Runeman

This doesn't work. The heal from pay up is not a healing flip, so it isn't doubled.

I can't help it, I have to address some of these examples. Lenny had to be changed. That particular interaction locked Ophelia into a certain playstyle where she never used her gun upgrades, and that does not appear to have been the original intention with Ophelia. That it probably made him fall somewhat behind the curve is unfortunate, but perhaps it can be at least partly fixed by making his Whacked Piglet action into a (0). Most gremlin models from the first two books have three (or more depending on circumstances) actions one way or another, many pigs have the (1) charge as do the Rooster Riders, Moon Shinobi have an at least playable (0) and a lot of other models have Reckless, Nimble or Melee Expert, so not having either is a stumbling block for some models. On the other hand, a few models have both an additional action and a playable (0) or in the case of the Rooster Riders pre errata both an additional action and a (1) charge. This was too good for Rooster Riders, and it is a little less too good for Lightning Bugs, especially considering that they are one of the only models that ignore armor, and they even ignore incorporeal on top of that. Before book 5 came around, we had some discussions on this board regarding Ophelia and what might be done to improve her. I know some of us argued that giving her instinctual or something similar would open her up to be more distinct from Somer, as that would mean that she would be a sort of mobility master. And I can only assume the people at Wyrd listened, as they gave us not only instinctual, but even more mobility for her Kin if we wanted to use her upgrade guns. Malifaux is that kind of game where a lot of people will go "WTF! Can it also do THAT?" when confronted with a new model for the first time, which is good. The errata changes appear to have the explicit purpose of making the (directly and indirectly) affected models situational picks. And most players can probably get behind that philosophy. Sometimes that might mean that a particular faction gets more or less competitive for a while, but for the majority of games it will still be an improvement, and only by accepting and playing with the changes can we get closer to that very important balance goal.

Although it can be nice for people to have some numbers, I really don't think this matters at all. If one faction has more models in need of errata, everybody should be fine with that faction receiving more errata, whether or not they repressent an increase or a decrease in power for the faction or the model in question. By speaking up about how unfair the number of changes or the changes in general are (or appear as is always the case), one might generate attention, but it will not help improve the game. In this case as in many others, the important part is keeping focus. If there is one or two particular models or interactions that one thinks should be looked at, argue about those specific cases. And argue, make comparisons, calculate some statistics, give some anecdotal evidence for their power or lack thereof and if possible present some alternative solutions. If we can do that, then the path to making even better decisions going forward will be easier. If the forums are filled with good well-argued posts without a lot of noisy complaints, it will be easier for the guys at Wyrd to gather and consider the information and act accordingly.

I don't know if it works for you, but I have found that the best way to improve my game in Malifaux or a particular boardgame is to try and focus on one aspect. In particular if you find you don't get enough out of your schemes it might be worth it to try to focus on one of them to see how much effort you need to get it done, so only do things that will contribute to scoring that scheme, unless there is nothing a particular model can do to help it, then you can go for something else. This way you might get a better fealing for some of the schemes. If some of them require too much of your crew in too many turns, those might not be good schemes for you. And while learning, try not to change your crew too much. Is there a strong tendency towards alpha striking in your local Malifaux community? If so, it might be worth it to play some games where your focus is on minimizing the impact of an alpha strike, in that case you could go for schemes that require positioning and spreading out and take reasonably sturdy and/or fast models. And then don't use your hand on doing damage or forcing attacks through, instead use it to defend your models so they can score. Edit: I'm not a good player by any means, so take any advice with a grain of salt.

Given that Guild Guard with one more Wp and Wd and 1 armor are 3 SS, not to mention the ability to get +2 Df, being a significant minion and having some attacks that can actually do something, I disagree with the latter part.

