spooky_squirrel

The local henchman in my area and I are both Arcanist/TT players, and we end up having a similar view on the role of the Emissaries in those factions. While the Shadow Emissary can double focus and do nasty things, when it's roaming around doing support work, it bolsters the rest of its crew in various ways. What I notice when he runs Shen Long, he's going for the schemes, conditions, and the control aspects, not raw killing power; all three (Shen Long, Sensei Yu, and the Emissary) are supporting the crew in accomplishing schemes and countering the opponent.

Brewmaster was my first crew, and what he's missing (from my point of view) is the ability to force people into his drinking games and ways to bolster his own workers while doing it. Ten Thunders gives many options in that direction for him that I never got a feel for from the Gremlins side. One of the downsides of trying to run him as a TT master is one of his upgrades is mandatory to use the rest of his box, since his Tri Chi infiltration is not built in.

The things I would take in Arcanists to counter corpse markers (Mei Feng with kick upgrade, Arcane Emissary) are models I'm already bringing for other reasons, so there's no real focus on anti-Reva in that crew hiring session. If my opponent is playing Ressers and I've declared Arcanists, there's a bit of bluff-counterbluff on what's going to be on the table for both of us (that depends heavily on what the local Meta has been churning out), but my top master grabs in general are Mei Feng and Ironsides. In either case there's going to be some 40mm+ bases on the table, and in either case the Emissary helps dial up what the masters are selected for. If my resser opponent does not drop Reva, I'm not hurting because the options I have for countering corpse markers do it as a side effect of doing their real job: the Arcane Emissary does it as an optional side effect of charging, and if its charging in it's doing the job I hired it for. I'm not sure why the Mechanical Rider is listed as a counter, as she doesn't actually do anything to corpse markers (except maybe camp on them, but if she's camping she's not doing what I hired her for). Summoning gamin/spiders to keep Reva engage is an interesting idea, but takes some set up and puts the Rider somewhere where her life expectancy drops. Other factions (and even other Arcanist players) will have a different take on this, because if they feel that the only way to deal with one specific master is to bring a specific master, crew build, or model that they don't normally use it will drastically affect their game play. It's different than not bringing a specific master/build because of a single master (i.e. Guild player not playing Perdita into clustering strat/scheme pools because they're concerned about Mei Feng) because other options exist that can play well into crew builds from that master's faction portfolio. You're going from skipping a single master in order to drop one of several others to skipping all others in favor of one master; just in case your opponent drops a specific master/crew. It looks to me like many in the overpowered camp feel like this. Whether or not it is true will shake out over time. Related to time: there's still the whole "shiny new" thing going on. She hasn't been out very long and people are still feeling their way around with her. There's a chance that people using her are accidentally doing something wrong, and that's making her more effective than intended (I did this with Ironsides when I was first learning to use her). There's a chance that there's some interactions that are coming up that weren't tested as thoroughly as others. There's also the strong chance that people are facing her who haven't (as was recommended on page 6 of this thread) had the opportunity to try and play as Reva to learn where the fragile points are. I put emphasis on this because when you understand the strengths and weaknesses well enough, your range of options to counter her opens wide. If you can't or don't want to play as Reva, after you play against Reva do an after action review of the match. Some of the usual boilerplate questions are along the lines of "what can I do better?"; ask it in a different way: "what were you most concerned about with the crew I fielded?" If your opponent shares with you how they felt the game went and where they felt the most threatened, you learn the strengths and weaknesses as your opponent perceives them. However you learn it, @Kadeton mentioned several things right away: she needs line of sight, to not be engaged, to not have Ca being neutered by counterspell (and other counters that work well against a wide range of masters and crews), and to have reliable sources of corpse tokens near where she wants to work. The focus on this page of the thread appears to be on tackling the reliable sources of corpse tokens via token removal. That's not the only lynch pin that can be pulled to undermine her power and influence, and there are many ways to monkey with the other three mentioned. This being the Resser's subforum, as people play with Reva there might be posts to the community about crux moments in various strats/schemes and how to work around certain obstacles that are unique to Reva within those strats and schemes. Until those show up, talk to your local Reva players and local meta in general. You'll probably find that the more competitive players in your meta that aren't playing Reva have already cooked up some counters of their own. If they won't share with you during a casual conversation because you play Reva... play Reva into them and see how they counter her. If you don't play Reva, watch a game where they are playing into Reva (regional tournaments that draw in players from outside your meta are a great way to learn about variations of crews).

