Kharnage

I'm not sweating it. May my love for Nekima keep her alive and relevant! It does indeed make me easy prey though. I dunno, there's just something about that introspective look in her eye as she swings that glaive around in her new sculpt/art that gets me. But tomahawk and Thunderbird are undeniably rad as hell. Just gotta figure out how to make the rest of the crew on theme.

I get it's ribbing, but why is everybody mad I dabbled in Thunders? If being a faction traitor was the issue, I'd get it, but Anya is cool but Misaki's not? Honestly I had been playing with the idea of making Anya viking themed. She uses axes anyway and you just paint up Sovereign like a big raven...

In my personal experience, Lord Cooper is fun, Jedza's... a heal themed ball crew, for all the ups and downs that entails, but there's play there. Ivan is Schtook tier strong, but can be felled. EVS hasn't performed well, but I've only seen two games. Anya has surprised me with her strength and mobility, and McCabe and Basse were both decently strong masters in their original factions, and retain most of that strength in Explorer's, though I'd say Basse likes his coat and McCabe likes his samurai and demon spiders more than being in Explorer's.

But I mean, if we want that, we'd play Titania or Zoraida, tbh. His cats just scream "please player-kun, give me that sweet soulstone cache" and none of our upgrades compete in the same kind of "this model's awesome now" way, and I just feel deficient the whole time I play NVB Marcus because SSC cats are just, de wae. Reflexes on Initiates can produce a lot of ping damage, and upgraded Rougarou are cool (ask me about my bayou gator pipe dreams with Zoraida/Marcus) but Arcanist upgrades are just strictly better for him. Every time I examine our lineup of masters I think of Marcus and go "Oh yeah!... Oh, yeah..."

True facts, playing him in Neverborn is snowflakey cuz he's so much better in Arcanists.

This is actually part of my struggle for contributing any further. Obviously I'm your round 1 opponent so I don't wanna be like "here's how you kick me in the mouth", but that aside, as much as I would love to toss nutritious corpses to my nascent Neverborn player(s) so you can grow up nice and strong, there is quite a detriment to discussing strategies we use publicly during the actual tournament we're trying to use those strategies in; our foes are quite likely on the boards too, passively scouting around for what we think is effective, and possibly playing around that more efficiently than otherwise expected. "Man I love Zoraida for round 1" and then your opponent declares Ivan or some other keyword with a lot of concealment, she's arbitrarily worse for wear for her foe having that knowledge preemptively.

Oh trust me, I feel filthy. I originally was going to just run Fuhatsu led crews all month, but I played a practice round 1 game into @Axelst and got absolutely shredded. So instead, I'm playing real masters, since while I'm doing TT for fun, getting dumpstered hurts my soul. Also, Misaki's just, fun. May the God Empress forgive my transgressions.

Yeah, I have a couple thoughts on this. The contradiction of "what rush do" and "also it worked out great when Meredith died early" aside, I don't know why this would happen consistently. Not sure what deployment this was but Meredith being in range of getting blown to pieces by an 8 inch gunner seems a mistake on Cadmus's part to me. This would mean that Meredith got within what, 13 inches of the enemy deployment turn 1? With the knowledge that there's a Mad Dog on the table, unactivated? Additionally, having a fast min 3 run-and-gunner with blasts is the preemo Outcast privilege pick into a Nexus who failed to take Emissary, and being able to dump that much damage down range, especially on the boards you just mentioned, seems like a huge chore for most factions, assuming you even have someone that can (All my Neverborn themed dudes with guns minus Hayreddin blow chunks as far as I am concerned, though some swear by Angel Eyes) The point of rushing a Cadmus is to present a threat to Meredith and the Eyes and Ears early, to trip up Husk production. You can't stop Nexus getting out three web markers on her activation to summon, but you can theoretically kill the Eyes and Ears or Kill/Move/Drag Meredith out of range. If you don't turn 1, a Cryptologist equipped Nexus will have two husks out. And frankly, gearing up the next Husk to run into your crew and throw mask triggered Swarms of Mites and no-suit-needed Down to the Last Drops is most of what Nexus presents to get your dudes tokened. Nests are great, but an end-of-turn-2 token explosion is what I find ends most hope of beating them. I also in general just, distrust chess matching against oneself as a method of demonstration. I certainly wouldn't provide it as a telling counterpoint to games played by top ranked players on a world stage. I get that you're working with what you have available to you, but obviously if you're looking for a problem with a playstyle that you don't see to start, neither player in that match seems likely to play in a way that presents that problem. I too have been part of the group distrustful of the next wave of "Broken" cries. It's important to have skeptics for everything, and I usually enjoy that role. I also have played a lot into crews and models that subsequently received or are going to receive nerfs. And for what the bar is for broken, Nexus is just beyond that point.

