Kharnage

I cheated the Fast Food Ram trigger on that attack in hopes that he wouldn't care/notice so that instead of not getting health back for Blood for Blood, I'd get 3 health back; 1 for killing, 2 for fast food. He both had the king and cared to cheat it, so it missed instead. Otherwise it would have been a huge surge in hope for my half of the board. While drawing the activated Nests in might have been the right play in retrospect, I had a game plan to drag Meredith to her death since once she dies the husks stopped and I wanted my first recover evidence point, and I wanted to try and make good on that plan. It didn't work out on account of the Emissary, which I had also hoped to drag out and kill but failed to do so, because web markers and choosey placement from Take the Hit. Also, I'm genuinely frustrated that you feel like I would throw a game on Nekima, ever. That's spitting on my face tier disrespect. Seriously. If I thought I could win into Cadmus, I would gleefully watch everyone else struggle while I put up wins on Nekima. If you think I played badly, that's fine, armchair general away, come out and make big brain Nekima plays and make me proud, but don't you ever question my integrity.

You're claiming that a bonus to damage for not charging would be superior to flat increases in damage on a model with frenzied charge and blade rush basically stapled to her card... Allow me to bathe in the soothing waters of my wrongness. You also seem to be confusing "good character" with "good-at-life character", which aren't the same thing. Nekima is a flawed character. Her tragedy is that she must fight in a world with ancient evils and queens of ultimate power and backstabbing sisters in order to carve out her own destiny, and you're right; she's hopelessly outclassed. But that's why I made the comparison to Guts. She's fighting against all odds and fate itself so her life can go the way she wants it to, and it makes me want to root for her desperately. Lilith could never hope to get me that invested in her life.

The "end all conditions" trigger available on exoskeletal connection I think will give Nexus a decent edge in this matchup.

An interesting fighting style does not a good character make. I've never seen someone plot to overthrow someone who made them powerless, and actually do it for more than the first half of the second act of a movie. Nekima is not Scar. She sucked up to her backstabbing sister, plotted for two editions, her sister messed up by, I dunno, letting her live, and someone who lets their "neither can rule while the other lives" prophecy go on with their "I take everything VERY personally" GIANT MURDER DEMON of a sister deserves to be tossed in a plot device pit. Besides, everything that was written about Lilith in 2e made her out to be a very one dimensional angry arrogant individual anyway while Nekima's first person descriptions of the half bloods was very "my lovely children, schemey scheme scheme" and while I don't have a problem with that, I'm surprised you don't. And besides, on the topic of interesting fighting styles, I happen to like reckless hulking berserker. Justice only recently went from anime swordswoman to actual rage from fridging her boy, and even then, while she deserves her menacing guitar solo when she enters a fight, Nekima doesn't need one to be scary, she just is. Something that big shouldn't move that fast, but she does, and with a massive gutting implement to boot. No master in Malifaux matches that and I seriously don't want to give it up so we can have "Colette with a Greatsword" back.

You know what, you're all right. We cool. I think Hungering Darkness knows he's on the menu for Titania which is why Jakob is no longer a Neverborn master. Neverborn masters are fighting themselves to begin with now, considering Zoraida, Lilith, and Nytemare were clearly in opposition to Titania and Nekima. I think Titania just doesn't like Tyrants at all, shoot-on-sight kinda deal, so "friends close, enemies closer" might not apply to a group of super beings you've been trying to genocide since ancient times.

"Henchman", good joke. If Nekima became the new vessel for Huggie, best believe Lynch is a gonna be a corpse soon thereafter. Besides, I'm pretty sure Titania made Euripides lie to Nekima to get her to fight the nascent Tyrant and his goons rather than try to convince her that Tyrants are the problem. "Fate decrees you will lose to Jakob Lynch" illiciting the response "Fate can go eat shit" from Nekima seems pretty reliable, since she's already tired of the other prophecy that rules her life. But Wyrd writers, seriously, I will fight you if you fridge the God Empress. It'd be such a waste of a cool character. She's basically the Malifaux equivalent of Guts from Berserk; somewhat cunning but will just violence her way out of destiny if she has to.