Which means that if you're bringing her to defend against controllers/pushers, it's not going to stop them from pulling your stuff around. My earlier remark regarding line of sight still applies, and if you know your opponent is bringing Nekima, she might run interference into Anna Lovelace, blocking line of sight for follow-up pushes if your opponent needs them to get into position.

I only comment because I love playing control games, and the details are super important when playing as or against a controller. For instance, Anna's "no weird movement shenanigans for you" is an 8 effect. So line of sight, proximity of models, and placement all come into play. If your opponent is fielding someone like Nekima, she can mess that all up by creating blindspots that the aura doesn't cover (her height and base size are serious factors). It's also not always the goal to move them if the secondary effects don't rely on their moving, just that the duel succeeded.

Which either leaves your models bunched up around Anna Lovelace and vulnerable to pulse-like effects (such as being damaged for being next to scheme markers), or spacing out with your ranged attack goodies, leaving them potentially vulnerable to the pushing. It's worth noting that models would be pushed up to their charge towards the waiting knights for one of them, pushed to base contact (8" range) for another, and pushed up to 8" towards the model--so the 8" isn't hard and fast (except as a max, due to the range on the spell), but they can still pull your support pieces away from Anna Lovelace and mess them up.

With #2 above (attack as normal), you also cheat for both following the usual cheat rules: loser (defender in a tie) has first option to cheat, then the other participant cheats. Both would be from your own hand (or deck if using Bayou Two Card). This is how you can fire your own defensive triggers when your opponent doesn't want to (card draw, condition distribution, etc.). You can also use this to get yourself lined up for blasts on damage tracks that give them out on moderate/severe damage.

Randomizing is not targeting. Targeting is when the initial target for the action is selected. Randomizing determines who is actually hit. " When a model wants to perform a Projectile (z) Attack Action targeting a model which is engaged [...]"

In those other threads mentioned, you'll see other uses of Are you lookin' at me?, such as pulling the Emissary 10" up the board. Her box includes Mouse. Mouse's pull inflicts damage, so Mouse and Gunsmiths and Hand Picked Men all get along in ways that are truly absurd. Just accept the fact that if you don't have the Black Joker in hand, you'll probably see it when your Gunsmith cycles between 12 and 18* cards during its activation. I've found that if Toni dies pulling people off of objectives and spending their activations dealing with her, the rest of my crew gets to do its job. I've never actually gotten my adrenaline up higher than a 3-4, simply because it's either being burned, or the things she's pulling in are being pulled in to die to a nearby beater like the Rail Golem or Joss (or a sped up, slightly dinged Gunsmith). * to see 18 cards, you need: a burning target or three not in cover, a Gunsmith that flipped or cheated a against Mouse's rope and failed, and to use The Hard Way to get Easy Target versus said burning targets. Don't miss (you're at a triple to hit, so you'll see at a minimum vs. targets in the open 12 cards) and you're getting a single into the damage. Worst case involves tying for the net of a single (18 cards), most common case (unless you're picking on some low Df models or an opponent who cannot or does not want to cheat) involves beating by 1-5 for a straight flip (15 cards), with everything else being just bad news for your opponent (single (18 cards) and double (21 cards) positives).