So I also wanted to address the idea that real life games can surpass the games put out by Vassal play in terms of assessing a crew. I'm not actually sure this is the case. In the Before Time™, I would get one, possibly two games in on a Wednesday night into my slew of usual players, then head home and wait for at best monthly tournaments with 3 rounds. That's... 7-11 games a month? I knew some guys who got in a game once a month. I get 5-6 games in an average week with Vassal (well, before a newborn). No proxying required, absolute measurements, no boards to set up and tear down, and the vassal community has, whether it wants to or not, a truly holistic view of how most people play Malifaux just because players all over the world play each other. While I am a diehard Texas meta rep, the Vassal Meta I would argue has the firmest handle of most things because it's so constant and cosmopolitan. Sure, some strong players from my neck of the woods don't like and don't play vassal, but I know how they play and what they like, and can bring that and talk about it when I match against my worldwide opponents.

I'm certainly all for believing that the sword that conquers the world is your own, but I think fast styles were chosen because letting Nexus get its own ball rolling is problematic. The longer the game goes, the worse Nexus becomes, both by number of bodies on the table (having all Eyes and Ears and Husks out and at full Health) and by board positioning to score. I think that's why the known-to-be-competent players chose aggressive, fast playstyles into Nexus. For the same reason that rushing Dreamer early is effective, rushing Nexus *should* be a good way to fight them. As for their success in "funky" rulesets, double masters I don't hold to be inherently stronger, and there's no two masters that I know of that come together and say "finally, the answer to Nexus". As for versatile limits negatively impacting Nexus's opponents, Nexus wishes it could hire at least 50% out of keyword, between Ngaataro, Emissary, and Cryptologist. Meredith and Archivist are auto-hires, Spelleaters are good, and everything else is either to taste (Creeper) or is going to be summoned anyway. While "adapting" your whole 50 SS with versatile and OOK picks sounds like a way to play into Nexus, actually applying that and making it work as of yet has not panned out. The only way so far that reliably feels like a winning strategy into Nexus is to beat them at their own game; Outlasting Grindy murder balls that can dump at least 25-30 damage into a crew a turn. So... Lucid Dreamer (I did this round 2 of the tournament, and my opponent bowed out bottom of turn 2). Once you Lucid Dream your way into passing 90% of the "Or gain a parasite" duels while topdecking and Stitched Gamble your way into obscene damage for cost, suddenly Nexus struggles. But so does everyone else. The problem is once Dreamer is "addressed", Nexus comes out on top again.

Versatile Henchwoman Jessie Halliday to the rescue

For those who don't have 3 hours of batrep time; Strategy: Public Enemies Deployment: Standard Scheme Pool: Breakthrough, Spread Them Out, Vendetta, Claimp Jump, and Leave Your Mark. Final score: 7-3 Cadmus over Schtook. Schtook player was Bryan Bauer, the currently top ranked player in the Vassal World Series. He had played into Nexus more than half a dozen times prior, even having won games into them. An early misjudgement causes Anna to gain a parasite token early. (Anna cheats to dodge, but based on previous cheats assumes that Nest doesn't have a king to cheat. It does. She has to play back for the remainder of the game, causing Hostile Work Environment to have no effect) The Nexus front line, being held up by Intrepid Emissary in both Take the Hit and Aura of Courage heals, outlasts Schtook front line. Schtook crumbles mid game after parasite tokens go out to Viscera and Valedictorian, causing undodgeable ping damage thereafter.

