spooky_squirrel

The acrylic tokens look like they're made by Broken Egg Games I think, so you might keep an eye out there. They make a wide range of tokens and have 2D terrain pieces that can help make a table in a pinch. That said, rather than confuse myself using the 120mm poison cloud marker I'll probably end up getting ahold of a 120mm base and making it look like something closer to the Mine Field that Prince Unathi can clog up objectives with. That would be along the lines of what I'd recommend doing for some of the other Markers that various factions use.. I think it would be pretty cool to see some bases decorated with bits and/or painted to be in theme with the controlling force for things like Portal Markers and it would help when a Cult v. Cult mirror match is happening.

Definitely, I just know that the GH player was feeling completely flogged by the Gloried Electrocutioners without there being multiple copies of Flare Gun or Experimental Rockets in play. I know it's been playtested, and I know that there are hard counters out there (ECB BlackOps is a good reason to not stack a lot of anything on your shock troop elements like Electrocutioners, and that's Cult stuff that could be envoy'd in for any of the Malifaux forces). But yeah, short of Machinations (6 tactic tokens to buy), you're not going to see a whole lot of excitement due to limitations on number of actions, even with Prince Unathi prompting shenanigans, and even then, it's spending a lot of resources to do something that's cute and can swing momentum, but it's not going to break the game.

Duplicate prototypes changes a lot of things. I'm pretty sure the GH player who felt soul-punched by Electrocutioners is really going to wonder how some stuff made it through playtesting if the other Aby player starts using duplicate prototypes.

I'm a huge fan of Elite Training. A second activation of a lynchpin squad like the Steel Legion lets them get a lot of work done. It's also not a bad idea to have the Behind Enemy Lines Stratagem that lets you summon in a supporting element. Get an unexpected unit of Cavalry helping run objectives for the operation for the cost of some Tactics Tokens later in the game when the Cult is either committed, busy, or whittled down via attrition. With how powerful the ECB is against Aby, especially things like our Dreadnought, it might not be a bad idea to have the Stratagem that lets you put the Dreadnought back into play after it's been killed.

That is what it feels like to play against it. There's attrition and control aspects to it that make it so that if you don't get an early lead as Hordes, take advantage of the cheaper Stratagems to set yourself up for a strong swing turn, then take advantage of the fact that your stuff keeps coming back to put weight of numbers on when the opponent no longer has enough bodies to hold/threaten all the objectives.

Electrocutioners are absolutely nuts, especially in glory. I strongly recommend having at least one of them. It's also not a bad idea to bring stuff that can reinforce them (the Prince is good for this, but you might consider a Dreadnought and/or Thrace).

I'm glad for everyone who is getting their stuff, and yikes to the Yodel business. I can definitely sympathize with "is it coming?" and "oh no, why did the delivery person leave it there?" Cheers for getting your stuff though!

Yes.. but like with other spam lists, you'll eventually find yourself coming up short on things you need to accomplish in the mission. As @retnab mentioned: they're not going to stick around very long. Worse still, if you're playing an operation that scores on fireteam and unit kills, you're bringing a lot of easy points for your opponent. Even if you're not, your opponent might have things that trigger on wiping out units. Help your commanders out and put something in that can take a few hits and still keep on keepin' on. Tailor the rest to the operation you're playing :)

With wide bases and thin, fiddly miniatures and pluck foam: hollow out an area that will hold the figure snugly inverted, with the base sitting on top of the foam. This will work with the models that aren't overly tall. That said, looking at the shape and size of the titans, the bits that hang over the bases, and the dynamic poses, I would recommend something like magnets or slotted slide-in tray set up (one of the people at my LGS has a clear plastic display-type case he uses for Malifaux that holds the edges of the models' bases down) that will hold the base steady.

This is a big thing to keep in mind. If you don't have an email from Wyrd about shipping information, contact support to let them know. If you do have your shipping information, keep tabs on the shipping provider to see what the status and location of it is. Coming into the holiday season every package carrier will be slammed, but that will only impact arrival date. You should have information much sooner than that about when it actually goes to the shipping package carrier.

I recommend reaching out to support. They will get back to you and provide you with any information that they have. I had been getting a bit antsy over the last month and a half due to lack of updates as well. Shoot, you might even luck out the way I did and see the emails confirming your order packing before support even gets the email.