Speaking of machine guns: Sidir and McCabe could be amusing. Perdita and The Family aren't exactly pushovers in close combat, but if the Guild player skews towards ranged, anything that's forcing negatives on them (cover, vent steam) will be a hard counter. Anything that denies LOS will be a hard counter. Anything that denies shooting or messes with their position would also be useful. Asami with oni summoning might be able to ram some spider demons into the shooters. 10T Brothers hanging out in cover are so stupendously hard to deal with that your opponent might just choose to ignore them altogether. Jacob Lynch's Depleted and Illuminated can be hard to remove as well. Misaki darting forward and doing piece removal has already been mentioned. Of course, if you counter Perdita hard enough with Mei Feng, the mere fact you could drop her on the table might cause your local Guild player to consider other masters. Camping out for the strat/schemes with Defensive +2 10T Brothers in a Vent Steam +2/3 cloud turns off shooting. Master-independent, you might use clockwork traps (pathfinder and/or Sensei Yu to place/push them around) to engage shooters and force them to give up activations dealing with 2SS of scrap biting their ankles.

There's also some crew synergies (i.e. the Emissary's card draw) that feed off of it if you're not using it to turn on other abilities.

I like that idea. I was primarily using them to eat up activations in order to force my opponent to commit to things before moving Hank and Joss. One of the spectators saw my starting line up of 5 models (plus EC) and wondered what was going on when a turn later I had 10 activations (started with 12T and RJ in hand). The number of ways you can kill them yourself if they're not tying up a master or minion is absurd... and useful into condition schemes like Exhaust.

I typically play denial/control, so eating my opponent's hand appeals to me, especially over something that's not as important to deal with as everything else that's happening on the table. The direct competition between McCabe and other elements in his crew for Tomes/triggers is one of the things I'm thinking about when considering hiring options. I've run into that problem with other masters.

Between the Pathfinder's placement and other pushes, I can definitely see them helping in Interference. Turf/Stash markers was something I already had in mind, but I'm not sure where I'd want them (outside, on opponent's half to encourage them to play more towards the middle where I can do things to them more easily? inside, on opponents half so that I can have my marker baby-sitters a little better sheltered on the inside/my half?). With your games that a well-placed trap jammed up your opponent, what was it that helped? Did terrain force them to deal with your traps or was it pressure from your own forces? Did your opponents just make bad decisions, or did you leave them little choice? I've got some ressers in my area, but the top picks are Neverborn and Arcanists (we had 3 of each at our last tournament, including me as one of the Arcanists). I typically play denial/control, which is where my interest in the Clockwork Traps comes in: area denial and potentially influencing how my opponent activates and spends activations. McCabe comes up for me because the pullmyfinger wiki mentions him specifically and he's one of the Masters I now have. Barring adding an element of area control to a mobility list, I wasn't sure why. If the jobs that they'd be hired for is some minor area control and minor shenanigans into certain strat/scheme pools, 2SS each doesn't seem too bad for the traps in a list with room for them. Dropping 10+SS (pathfinder and traps to start with) is a more serious investment, and thus to me should have a more clearly defined job on the table; while the TT ideas I have fulfill that requirement, I don't have the Guild perspective on them.

With their attacks being Ca actions, anything incorporeal is going to be a juicy target. I'm putting some together to serve as a singularity network, but I like the idea of feeding their collar and sending them into the middle of a brawl. The idea of putting AP into them is definitely appeal when I've got terrain issues that limit what my master/henchmen can do with their own activations (severe choke points and walls of ice/fire/woods/etc. sealing them off).

I don't see anything specifically defining out of bounds, but as Solkan says above: pushes have specific interactions with impassable objects. Throughout the rules, there's heavy implication that (outside of bury), models must remain on the table (playing area). For instance, under Movement: "Models may change positions on the table in several ways" (page 44, emphasis mine) and the table itself has its sized defined clearly under Terrain Placement: "The standard table size for a Malifaux encounter is 3’ X 3’ " (page 74) So while nothing states outright how the edge of the board is treated, it's probably safe to assume that you cannot have a model "leave the table" by walking/pushing/placing off of the table and the inference is that on the table is completely within the bounds of the table. When there's nothing clear in the rulebook, check with your local henchman (if available) for a ruling for any kind of scored playing. For casual games with no henchmen available and things that aren't clearly enough stated, you and your opponent can work out why the table edge would not be impassable terrain, as suggested by Solkan.

