn. Kaeris is supposed to be a queen of burning but she requires too much set up to make us of it and her abilities revolve around being in the midline where she is vulnerable to a sustained assault, which she can hardly handle with her armor +1 (which is easy to bypass as mentioned above). Not to mention the fact that the on her abilities completely shuts her out of doing her attacks into melee. Colette has been mentioned and Ironsides is great to play so I won't say anything about them. Raspy is decent if all you need to kill but GG18 is kill-y with stipulations so she's kind of in a niche spot, which I think is ok. Marcus is good though. I love me some Marcus. lol. So yes, buffing certain masters would help out the Arcanist faction immensely but to satisfy those who think Sandeep is too OP, a minor nerf such as I mentioned above could hopefully help. Edit: An additional thought - most melee masters have some way to heal but Mei only has it on an upgrade and that only heals one after killing. Perhaps it should be reworded to say heal 1 (or more) when damaging and draw a card when she kills a model.

I literally just finished assembling them and have two games coming up where I plan to use them on Tuesday. I'll report back and let you know how it goes.

Very true! Great way to save a card and the (+)'s to her Ca actions help when fishing for triggers and increase the success rate of all her actions.

I always bring her in my Colette crew when playing Ply for Info and have taken her in Marcus, Sandeep and Ironsides crews. She is a denial piece that, from what I've seen, forces the enemy to either play around her or to immediately gun for her. She can be a bit card intensive depending on what happens but she is an amazing piece to bring to the table. She is both M&SU and Academic so she can benefit from being in an Ironsides and Sandeep crew and with the other handful of models that benefit from having those other models near them. When considering upgrades, I always put Warding Runes on her to help prevent her from being Lured out of a crucial position or other abilities that rely on suits (plus, if you bring the Mages, she benefits from those as well) and have considered Improved Protection to help with survival but never taken it. Amina's aura to take a paint of damage to put attacks at (-)'s helps immensely with survival of models around her but she needs some way to heal if you want to keep her around for long. Her "Summons" ability is great for pulling a beater out of position but the effectiveness MASSIVELY improves if you manage to get the "Liability" trigger. I almost always stone for the trigger if I'm using this on an enemy beater. It effectively shuts down the model for the turn. Most schemes and strats require a model to be a non-peon so her ability to turn model's into one can deny that crucial VP to help you win the game. If you're playing Sandeep, a trick to use is to give Amina the Tutelage condition so that Sandeep can use her "Sharp Wit" attack and use the trigger to deny any attacks vs Sandeep as Amina should be out of melee range of the attacking model. In my opinion, she's a finesse model. You need to understand when to activate her to get the most out of her and how to use her abilities and that just comes with practice. Good luck!

Ah, my bad. I misunderstood how rare limit worked. Thank you.

Sandeep wouldn't have to kill Banasuva, he could just resummon him to sacrifice the old Banasuva since he's rare 1 and Banasuva has the ability on the front of his card to sacrifice all other totems when Banasuva is summoned. So the only real restriction is having a Gamin within range and an upgrade still available. As someone who avidly plays Sandeep and Marcus, I can say how much it sucks to not be able to use a Beacon ability or to not have it go off. A min 4 damage charge is nice but then that leaves Marcus open to counterattack and possible death. I prefer to control the ebb and flow of battle with Alpha, Darzee's Chaunt, the abilities from the upgrades and Law of Meat but not adverse to charging in when needed. Perhaps it's just differing play styles but I think this strategy could hurt a Sandeep player on a critical turn (or turns even).