Strategy was Public Enemies, deployment was standard. Let Them Bleed Hidden Martyrs Vendetta Breakthrough Catch and Release

I think that Nexus will always favor the strategies and schemes that don't require them to ball. The only strategy which at the moment does that is.... Symbols of Authority, and schemes Nexus will always have a natural advantage on with the Will of Cadmus last-always AP. Even if we see a GG2 where avoiding your opponent at all costs is the way to play the game, "just try to play a single player game" doesn't seem to me like A: a healthy game, or B: an indicator that Nexus is balanced.

They're in the video description, but Standard with Recover Evidence Vendetta Sabotage Spread Them Out Catch and Release Let Them Bleed

I don't believe double masters is markedly stronger than single master builds. I played Nekima/Lilith in my local tourneys (because we're not afraid of DMH or multi master) and wish I had just played Nekima, and it's hard to argue that there are double masters with much more synergy than the only two masters in the game to share a keyword.

Here is a battle report of my Nekima into Nexus. For this game, I tried to take a strong lure effect (Wrath's Bring It!, Since the +2 can overpower the unhelpfully low Mv Cadmus has) as the previous 3 games into Nexus demonstrate to me that Nekima or Matures diving into the ball results in death by the end of turn. It uh... Didn't work. If you don't want to sit through 2.5 hours of salt, TLDR I lose on the master I'm famous for into a good player who's playing Nexus for the first time 0-6. It wasn't even close. And while I had a couple of unlucky moments, I wasn't getting demolished by cards, it was just straight up nothing I could do into the keyword. This keyword is so unfairly overpowered, I would wager that I cannot hire or play my faction in any consistent way into a competent Nexus player and have a chance of winning. I haven't even managed so far to lose a game by less than 6 into Nexus. Give me Colette, give me Schtook, give me pre nerf Shen Long, but please God don't give me Nexus. It's to the point where I will just concede games into Nexus at select, so that way I can do something fun for those 2 hours instead. This keyword needs nerfs, and they need them now.

Before I answer directly, this is two different sets of data you're querying for, as Peacekeeper Hoffman and Nekima play almost nothing alike in terms of approach to the game. Peacekeeper (Or Joss, or Langston, or whatever you're juicing up with unpunchable armor and tokens for their scary attacks) Hoffman plays like a participant in a Kaiju movie; you spend most of turn 1 hyping up the Peacekeeper with fast, tokens, shielded, etc. and then in the second part, you know, Godzilla fights. All the 'humans' spend time accomplishing objectives whilst the Peacekeeper hits the enemy front line with his nuclear breath and tanking the enemy's cool but (hopefully) mildly less effective Kaiju to the face. Nekima, while a strong independent woman, cannot stand up to sustained punishment in a real fight. Regen 2 and stone use does not a tank make. And Matures, while Combat Finesse is annoying af for beaters to deal with, if the enemy just topdecks well or if they don't attack using melee, they also fold fairly quickly. So she instead picks her fights that she knows are unfair in her favor and strives to avoid the melee grind unless she's decently confident she wins (or at least makes it sting). For similar crews, Sandeep plays a lot like Peacekeeper Hoffman, though with less straight up fighting success but a lot more utility. Von Schtook is quite adept at this style as well, what with his Valedictorian turn 1 threat. Honestly Lady Justice plays like a hybrid of them. Justice is certainly Kaiju tier tanky, at least while her stone supply is up and her domadores are healing her, and she's decently mobile to pick her unfair fights. She's not as mobile as Nekima, or as tanky as Hoffman, but I think she still works. Another master themselves who likes buildup and then a fight is Ironsides. Not mobile, but extremely unlikely to lose title fights. For the unfair fight picking style like Nekima, Misaki, Seamus (though his keyword doesn't join him), and Mah Tucket are good representatives. Dive into a fight and either get out or make it very unlikely to go their way once you do.

You play Nephilim however you see fit of course, but min effective 5 is not something Matures can mimic in my experience. Also, I run double mature builds rather exclusively in a competitive setting anyway, so having "the third mature" as it were is still a useful consideration for me. As for problems Angel Eyes solves... I see the potential value in a model who can deal damage at a long range, but a 9 cost sniper who doesn't ignore concealment just doesn't do it for me. Her 2/3/5 track before crit strike means you feel extra motivated both to focus and take a single shot every turn, and to cheat severes for her damage rather than anyone else's attack or damage, and that's just not where I want to marshal my high cards. Nephilim of all keywords do not struggle to chase down and kill scheme runners. Coordinated attack on the sidearm so Nekima could take one more swing, trigger-less as it is, is the only thing that I find compelling, but I can do a lot of other things for those 9 stones. Also, disguised is nice, but Df 4 is not at all nice. At least Hayreddin can dodge an attack or two.