I'm curious how it will do. My last run of Kaeris involved: Kaeris Eternal Flame Emissary Joss Gunsmith Large Arachnid Large Arachnid I had selected the Emissary as the Framed For Murder target. Strategy was Extraction. Opponent was Ten Thunders Misaki. My second scheme was Show of Force (all Joss) My first turn featured Kaeris flaring, moving up to set a sniper on fire, then moving back into the middle of the burning bunch. Emissary and Large Arachnids beelined to the center. Joss stayed right behind the Emissary to be the follow up to whatever went into the Emissary. Gunsmith moved into position to shoot down the burning sniper in the next turn. Second turn featured Misaki killing the Emissary (I cheated low on defense to give her as much room as possible to succeed) and following through into Joss, Large Arachnids eating their own G&D scheme markers and walking up to Misaki to start chewing. Joss killed Misaki. Kaeris targeted the gunsmith who flipped rams for fast and gained burning. Gunsmith shot and killed the first sniper with two shots, used fast AP to walk towards second sniper. Eternal Flame and Joss's Bleeding Edge Tech kept the Large Arachnids from dying. Show of Force started clocking in. Third turn saw no TT near the Extraction objective. Large Arachnids started moving to eat Convict Labor scheme markers being dropped by the TT scheme runners. The second sniper was my opponent's FFM pick, which only netted him 2VP (shot to pieces by the gunsmith). Continued Show of Force advantage while Gunsmith and Joss babysat the strategy and escorted it back towards Kaeris and the Eternal Flame. In the after action review, we talked about FFM targets and why I made sure it was my gunsmith that shot down the forward deployed snipers and what exactly a "distraction carnifex" is (too dangerous to ignore, too tough to swat away). He didn't know about the plethora of 1SS upgrades that TT can put on enforcers and henchmen to guard against (or even win outright) Show of Force. I told him that I had been counting on Joss and the Large Arachnids killing anything with upgrades that came near, and noted that after Misaki died he had been slow to put anything into the middle. I hadn't thought of it at the time, but it occurred to me later that Convict Labor doesn't pair well with Extraction. The scheme requires some spreading out, and the strategy calls for being near the objective.

What about clockwork traps as forward targets (somewhere where they mess with the overall strat, ideally), with a hound as a backup plan in case your opponent doesn't bite?

So I saw this thread and had an initial reaction of: "this could be interesting, exchange of ideas, see what other perspectives there are on these guys". I'm primarily Arcanist with Ten Thunders, but I recently picked up Nightmare McCabe and was looking for ways to use his Guardsmen infiltration. I already see use for these guys with Brewmaster and Mei Feng, and I've got some TT-specific ideas that definitely don't apply to McCabe/Guild. That's what I came here, to get ideas specific to McCabe and Guild. Things like using Austringers to Deliver Orders to push traps into interesting locations and drop schemes. Or shunting the traps around to force a scheme runner to deal with them or get shot by a focused Clockwork Rifle. What are the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches? What models outside of Austringers have synergies? Are there times to not use From the Shadows? Are there things I can learn in this thread that go beyond what I can read here: https://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Clockwork+Trap or here: https://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Guild+Pathfinder? Can anyone confirm/deny their usefulness with McCabe? After reading the thread, however, I'm disappointed. Tactics and theory should deal with what the cards say and how they interact with things that exist. What strats/schemes they play into well, and which ones do they just give up victory points in. Wishlisting doesn't really belong in a tactics discussion. Where are things like "watch out for magnetism/ooh glowy/armor piercing/aura effects when playing against [faction]"? Maybe some "against [faction] I prefer to use them to shoot [target] or put traps around [target]." There was a little at the start, complete with the idea of using focus to boost your summoning chances (interesting idea that doesn't appear in the wiki).

