spooky_squirrel

Not all changes are for prevention of opponent NPE; some are health of the game in another sense. When Austringers could reach out 18" with a focused shot that ignored things, you could still work around it a bit as the opponent, but it seemed like that was an auto take in Guild crews. You would regularly face a pair of Austringers who would split the board and kill scheme runners as they presented themselves and deliver orders if nothing was within reasonable threat. There was no interest or reason to try other models that might fill similar roles, because these two did more at 6 stones each than you could get out of other models. Stagnation is unhealthy for the game.

...and that he has a Lure that can be copied, as well as a (0) for placing and a (0) for interacting. It's not all about the attacking. He and his crew are solid controllers. Commands Sandeep doesn't just have 2-3 beater vectors (including Sandeep himself), it has the potential to put a 50mm base minion with a 3" Ml6 and positives to attack in the middle of the opposing crew. Banasuva can copy that (0) to place to get around the fact he can't move or be pushed, or he can copy Sandeep's lure to pull things into him to keep them from being able to interact or do other things that require not being engaged, like shooting or charging. With a Master that is an Academic and many interesting Academics to hire on top of the Oxfordian Mages, the Sandeep player can count on having their full push potential unless you shut off their triggers, which can be further combined with some of Sandeep's abilities and upgrades to allow them to use even their projectile attack into engaged models without randomizing and with a positive on the attack to bypass cover in the first place anyway. He has a ton of things that he can do, and when I've dropped him on the table for players to see what he can do, my opponent often felt completely overwhelmed before the end of Turn 1, and nothing terrible has happened yet.

For my intended tone "must" is a tongue-in-cheek, snarky thing. Oh no, I have 48 stones to spend to max my cache. It mainly comes about because there are some masters who only have a cache of 1 or 2, which means that if you're wanting to do anything with soul stones and them, you're choking down your recruiting pool a bit (44-46 stones on hires and upgrades to get a cache of 5-7). To play a 50 stone game with a leader that has an n stone cache, you can max out your cache while spending 43 + n stones on hires and upgrades. Obviously, if you don't care about maxing out your cache you can max out your crew. In Toni's case, she still has 5 stones doing that. Looking at the wording in the core rules, it states that for encounter size it's an agreed upon limit; the maximum number of stones that can be spent in a 50 stone game is 50, but there's nothing that says you have to spend all of it. If you're looking for the full game and to get the most you can out of the scenario, however, it's a good idea to spend it if you have it. So must isn't the right word if you're looking for a ruling, and I probably should modify the statement to make the snark a little more obvious and less dry.

If I'm FMing and someone ends up Frozen Hearted and it's interfering with my creepy-crawly campaign, the invisible string to December allows me to introduce a different kind of Horror (with all the roleplay opportunity that comes with it) due to the cannibal cult that will likely end up stalking this newly marked potential recruit (there's a very interesting fluff story about someone recruited out of Malifaux City slums in this kind of manner). There is actually another cost that comes to mind, now that I'm thinking about it: opportunity cost. If as a Fated player you use a general talent slot to take Frozen Heart, you miss out on other options that can potentially be more useful or meaningful to your character in the campaign. If you're the Fatemaster, you can also incur a cost on the player by asking them to come up with a compelling out-of-session story for why they gained Frozen Heart where other talents might just be "I've been (using this skillset/trying to learn it) for a while, so it made sense that I would". Well, cold and hateful is Ruthless in M2E and can manifest in a number of ways, where Frozen Heart actually has a special meaning in M2E beyond just making you immune to horror and paralyse (specifically a magical interaction with Silent Ones and Rasputina). If in your game you're FM'ing it as a mental state as opposed to a supernatural one, then I could see this position.

Ironsides with her Cache of 5 is definitely going to be a solid take into table-quarters strategies now. She has more room to hire (must spend at least 48 stones to use all hiring resources and flesh out cache; oh no!) and with her new upgrades and the Steamfitters she might be near-immortal. There will be very few things that will be able to tear her down in a single activation (assassination triggers come to mind), and her ability to issue challenges and control models on the table will make things incredibly interesting. The upgrade that makes Adrenaline ticking optional is also a big deal. Now she doesn't need the Emissary along to get that going, but can still benefit significantly from it.