The models that got a price drop in the errata are pretty widely recognized as being at least slightly subpar and underrepresented on the table, that goes for all factions, so if other factions can use models that got a price drop in the errata to pretty got effect, why does the autoreaction here seem to be that our models are still unusable even after having their cost decreased? Funny thing about two of the three masters you mention is that they have a rule that is meant to give them some decent protection, but against Moon Shinobi (you know those underused guys that recently dropped in SS price), those rules end up being a drawback. And actually two of the Neverborn models that did have their cost decreased also have such defensive abilities that are a drawback against Moon Shinobi. My point is that people should try to be a bit more open minded before declaring doom and gloom. Instead focus the criticism on real points like the interactions that force some models to go up in SS cost making them not really viable without that particular interaction. Here I think both McTavish and Francois suffer from that, if Ooo Glowy could only benefit minions (say it could affect 2 minions, but got a small price bump), I don't think they would have felt the need to increase the price of McTavish, likewise if the Skeeter didn't have such exploitable interaction with a few of our hardest hitters, Francois really wouldn't be a problem outside of Ophelia where he kind of should be a challenge for the opponent.

There is no doubt that Burt needed the increase in cost. I am a bit more sceptical about McTavish, but he was quite often seen in many crews, so the price hike is probably in order, particularly considering his value as a Glowy target. Also some of the models that he does have some synergy with were reduced, Wild Boars that is, so a crew with him and 2 Wild Boars will actually have saved one SS. I think he is more situational now, which in my mind is not really a bad thing. Francois I think is slightly overcosted now. If one uses a Skeeter to transport and chain activate him, then he is probably dead, and the Skeeter has been put in harms way, the alternative is using him with Ophelia, where he can at least get a lot of the same mobility, but without the cost. Some alternatives have become cheaper, while he has become more expensive, so I think he is quite situational now. On the other hand, Raphael is slightly underpriced, and in an Ophelia crew you'd often bring both, making the crew unchanged. Mancha Roja seems appropriately costed to me, I think he can be a valuable tool in some setups either because one can threaten to paralyze enemy models using other models or because his Challenge Aura on a height 3 or even 4 model can really mess with the opponent. The decrease in cost doesn't make or break him, but it is definitely a boon. Likewise the Whiskey Golem has become more attractive without being an autopick, so I think he is where he should be, though I'd prefer if Angry Drunk had something done to it. Comparing it to Francois, it does get the same number of actions, though the third one is a lot less flexible, but for one SS more, it also gains quite a lot of survivability, while the damage is lower than that of Francois, the difference is not extreme, and the amount of resources going into doing that damage are much more limited. Moon Shinobi have an undeservedly bad reputation. They have a few abilities that can really make them worth their points, but they do need to be played well to really shine. First of all, they are probably one of the models in the game most likely to do severe damage, making them useful for Ply for Information. They can also sometimes push after the last activation of the turn but before scoring, and that can really make them a pain in Ours, as the opponent will have to factor them into his calculations for more than one table quarter. The same ability also increases their chance to get points from Hold Up Their Forces and Public Demonstration and perhaps Take Prisoner, for two of these schemes their 2" engagement range might also be an advantage. Finally, their defensive trigger makes them very interesting with Som'er, as they can sometimes be moved quite a lot before activating by using AP of lesser models using the mask Som'er in many cases would like to make available anyway, in particular those Piglets can really move them far by utilizing their (1) charges and if they hit their own mask trigger. I think their reduced cost makes them quite competitive. All in all I think it is a nice errata. Gremlins didn't get as much out of it as some factions, but several of the changed models are a lot more viable now. Two of our less powerful masters got a big helping hand at least for casual games, where their starter crews were reduced by 3 SS and some models they might want to utilise were also reduced in cost. In a game like this, I think the goal should be that all models be situational but viable, and there is no doubt that we are closer to that goal now than before the errata.

"After resolving against an enemy" on a defensive trigger means that if you are attacked by an enemy (some triggers do not have that last part, so they can use it even against friendly attacks), and if you have the right suit(s) either build in to your stat, directly from the flipped card, from stoning for the suit (before flipping the card(s)) or from some other ability, then you can use that trigger regardless of the outcome of the attack, but it will only happen after step five of the attack sequence, so after receiving damage. Also remember that defensive triggers are resolved before offensive triggers, so if the opponent have a push into base contact trigger, you might end up in engagement if you haven't used the terrain to your advantage. If the trigger had said something like "After succeeding..." then you would only get to use the trigger if you won the duel, likewise "After failing ... " requires you to lose the duel and "After being damaged ..." or something similar requires that you actually take some direct damage from the attack. If you understand how offensive triggers work, this is really analogous to that.