One of the best resolutions to this problem that isn't just condition markers and dice I've seen is lettering/numbering built into the paint scheme. Roman numerals, arabic numerals, letters, or any small symbol you can readily paint and reproduce. This is handy if you're doing things like twisting/flipping the cards to keep track of what has already activated. I also like it for when I need to record additional information on the model itself (or don't want to clutter the board with my markers, I put them on the model's card). Otherwise, a handful of relatively small dice can keep track of wounds (also good for summoning Gamin via Mechanical Rider). Just be consistent in counting up/down on the die. For condition markers you can look at fancy tokens in various gaming supply stores (brick&mortar and online), or you can stop by a pet store and get a bag of multicolored pebbles/stones and let your opponent know what each color is (for me: light blue are soulstones, red is burning, green is poison, etc.). If you have counters/tokens from other games, they can also work, so long as your opponent knows what the marker is for. For the spider factory, all that ends up mattering is wounds and which ones are slow/not allowed to interact due to being freshly summoned.

Colette's box crew runs marker schemes and shenanigans really really well; nearly automatic full points on schemes like Set Up and Detonate the Charges, discarding opponent's scheme markers, and scheme marker-based debuffs come to mind immediately. That's a lot to juggle, without even getting into the prompt/understudy/prompt tier of "who is doing what now?!" As others have said, practice with specific abilities and models until you don't have to remind yourself of what they do and how they do it. Once you understand the individual gears, then you can start figuring out their sequencing. A well-sequenced Colette crew is very hard to deal with. Some things to keep in mind as you're adding in Cassandra and Colette herself is that a Performer dying near them gives them a whole second activation. That's another round of Cassy nimble walking into the middle of a mess and slashing things. Another round of Colette triple-prompting her crew. If they haven't activated yet and the acting model isn't ruthless, they can be costly to focus on. If you're wanting a bit more out of the base box, look at things that will use those scheme markers or otherwise enhance your favorite pieces of the pie. People who love prompt build Colette crews that feature a lot of high value enforcers getting prompted to the point of absurdity. As was already mentioned: watch out for Final Act on the prompting. If you're piece-trading, make sure it's a worthwhile trade. Without her crew, Colette's Prompt does nothing for her. I'm a fan of the mobility and scheme tricks, and have had games that came down to the final activation in turn 5 to figure out the game-winning point. So that leans me toward things that will enhance that approach. To work around the fragility of the core Colette box, I would swap out one Performer/Mannequin pairing for something that works close to what you think you want to do. That's 9SS towards hiring Envy, a dancing bear, a Coryphee, Large Arachnid, Angelica, (more) initial doves, a Scorpius etc. to do some work, enhance your crew, work off of scheme markers, apply poison, etc.