I would like to comment that I love that Animating Constructs no longer requires a high Charm, but can also be done off of Cunning. It makes a lot more sense for a shut-in Tinkerer Fated to be building constructs with ingenuity than people skills they might never exercise. Changes like that allow for wider range of Fated, more player control of the Fated, and less concerns over trying to get the mental/physical flips working with a character concept devised before flipping the Tarot. That Neverborn Stolen Tinkerer who was raised by Marionettes isn't going to really know how to talk to people, after all.

That's the big thing: Paralyze and Horror Duels aren't necessarily as frequent and important in TTB as it is in M2E. There are several ways to get the same immunity that don't require much more than just making a Fated with the Assembly Line Tarot anyway: Invested with a head replacement has the same anti-Horror effect for the Fated. All of them have a story impact that's Fatemaster-driven, even if there's no hard-fast mechanical "you suffer [effect]" codified.

As someone who bought into Abyssinia, Okoye is on my list of acquisitions. If it turns out she can bring one of these guys in as an Abyssinian commander (need to better internalize how that works with the dual commanders), that will be quite amusing. All the ranged stompy bots (mech. infantry, KH, Dread)

The invisible string is you belong to the Tyrant December. I'll have to double check when I get home, but I think that being initiated into the Cult of December is a requirement (advanced pursuit).

I haven't tried this for the Myranda shenanigans, but I have used Raptors to get HPM rolling, especially on Amina Naidu.

Exactly this: once Claim Jump was declared it probably revealed that FFM was not picked. The summary doesn't provide enough information to specify this, but it's one of the pivot point triggers I would look for: am I clear to have Mei Feng start pummeling things? If I'm running Mei and looking for the go ahead to get aggressive with her, that would certainly clear the attack run. Without that information, the next thing to do to limit FFM risks is wait until after Turn 3 to go on the attack. If I'm playing as 10T and fielding Ohaguro in a scenario that includes FFM, I would have to find a good excuse to not jam Betty straight into a henchman or master's face and mess with their ability to do things (either bluffing or actually playing FFM). Similarly with Yasunori, I can use the 10T 'Rider' as a guided missile to mess with things and enable my own stuff while my opponent either lets me or risks giving me FFM points.

disregard.. missing context. Cards will be here soon.

For people that haven't played with (or against) Mei Feng very often, going defensive like this might seem unusual. I play Arcanist Mei Feng a lot, and successful games involve her sitting tight Venting Steam until my opponent makes a mistake or it's the crux turn for shifting momentum (either case I refer to as pivot point). It sounds like waiting until Claim Jump was declared was the pivot point for that game. It frustrates my opponent to no end to have limited ability to even use friendly cast actions on their models that are being engaged by Mei Feng when they need them.

That's where I was going with my rambling above. To get work out of Press the Advantage, you'd have to build for it, plan for it, and manipulate your hand for it, and then need your opponent to be set up in a way that lets you exploit it. Rail Lines, on the other hand, seems like something I'll take regardless of what I'm planning to do with Mei (support vs attack) simply because it enables early game pressing towards the center/scrum.

It would definitely help learn the Beacon stuff in isolation.

If the trigger isn't on damaging enemy only and you really need Big Blue, bring along someone else to smack? I need the cards to get here so that I can make sure that I've got all the context and nuance straight.