Have you... Had any positive experience with Angel Eyes? What does she bring to the table that you think is worth her slot in the crew?

Because Angel Eyes is a dead weight Henchman and Hayreddin is a splat-batting thug. Necrotic Decay trigger means he can go to min damage 4+1 since paying the cost of the trigger causes black blood. The rider is good but can't play close to Black Blood, and Hayreddin is capable of dealing large amounts of instant, uninteractive pulse damage that can result in the only summoning the keyword offers, the tots thereof also capable of dealing uninteractive pulse damage by just slapping each other. Hayreddin is a tool to be cherished, if not to be used all the time. For example, in my game against Ivan for the February tournament, a 4 health Entrepid Emissary was next to a mature. Rather than flipping attacks against stat 7 defense that could result in him healing for aura of courage, I just pustules the mature next to him 4 times. No tot summon, but it's hard to argue that flipping a 5 four times with a mask twice on a model that can stone is harder than attacking Df 7 with armor 1 and Hard to Kill.

Bloodwretches are never good. They're a 5 cost beater model so they don't have high attack stats or good defenses, which makes them at best, interesting, if you want to waste Inhuman Reflexes on them and double frenzied charge through a melee for blade rush before your opponent realizes that it's totally worth just squashing them. As for the hounds, it's really just a matter of "these qualify as Nephilim for powering Enraged by Insolence, otherwise, just hire dolls for your scheme running needs."

Cadmus does force Nekima to play a hit and run game, and in that vein Shove Aside is invaluable (not to mention knocking away that cool as hell but overstatted Lion is something only Nekima hopes to do consistently) but I still wouldn't describe that matchup as even remotely favorable. I could descend into a spitting rage talking about how much the mechanics of Cadmus make me angry, and I preemptively apologize for any people who actually just like the vibe of the aesthetic of that keyword because I will be a salty boi any time that keyword is mentioned.

Speaking plainly, my return to Nekima was motivated by my giving up trying to have a tool in the kit for every problem. Explorer's Society asks questions we don't answer. I get that I just put up a big win against one of the strongest Explorer's Society masters, but there was a massive gap in familiarity between player and crew, and were I playing against an Ivan with 100+ games, I don't think I could win even 50/50. When it comes down to it, I don't think that Neverborn has many of the tools needed to shut the Society down. No marker removal, no anti heal, no real anti demise (execute 95% of the time is just a Maim trigger) and certainly not enough ranged AoE options for Cadmus. At this point, my goal as a competitive player is to be so good at a master, that clearly people don't respect, that when I lock in Nekima in a matchup, my opponent goes "well crap. Should be fine... Right?" I'm sure it's cocky to say it, but it is not that Nekima is competitive, it is simply that I am competitive with Nekima. She's my favorite master to play and I will shamelessly soap box for her because I finally got her as a master and I don't want to watch her get DMH'd by plot, and if Nicodem teaches me anything, it's that hype saves lives.

I don't check the Neverborn forums for a bit and I come back to people talking mess about the God Empress Nekima. Shameful! You're all free to play as you see fit, but only peasants don't recognize the greatness. First off, if you're asking whether or not she's fun to play, I think she is. You can boil down all the masters into some unfun sounding description if you try hard enough (so Hamelin is just a rat themed cancer engine? So Sandeep just summons element midgets? Etc.) and when it comes down to it, effective Nekima play is extremely contingent on whether or not you can play the positioning game on a high level. If you think she is simply a "apply my base to your base, check stats and see who wins" kind of playstyle you will likely not enjoy her or do well with her. You need to know what models are worth stiff arming, what models are worth risking their attacks to splash on, and what models are worth avoiding entirely. With Shove Aside being the real keyword ability between her and the Matures, and the power of Fly with Me, the mobility game is where she shines. If you want to smash bases together, play Peacekeeper Hoffman. If you want to scalpel models from play and score objectives while accepting spankings that hurt them worse than you, play the God Empress. Disclaimer; I enjoy peacekeeper Hoffman.