The answer to that depends entirely on what you consider "fun". I happen to play these two as my first-choice masters because they both fit my definition of fun. When deciding how to categorize them: Ironsides: control/support master; will probably die; typically brings an elite crew (higher SS cost models) of M&SU models. The longer she lives, the more your scheme runner(s) can score. She buffs friendly M&SU models around her (but not herself) so long as they can draw LOS to her. If you run her in a less distracting support mode instead of a frontline total control, she tends to live longer and can be used to pull your slower models further up the field to set them up for doing more work than would normally be expected of them. Her box is heavy on control elements (Toni herself, The Captain, Mouse, and the Mages can push/pull with various abilities/triggers). In competitive environments I like playing denial/control, so for me Ironsides presents the fun of frustrating the schemes of my opponent. When I put her on the table, the end score of the game is usually very low whether I win or lose. The only time there's ever been a high differential between my opponent and I was when my opponent would make a serious mistake (early activation of Lady J leaving her within Toni's You lookin' at me threat range kind of mistake) that would give me an immediate edge on momentum. As I get more practice with her I'm figuring out more pieces of the control game, which makes playing and learning her fun for me. Mei Feng: ...I don't even know how I would categorize her. I've used her to kill support models and provide a form of denial/distraction while her Foundry armored division slogs up for the strat and scheme runners split off for the schemes. I've also used her as a counter-charge element that Railwalks to her frontline to kick (literally) opposing models off, where she can provide a hard counter for shooting-/casting-heavy crews with Vent Steam. If you're expecting her to kill a lot of things (because she looks like she can when you're reading through the triggers and abilities), you might be a bit disappointed. She goes through chaff models without a problem, but bricks will hold her up and beaters will break her. She can also run schemes for you if you need her to and your opponent isn't putting any effort into killing her (she's good, but not that good). Mei's absurd mobility and non-linear threat is always fun for me. I tend to be hyper-aggressive with her, even as her crew face-tanks for schemes and strats. The only time I've run into real trouble (that didn't result from my own mistakes) is when armor ignoring is in play. I've successfully used Mei-led crews for denial as well (kill scheme runners, use the Jackhammer Kick's upgrade trigger to blow away scheme markers). I'm looking forward to more monkeying around more with using Sparks and the Mechanical Porkchop, because a proper table will be terrain-dense and with LOS shenanigans that make having the ability to teleport around corners prior to (or immediately after) charging in to gut a scheme runner or key support piece simply amazing.

With the small box constraint, Effigy, Porkchop, Sparks, and Large Arachnid come to mind. Arcane Effigy and Mechanized Porkchop/Sparks have had some sales pitches already. Effigy (as mentioned) lets you work with Collodi without further ado. Porkchop and Sparks (as mentioned) lets you work with Wong without further ado. They're all utility pieces that let you get more work out of Mei Feng's basic crew box. What the Large Arachnid brings is Creative Salvage and anti-scheme mechanics (eat their scheme markers, get focus for all attacks). This lets you drop scrap markers when you kill things, use the LSA as a railwalk node, and also eat scheme markers (theirs or yours). The only other non-interact source of scheme marker removal in the Rail Crew is an upgrade on Mei Feng's kick, so if you're wanting to make your opponent work harder you might consider this. Of course, there is one other thing I can think of off the top of my head for Sparks that hasn't been brought up with a Rail Crew box on the table: Sparks makes target enemy a construct as a (0). Metal Gamin does 2 damage that ignores armor to constructs as a (0) (a Ca 8 effect with an absurd range). Three of them can do 6 damage over the course of a turn. If Sparks is still near them, other models in their crew cannot target the newly-borged model (no heals, no placement, no pushes, nothing). Should they die at some point, they drop a scrap marker, allowing you to do it again in the next turn.

Sparks is also interesting (and a Gremlin Foundry model), since he can turn things into constructs (including opposing models if you're wanting an edge via Kang), make constructs fast, and projects a rather disruptive aura. The Foundry upgrade Hard Worker lets you ignore the free armor you just gave the target (if you aren't already ignoring armor) for the cost of a discarded card. The already mentioned Porkchop works well with Sparks and can drop a scrap marker as it moves, providing scrap to burn for Sparks or a target for Mei to Railwalk to (or both, if Sparks activates after Mei). Along the lines of free scrap markers to boost Mei's absurd mobility and volume of attacks, the Arcane Emissary with Mei's Conflux can (0) to drop a one-time-use scrap marker for Mei to walk to on a 1+ flip, and if she's within aura 6 of the Emissary making her attacks, she can discard cards to repeat attacks (complete with triggers). ...While carrying an upgrade that lets her heal 1 and draw a card for killing something.

First thing I added to Mei's crew was the Rail Golem. I then started working out ways to get him more burning earlier, so that he could roll something up while her minions pinned them down. Willie/Miss Fire is also Foundry, so whichever faction you declare for Mei, she can still bring him along when he fits the schemes.