You weren't winning games before? Oh dear.. you must not have a meta that gets its feelings hurt badly by antimagic/antishooting mojo. I definitely see the crew support aspect; the biggest weakness in Foundry models in general was always their relatively low walk stat. Now Kang and the Rail Workers can move at a good clip while working for her. As can Metal Gamin and the Rail Golem, which might help them get a little more table time. The Porkchop goes up to an astounding Walk if it started next to her, and if you're doing all the Gremlin Foundry shenanigans can get 21" of movement without charging. So that by itself is really nice. I like having workers that can go a bit further and do a bit more. I'm curious how it will go with the new Foundry Enforcer as well, especially with all the absurd potential that exists. A mask trigger to pull people along? I really like that. Again, related to the relatively low mobility of the Foundry and Armored Core approaches to running Mei Feng--but now with a little more amusement. An example of amusement that comes to mind: Emissary with her Conflux was already a great enabler for her own mobility. Now dial it up a notch. Instead of only having triggers to Railwalk again or attack something with a kick, she can tow along something that your opponent probably does not want to deal with having enhanced mobility. Porkchop is 50mm base, so are Large Steam Arachnids. Use something like that as a Railwalk node, Mei places on the other side of it (~8" place) and puts something like Kang, Joss, or even the Emissary on the other side of her, effectively placing them out of activation to a part of the table your opponent wasn't prepared for them to be at. Then they get to activate. Weeeeeee... Seismic Claws, move over a bit, gotta try some stuff out. Now for Press the Advantage.. On a Crow and a Mask.. Mask is built in to the Tiger Claw.. so with a stone or a good Crow, you can Railwalk to a node, trigger for Jackhammer Kick into something, copy the Rolling Ground trigger from upgraded Claws to push the victim 2" and kick them again, go for the Railwalk trigger to place and kick again (or kick something else)... then spend your next two AP venting steam? Go for more kicks and giggles? Her attacks have so many triggers that being able to copy triggers, even only once per activation is actually pretty big. Outside of hyperaggressive use, it also gives you the ability to Railwalk into a position, kick someone, and Railwalk out all on a single AP (and non-trivial flips). If the summary isn't missing some nuance, she could use the Ca7 3" attack from Vapormancy and copy the Vent Steam trigger with the baked in Tome, then use her melee attacks without stressing about needing a Tome to have a little bit of Steam around her and her crew--letting me shoot for some of the other triggers instead. If it relies on the trigger being printed on the ability, it'll lose some flexibility, but not all--you can still set things on fire with your Jackhammer Kick off of the Tiger Claw trigger. Which sets up a Railwalk/kick combination that can put you at positives on damage with the claws when you get on target, without needing the Effigy to work its magic first.

Without upgrades, I would lean away from Sandeep. He has a lot of utility, but your crew would benefit more from his upgrades, and his summoning is only on his upgrades. Ramos has his summoning built in, so he can play into Reconnoiter while the rest of your crew works the schemes and reduces opposing model count. Rasputina's Ice Mirror network is interesting, but I don't know how well it performs without some of her upgrades and a crew that's more focused on it.

Or expanded on it.. Now you can make Executioners cyborgs and loop them in in a limited way.

Colette was already at 11 on interesting.. This will make their abilities much more interesting and reliable. Especially if you're running Oiran in the middle of a show. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that Carlos didn't need a free focused, but I may be somewhat biased.

My only complaint about these kits is that the ones I picked up not 100% customizable. I ran into this when I was attempting to use them to create an as true-to-sheet representation of some Fated characters as I could. If you're good with your tools, you can clip, shave, and file them to fit, then use plastic glue to melt the difference down (or use putty to clean them up), however it would be nice if the heads, leg-pairs, and arm-pairs were more interchangeable out of the box. The downside of modularity like this is we'll run into more tiny, fiddly bits when it comes to what they're holding, even if hands are similarly modular. Hands being cast with weapons/cards/books/gestures would allow for a better point-of-contact than having the those bits separate, however. Other than that, I'm quite happy with them

Ramos is very AP efficient with his base summons, and I don't often find myself needing more AP from him. Having a single turn or two in which he can be fast in order to accomplish something (like complete a scheme) is a big thing for him. Having a crux turn where he can focus&shoot x2 helps him out a great deal, as you just need to be able to be at a straight flip to cheat towards that 7 damage on his ranged attack.

+1Ca is a big deal, as is Fast. Would be interesting if he has any modifications to his summoning as well.. I'll have to wait until my cards arrive..

Which is a good power balancing thing, in my opinion and experience. Ubertanks that get there without support tend to skew encounters.

You can target your own model or the opposing model. Since they are engaged, if the attack has a you'll still end up randomizing (page 48 call out box, page 50 detail). Your model being immune to paralyze does not stop the attack if it hits them, just stops the Frozen Heart model from getting the condition. This is a common tactic within Rasputina and Frozen Heart crews, as if it hits your model you relent and get the effect without any further ado, and if it hits the opposing model they're having to worry about stopping it from going off. Note: for opinions/advice on masters, I strongly recommend going to the Faction-specific areas and picking brains there. This space is intended for rules queries, not opinions on crew selection for scenarios.