Since a comparison was made, I'll throw in my two cents about Inhuman Reflexes pre and post nerf. Butterfly Jump was so good you could staple it to anyone. I was putting it on models like Candy, where literally the only benefit was BFJ, and it was still worth it, because it almost always guaranteed that your opponent will lose AP to no longer being in range, or more commonly, being stiff armed by models with superior reach. Nowadays, Scamper as a replacement is waaaay less problematic. It's still good, and occasionally even better since it can occur in response to static duels and even during your own activation, but your opponent gets more say in when it goes off (since it's only on their cheat) and thus, counterplay is born. Which made it not an auto include. Gone are the days of Inhuman Reflexes in pairs in every single crew, stapled to models that only took it for the 1 ability. Nekima still gets her stiff arming jollies and I like it on Bad Juju, but it's been a while since I've seen the upgrade in another Neverborn player's crew. I think that overall a change to lead lined coat could be made such that it's still a useful choice for models that want it (justice I believe is the model I would argue is most in need of a coat without it being annoying, a la Phiona) without it being so dumb that it's being used in pairs in nearly every guild crew anyone makes. I don't know about y'all, but I legitimately feel dumb if I don't take both LLCs, every time, for that value. My suggestion for balancing purposes would be to keep laugh off, move the armor 1 to the minion buff, and give an ability like "Cowboy's Duster: this model's attack actions gain the following trigger: (ram) High Noon. This model gains shielded +2." This way the non-minion models in question can still receive a lot of damage reduction, circumstantially more depending, but at the cost of having to actually work for their tankiness, potentially at the cost of crit strike (or Life and Death, in the case of domadores) Thoughts?

I originally saw Candy and Teddy and saw them as Annie and Tibbers from League of Legends and was like "this could be a super cool game". Then I found Nekima in M2e, and Bloody Beauty triggers combined with Lilith's living blade pounce trick was so gross I never looked back. The beautiful raw damage drew me in, and the awesome tribe of murder demons kept me enchanted. Then Nekima became a master and I was even more enchanted.

So I recall that when a soulstone cache user died (before the errata) it gave a soulstone on its own death. When Nekima dies, by the same logic, does a friendly Nephilim lash out in response?

Honestly I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do into certain matchups. Through the eyes of the Nekima fanboy that I am, I struggle to come up with an answer to DUA. Brocken Specters are just nuts. Df 6, Terror 11, "eat distracted" triggers, and basically regen 2 with his heal aura, while countering healing themselves. And the fact that Ivan can just drop 4 different "hurdedur, I take 0 damage" markers in his own activation, it takes quite a bit of doing to actually body him. Concealment is also a big pain for Neverborn more generally (At least Zoraida, Pandora, and Lucius aren't fans) and he's got loads of it. Not to mention how UTTERLY ANNOYING it is to watch him get free soulstones for having to beat back his ever expanding pile of shadowboyz. Jedza's a positioning game, and while her bubble sucks to deal with for Regeneration, I don't find it particularly worse than a Daw bubble where everything costs you cards and movement, and Nekima and Matures are large enough to body-block her "stay alive, friends" aura and then stab people to death. Also she's got Df 5 and we can just shove her places. Cadmus is the other crew I struggle to deal with. Euripides might have a solid answer with just "here's a bunch of Mv duels and blocking terrain, losers", but considering how hard Euripides can get stomped by other matchups, I'm not sure I like blind picking Euripides and seeing if I get to play a decent game. Nekima of course has to dive in to fight things and since We Are Legion doesn't provoke black blood, but gets to make full use of black blood damage to ping back to the original target, it's not a great matchup. Might be an opportunity to make Lilitus work so we can pull people out of the friend ball, but honestly Wrath might prove superior just for the extra pull distance.

Put GST on them. They'll stand up to Mature Nephilim... I speak from bitter experience. EDIT: Beyond that, no one really can justify to themselves cheating to pass a failed terror duel on a base 5 stone model, especially if you can make them sweat on a different part of the battlefield with Vally pressure.

I agree, but a Necropunk would have put more points on the board, which was the key missing ingredient to not losing The Student of Steel is a great pick for a brawl against an aggressive crew, but I misread what I was getting into, and so he ended up not being as useful as advertised. That being said, he was instrumental in killing Colette, which is one of the most gratifying deaths in Malifaux, but that didn't really rob my opponent of points.