Don't forget that several models in both boxes have had errata, mainly the minions have been reduced in price from 6 to 5 SS and that there are some new upgrades from book 5 available for these masters (and all other masters), and in particular Mah needs one of these to be any good. Edit: I actually think that Mah can use the Moon Shinobi from the Brewmaster box reasonably well as she sometimes boosts their Ml attack, but they can sometimes be hard to wrap your head around, so the Bushwackers are probably easier to start out with.

The seldomly used Moon Shinobi tend to have a field day against riders as they can attack Wp and turn that stubborn into a liability. Also in Gremlins, Som'er has a (0) to turn off all triggers in a 4" aura, this can also be used by his very fast totems. Like blasts, things that just go boom also bypasses all their defenses, the stuffed piglet bacon bomb comes to mind as does Pere and Papa when they explode.

Also it gives no advantage if you're already on negative flip, like cover.

I agree with Solkan up to a certain point: "When a friendly model within 3" (Aura) of one or more models with this Ability" ensures that you do not get to use the ability more than once even if the friendly model is in more than one aura. "discards one or more cards as the result of a friendly Ability or Action" ensures that you do not get to use the ability more than once even if several cards are discarded. But there is nothing that says that only one model with the ability is allowed to use it for any single discard. It might be intended to work that way, but then they probably should have written it explicitly, as usually you are allowed to use an ability on more than one model on the same triggering condition.

If possible, I'd use Ophelia to pull him up closer to the centre of the board, since I really don't want to spend his actions trudging slowly forward. And as Math pointed out, the Young can really benefit from having Lenny nearby both using their own pistols and using My Threatening Gun, and both Raphael and Francois get quite dangerous on shooting if close to Lenny. If he has his upgrade, he can also sometimes either summon a piglet and do a bit of damage or get the opponent to cheat to avoid having a piglet in base contact. Also people often forget that he is a half decent beater himself if he gets the chance to use that treetrunk.

Another game with Ophelia the other day (9-4 against Jacob Lynch). I still think she is one of our best masters. She has so many options and so many small synergies with her crew. She is in my opinion also the best suited to bring Lenny, as he can throw her and Francois into the middle of the board before they've activated turn one and she can still pull him up. Having the ability to place Francois and give him an on activation push and chain activating him while still doing some damage herself is a great deterrent. I don't play her very well, but it seems to me that her versatility and personal damage potential really makes it hard for the opponent.

That would be harsh if he kept his Wp shenanigans and his Drinking Contest. When I think about it, giving him Melee Master and removing Obey would both improve his poison distribution, though only at very short range, and make him somewhat more versatile. If the Moon Shinobi were then given Embalmed or changed to not take damage from poison when using That's the Stuff, he could really use his additional attacks for something interesting, either giving poison to nearby enemies or to nearby Moon Shinobi / Fermented River Monks, with a chance of giving swill to the Moon Shinobi on top. He would probably still need to have something done to Hangovers to avoid it being his goto action. Thematically it might be fine to change Obey to Lure, which would still be a really nice ability for him, though of course not quite as versatile. If you add in some trigger for poison or card discard, it might actually compete with Hangovers in some situations.

In many ways I agree. Brewmaster currently is one of the weakest masters in the game, and so it would be fine to give him a hand. And since he has a couple of upgrades that are never taken anyway, one way to do it might be to change one of those (The Good Stuff) to something like being able to discard a card at the beginning of the turn to use a (0) or just make the Drinking Contest always be on. That would really do something for him. It could be balanced a bit by as you mention removing Obey and perhaps adding more triggers to some of the actions. That would of course require his new upgrade to be reworked as well. It could for instance give a trigger to his other abilities that if it targets a friendly (Tri-Chi) model that model gets a build in suit of choice or just a mask until the beginning of his next activation. But this does border on a complete redesign. I really like the Drinking Contest aura, it really makes him into something special, and there is some fun to be had in seing your opponents master just spending his or her entire activation shouting for another round. And his pacifist way of life should stay and in my opinion be furthered by The Good Stuff no matter what else might be done with him. Right now, his defensive trigger might as well not be there, so that should definitely be reworked, especially if Obey goes. I think changing Obey to something more like the Nurses ability, or modifying Binge to be a bit more control-like so that it could be used to some positive effect on your own models or to give some control against enemy models, while also giving him the ability to throw masks or a suit of choice to friendly models would make him more interesting. One posibility could also be to give him melee expert or even melee master allowing him to spread some poison in close proximity and possibly giving out a bit of Swill too.