Exactly this. The only thing that I foresee happening if someone spams eels in my local meta is that people will adjust their playstyle for only that game and not worry about it otherwise. List construction won't change: it'll still involve balancing threat-objective play. What will change is stratagem priority and targeting priority. Other GH players are still going to be surging across the table and pulling you out of position. BM players are still going to teleport around the battlefield causing problems from multiple angles. KE players are still going to have things shooting at you, things appearing behind your lines, and pieces like Belle doing their job. Aby players are still going to have things shooting at you, appearing behind your lines, and pieces like Marauders and Lord of Steel doing their job. You might see an uptick in people looking for ways to deal with tokens, but that's something they'll be doing to counter other crews as well. It's not a change to their play that will only work against eel crews. It'll help them a lot against BM's glory mechanic as well as being invaluable against everyone else's reinforcement/inspired shenanigans. Read: they play a normal list, just more aggressively in response to the eel-spam gimmick being entirely passive during turn one.

This exact thought is why I made sure to order these guys in the first place. Working as a software engineer I started getting a real sense of "will future me be upset with past me over this?" A second Marauder and a second each on Steel Legion and Mechanized Infantry are on my short list. Steel Legion does a ton of work when you need something to rush forward and dish out some pain, and the range of the Mechanized Infantry's titan is helpful for keeping people honest, but you lose out on shooting stuff if you get tarpitted by something that just isn't dying.

I played against Cult of the Burning Man last night. They can and will have models in your deployment zone at the top of Turn 1. During scouting when they place portals, they just need to have one near your deployment zone. During the first turn, they then walk a titan into one of their own portals (including the stalking portals), and that titan is in the middle of your area. Or that unit of Warped, or whatever else they were going to drop in there. Maybe and instead of or. As was mentioned above: GH can be fast. They also have tricks for getting your stuff out of position and their own stuff into position. These combine nicely to increase threat ranges dramatically. Earth forces can bring in reinforcements from your side of the table. Both Aby and KE have shooters that can threaten from deployment zone to deployment zone, and some of those shooters ignore cover or have other benefits going for them. Both Aby and KE have fast movers that are very good at removing single models or single fire teams that can threat across the board. If your gimmick relies on you being left alone for the first turn, it's a fragile gimmick. Against less aggressive players it will look like a powerful engine. Against someone leveraging threat ranges, special rules, Stratagems, etc. that is playing aggressively, you'll find that it's not working out so well.

@Nef is that TGM? Looks familiar. Here's my Aby contingent on their bases: Top Left is Prince Unathi in the center of the triangle, Mehal Sefari making the two upper corners and the Crow Runners filling in the bottom point. Center top is the Lord of Steel. Top Right is Kassa in the center, Mechanized Infantry on the top left point, Steel Legion on the top right point, Dreadnought on the bottom point. Just below the Lord of Steel are the Electrocutioners, with a trio of Engineers just to the left of them. Bottom Left is a trio of Rain Gunners, Bottom Center are the Cavalry, and Bottom Right is the Marauder.

I noticed the leaning problem was very severe with the Mechanized Infantry titan. I've repositioned it so that the legs are doing more to push the body upwards, but I'll likely be reinforcing it in some way before I start painting it.

Card draw from engineers is super useful. The extra ranged attack can come in handy, but not if you're planning on getting into the thick of things. But yeah: remember the objectives. So far I've noticed that it's rather difficult to completely blow a unit away that isn't a chaff unit anyway. This means it's super important to remember to have additional moving parts for going after objectives. For 2 scrip you can bring in a Rail Gunner, 3 gets you a Marauder. This helps when your Electrocutioners, Steel Legion, and Mehal Sefari are being tarpitted. Even if the only thing that the Rail Gunner does during their activation is flip to glory, that's an activation you can use to hold out for decisive actions without having to pitch a card to The Long Game. Every little bit to gain advantage helps. Late activation of an objective runner like the Marauder means that there's less your opponent can do to interfere with them. They cannot flip an objective back if they have nothing close enough to move in and spend the tactics token. Similarly, with their raw speed and ability to shoot as part of a Rush order, they can threaten a long distance, putting some pressure on elements that are normally safely tucked away in the backfield.

Accurate strikes help with getting that Adjunct out of the squad, a lot. So I definitely recommend the Shock Batons. Look at any actions you can do that aren't opposed. Barring that, look for ways to stop your opponent from cheating or modifying the results. Keep card pressure on them as much as you can.