I play nearly exclusively in keyword all the time, Zoraida being the only one in my tournament kit who likes to reach for the Versatiles (and the occasional Serena or Wrath/Doll pick for Nekima) so this didn't affect my crewbuilding hardly at all. However, I know some players felt super shackled by it. I know that quite a few Nexus players (Leaving the salt aside for now) really wish they had Emissary+Ngaataro+Cryptologist, but don't have the limits for it. Additionally, I felt far less afraid of what players could bring, knowing they don't play in keyword consistently. Colette in keyword is like, a fair fight, since she doesn't have a bunch of anabolic steroid abusing murderers waiting for you on the other side of that Presto Chango. A lot of masters without Versatile spam is actually pretty fair, balanced as a keyword by the expectation that they wouldn't just spam Versatiles.

Welcome, brother.

Aww yis, revel in the approaching salt storm.

Please mercy. Telling me what I like to do in a blanket statement that leaves no room for nuance is rude, yeah? I realize what this thread started with, but can we at least agree in a forum about a game we both like to play to leave the politics at the door? I escape here. We all do, I think.

A hot thread that doesn't include any references to Nekima? To the rescue! First off, I think Cheesecake Nekima (first edition, second edition Nekima made her feel small and wimpy) is the best, true Nekima. I've got off on other threads about how being the most Nephilim-y Nephilim but also being someone who now spontaneously wants to wear normal human clothes while the rest of them are cool with loinclothes and underwear is dumb, so I won't go into that too much here, but her character design feels right to me in that space. If a guardsman hesitates to pull a trigger because monster lady pretty, she's already clearly not into armor, so why not, you know? Secondly, to bring a topic to light that was discussed privately previously; we had what I thought was a pretty successful He-Kome release. What if.... He-kima?

Not even sure how to take that. Do I just give off big League veteran vibes? 😅

I know that for the Texas meta, the arrival of the third edition breathed new life and hype into the game. M2e was stagnating with the same couple Nico or Lilith players stomping tournaments and participation was dropping. But once 3rd edition hit obviously our hierarchy got shaken up and now me and other players are more into it than we'd ever been. The rules are cleaner and feel better. Watching beaters go "oops haha max+min, so 9 damage" was painful. Putting 52 wounds of Flesh Constructs on the table for less than half your stones before Nicodem summoned more was lame. And figuring out timings, while annoying now, was damn impossible then. As for aesthetics, I liked the Lich King and Lady Justice, so that was gonna hurt to watch either way. I am of course excited that Nekima took her sister down, even if only for the moment, and McMourning showing his true Resser colors makes sense to me. I didn't care for Collodi and hated playing into him so watching him get chaired made me feel only joy. Overall, M3e has been a big win for me.

Mmhmm. So anyway, what masters and matchups are people hoping to see into Cadmus? Can anyone that the community feels trustworthy enough play those matchups out?

I'm free in the evening all next week except Monday and Friday. Are you in the American or European time zones?

I appreciate the sentiment that I could have only possibly lost by throwing the game, it does my confidence good. And it sounds like you're unconvinced that I am a good, successful Nekima player. If you're as decent of a player as you are a human being, I'd be happy to get a game in. You can play Nexus if you'd like.

Assuming that even stat 7 hits every attack is bold, I've had plenty of "Nekima landed nothing" turns between bad flips and having to save cards for other purposes, so assuming that I'd have cleaned his clock for the heals by just taking every attack possible is at best, unsure. Not to mention she'd have ended her turn in reach of an entirely unactivated enemy crew to kill that nest and E+E. With Black Blood and a Parasite already, that's a death sentence, and spending my master to kill two summoned and easily replaced models, and one half of a totem, seems bad stewardship. And I fully accept the possibility I made bad plays for being on tilt about Cadmus from the start, and if that's what you said, I would have probably agreed and even been hopeful that had I played differently I could have gotten a leg up and won. But what did you lead off with? An apology would be nice.