That would be a fine solution, athough it would probably be slightly less complicated to just change That's the Stuff to also avoid the poison damage. Though that would require a change in the name, as McMourning has the same ability. Has anybody else tried to take Moon Shinobi in a Som'er crew and have a piglet charge it turn one? Sometimes you can get 14" of push for 2 damage and one piglet AP, even allowing the piglet to charge an enemy on its second AP and bringing the Shinobi into charge range as well. It probably isn't too competitive against good opponents but the few times i've tried it, it really messed with my opponents. And that really is part of the complexity. They have a very good defensive trigger that can be used with both Df and Wp and can be used on friendly attacks as well as enemy attacks, and regardless of success or failure. On top of this they have two rules that are only (?) otherwise available to particular masters, and that interacts in interesting ways with either a lot of defensive abilities or the strategies and schemes. Giving them the mask inbuilt on defense would in my opinion make them too good, though I would be happy to try it out.

Agreed. One of the problems with Brewmaster as with some masters that have received an errata, is that there is one action that will be taken around 90% of the time currently. Perhaps that will change slightly with the new upgrade(s) (really only one of them has the potential), but if not, he is probably the most worthy master around for a bit of a makeover. Edit: They could consider fixing Burt at the same time as Brewmaster, as he is clearly too good currently. Perhaps just changing Reckless to Nimble or give him a push of some sort instead.

It sounds like you haven't tried them. Their Tiny Green Fists of Fury connects most of the time in my experience. But you are right that the Roundhouse could have increased Ml. People tend to underestimate the value of some of the more complex models, and overestimate the difference between models that are used a lot and those that are rarely used. And Moon Shinobi are really some of the most complex models in the game. This means that they will need some more skill to get the most out of. Even so, I think they could use a small tweak, and in particular I would prefer if none of their abilities required them to take damage to give a bonus.

Usually, I think it is best to be somewhat conservative when making changes to existing models, so I would start small if I were to update anything from Brewmasters thematic crew. But I do agree that he is the most struggling master we have, and his crew does need something. I would probably start by changing That's the Stuff on the Shinobi to allow them to push instead of taking poison damage as opposed to the current in addition to taking poison damage. When paired with the new A Friendly Ear upgrade, Brewmaster could use a low crow to give a nearby Moon Shinobi +-flips and poison, allowing him to obey it much more easily, maximising the value of those +-flips. I would also suggest changing the Angry Drunk upgrade. Perhaps allow the Whiskey Golem to ignore armor if it has the upgrade. And of course Brewmaster himself has two upgrades that are never used and one that is very situational. On top of that, I really consider A Barkeep Never Sleeps to be a Sammy only upgrade, as the (0) would allow Brewmaster to have a third life in extreme cases. I had hoped that the mask from A Friendly Ear would be applied to all opposed duels with a model with posion, that would at least have made his defensive trigger slightly relevant, as it is, it will never be used when an enemy controlled model attacks him, and in all other cases it is really too expensive.

I can kind of see where you're coming from, since Ophelia needs some sort of healing to have the complete Gremlin survival kit. And a Lightning Bug really isn't the answer, so she can either have somebody with Quality Mash Liquor, a Slop Hauler or the Lucky Effigy around or have the Dirty Cheater upgrade, and I don't consider the latter as a real option. Perhaps an all Kin + the Lucky Effigy is a good option? I still think she is the most survivable master we have, and I think her ability to do damage and give another crew member the chance to push, heal and scheme in the beginning of their activation for just a single action is very powerful, and gives her a distinct, interesting and effective playstyle.