Having used Steel Legion with Kassa support (and the Strategem that let me activate them a second time) I think they're a core piece of a mechanized crew. They did a lot of work in short order, quickly ending up in Glory, getting me considerable card draw (the Cutter was shredding things right and left, especially with its Glory attacks). Kassa's main contribution to their workload was getting a third round of attacking out of the Cutter. I definitely need a lot more practice with them, as well as with the Mechanized Infantry. My opponent has a lot more practice, so was quick to tarpit both the Marauder and the Mechanized Infantry, limiting my use of them. With Kassa I was definitely feeling the sting of not having a morale action (I didn't give her an asset that had one), so with list construction I would definitely recommend getting her an asset that will let her do things. So with that in mind, a possible core: Kassa (with assets) gives you 23 scrip to spend (25, but keep 2 for her assets) Steel Legion costs 12. I gave them an Engineer for added utility, bumping the cost total to 13. I kept forgetting about his end of activation stuff (practice will iron that out). Which leaves a lovely 10 scrip to spend on something else. Like a kitted Dreadnought. This list would definitely play to the Aby's elite elements appearance, but it is missing some stuff. Stuff I'd suggest filling in with the second commander's points. I don't yet have enough games under my belt to feel confident in asserting "these guys for this operation" claims, but I do know that if there are objectives on the table beyond killing things, you will want elements that can run objectives. With objectives that might also involve killing things, you will want things that can dish out some damage and be frustratingly hard to kill. Lord of Steel with Soulstone Necklace and Toughness can do both of those things. Bring along a Marauder that has that free Toughness attached. ...that leaves 20 scrip for more shenanigans, and it plays into the mechanized theme. The toughness is to keep them in the game to claim objectives. Black Panther with a Jetpack can use his jetpack for hit-and-run tactics, breaking out of combat to go claim an objective without worrying about spending tactics tokens to get away. I also mitigated the lack of melee attacks on the Marauder by giving them the prototype shock batons so that they could try to fight free instead of costing a tactics token to escape without risk--but their being tarpitted means that they're not running objectives. Electrocutioners seem really good. Hard hitting, hard to kill. I was a little shy with their use, but they seem like something that I can send out to take and hold an objective. They play into the super-tech theme more than mechanized, but that's the breaks. Sefari units also seem really good, not mechanized but Kassa could use the bodyguards and they also are good for pushing onto an objective. For 8 scrip, the Mechanized Infantry have some interesting stuff that they can do. The bonus AV when shooting at the same target is good when you're trying to bring something down (but be prepared for it to still be there, stuff seems really hard to remove when the opposing player is making good use of support elements, assets, and stratagems). The other direction to look with the second commander is Prince Unathi's supporting role. Just handing out Reinforcement tokens, he'll keep your combined arms units and Dreadnought alive a lot longer. Especially if you're making use of things like the Medic stratagem and repair shenanigans from Kassa. You'll still want to have some objective running abilities; if you're not planning on using a stratagem to get them on the table, you might bring some Crow Runners. With Unathi is seems like Sefari (double duty for them here between Unathi and Kassa) should be taken, but that might be inexperience talking.

...already planning on painting them this way.. only thing missing is the hat

...sold.

c-c-c-combo breaker.. ...how many people will see the wave reference...

I sea the tide of puns has ebbed. I know:day late from the point of view of people who had their workweek end yesterday.

...makes me wonder if I crossed my eyes or something. Editing post.

Fire Gamin are interesting. I've enjoyed using them as effective grenades (jam them into the middle of your opponent, force them to deal with them), and as constructs you can use them as Railwalker targets. If they can give out burning, then a late-activating Mei Feng gets to go to town with her claws (usually a good thing). They just have to hit something, which ends up being their weakness if you're trying to do it at range. I learned this trying to use them as turrets with Command Sandeep--ranged threat created a bubble of terrain denial for things with low defense, but not enough of one to deter main efforts (anything with Def 6+ can overbid on defense and just ignore your shooting or otherwise stick to cover and know that they've got a reasonable chance of being missed (Sh 5 with a negative). So my two scrip is that they make for interesting pieces, especially when you're getting them deep into the opponent's area of operations. You might hire them, but you might not get the same amount of work out of them as you would some of the other 4 stone options.