I wouldn't give her Dirty Cheater anyway. Her crew likes it much more than she does, and she has at most three actions to cheat each turn, and she has kind of easy access to +-flips on her attacks, so cheating is less likely to be the best solution. I don't have book 4, so I don't know about Zipp, but comparing defensive stats, she has the most number of wounds - tied with everybody but Zoraida and Ulix, the highest defense, probably the third best defensive trigger (Zipp and Som'er are clearly better) and the best or second best damage reduction, which also allows her to help some of her crew, should she use it. And at the same time, she is clearly the one most likely to have Lenny nearby if she so wishes, and that would give her far superior damage reduction, alternatively she could keep a slop hauler around using Ooo, A Girl, which would instead give her some healing. I really think the ability to move some of our slower pieces around should be factored into her "tankiness", and I think all things considered, she is the most survivable master we have currently. The only upgrade I could really see her taking is liquid bravery, and if she had one more slot or all her guns went in the same slot, I'd seriously consider it. But I also see it as a positive that she doesn't want to spend a lot on upgrades, as she seems to like to spend a lot on models. I did have my first game with her in quite a while today, and I got to use the new upgrades. I didn't play very well and my opponents crew was a bit silly, but I got a sense of how much those upgrades add, and it is a lot. Healing, scheming and movement to a friendly model as a side effect of taking a shot with minimum damage 3. Not many masters can top that. She does have the problem of being kind of locked in her crew choices, as she really relies on having Kin around, but her crew will usually be pretty killy and mobile.

I don't think I'd ever give Sammy the threatening gun or the Jug Rocket, simply because those two together gives Ophelia so many sweet options. Like giving Francois focus and then place him and even chain activate into him, allowing him to pull two focused attacks from an otherwise safe starting position, and still herself being able to shoot. Also I would not underestimate the ability to force TN 13 horror duels. In particular when the Youngs can get the required ram from Lenny to make it happen in a pulse. I'd probably be more inclined to give Sammy the Hooch Igniter in particular matchups where I think the risk of getting slow and/or paralyze seems relevant. It is the gun that seems most situational, but also most important in those situations where it does apply. On paper, I consider Ophelia to be one of our best masters now. She is so unpredictable and versatile with a lot of movement for her crew and several interesting offensive options, in particular because her Young can also utilise those guns. Sure, it would be nice if she could have one or two upgrades more, but already she has so many options, and she is not tied into any of them at the start of the match.

Thanks for sharing these battle reports. Some of the details you mention had me thinking, and it seems like you have made a few errors in some of those games. The first one is more on your opponent, as (s)he should remember the abilities of her or his models: Unless Kudra has some sort of ability that allows it to charge regardless of other restrictions, disguised prevents anybody from charging the Ronin. More importantly, it looks like you use your opponents model to mark another enemy model for death: Since Alpha does not change which crew the model belongs to, nor which models it consider friendly, it cannot mark models in its own crew for death. Also it looks like the Nothing Beast is engaged with Marcus when he charges, and thus he cannot declare a charge against Sue. It is very helpful to be able to learn from the mistakes of others, so thanks again for sharing. In particular, I think it is nice with your after action considerations.

I sort of disagree. Som'er and Ophelia does quite different things after these upgrades. Although they both seem to be able to do a lot of different things, including helping the rest of their team, Ophelia does so (mostly) without hurting them, and she provides a lot of mobility while Som'er has his summoning as well as Encouragement and do it like dis, but the former damages the beneficiaries and the latter puts some pressure on your hand. Meanwhile, depending on how useless junk is to be interpreted, the young can in one activation force the opponent to hopefully take a horror duel (or maybe even several, if Lenny is around) and at the same time leave a trash marker for others to benefit from. After the Lenny "incident" we all (I guess) considered Ophelias shooting to be plain worse than Som'ers, but with these new upgrades she has so many options that her opponent will have a very hard time guessing what she wants to do. I really don't think Ophelia and Som'er have that much in common, and since Ophelia will have less focus on shooting her main gun now, it doesn't really matter that much that Som'ers gun can be considered better than Ophelias. Many (?) consider her to be very one-dimensional because those rough riders were really blinding when she could use Lenny to get thinkin luck on every shot.