Bazlord_Prime

It's from the Emeline Bellerose story/Beastiary section in the "Under Quarantine" TTB book. I just read it for the first time the other day! Evil Japanese landowner spirit who comes back from the dead to continue to mess with his tenants. I think we've all been there...

Actually, I had a dream last night about a Disco Ophelia crew. The whole family dressed in: Bell-bottoms... Afros... Gold chains... Huge lapels... And of course - roller skates (circa turn of the 20th century, Bayou-chic roller skates, naturally). Too silly? What're Gremlins for?! ;-)

I like a Mah crew with all the wrestlers. Why Viking themed? I mean sure - why not! - but the wrestling/Viking thing seems disconnected. Except that Mah could be an immense, Wagnerian Valkyrie - that'd rock.

That could be epic. All the quotes you'd be mandated to repeat throughout the game would be, at least! Alright - how about: Zipp/Brewmaster = Westley Trixiebelle = Buttercup Francois = Inigo Montoya Big Brain Brin = Vizzini Lenny/Mancha Roja = Fezzik Taxidermist = Miracle Max Pigapult = The Machine + The Albino Bayou Gremlins/Wild Boars = ROUS's (Rodents of Unusual Size) So, that doesn't really make for a recognisable crew box in any way. My bad! But can anyone else pull a decent idea out of it?

The Sow is fantastic. I love her. Good luck!

You could also look at taking the mercenary "Sue", at 9ss? He's got a trigger on his Prison Pistols to autokill Totems (unless they discard 2 Soulstones). Plus he always gets to that Attack Action, and he's Ruthless, so...pretty much made for taking out Huggy (and/or draining Lynch's Cache while he's at it). He can also damage himself to draw a card, which will trigger Sammy's Winds of Fate if she's within 6, and he has a bunch of interesting Tactical Actions. "Ring of Fire" might be funny with 2-3 bad guys stuck in the Drinking Contest. It gives out Burning +2 to enemies ending their Activations within 3. And "The Man in Black" will give friendlies within 3 protection against Ca Attacks, so Beckoners will have a harder time Luring, etc.

I found trying to learn everything pretty overwhelming at first (all the text on each model's card, all the rules, and how & when they apply), so if you guys are feeling that way too, perhaps just decide on one Strategy, and two Schemes, and just play those until you get used to them. That'll at least show you what the game looks like when you're playing it fully, and you'll both get used to the idea of killing with a purpose (Headhunter, A Quick Murder, etc), putting down Scheme Markers for points, and getting rid of your opponent's to deny them theirs (Claim Jump, Covert Breakthrough, etc), positioning your models for points (Interference, Extraction, etc), and those that are a mixture of the above (Dig Their Graves, Hidden Trap, etc). Guarantee that you & your friend will discover a whole new level of enjoyment in the game once you start using Schemes & Strats. Just take it easy on yourself as you learn. Winning & losing really don't matter at this stage, so just write off any mistakes as part of the learning process. Grab one or both of the free apps, if you haven't already - I still find CrewFaux easiest for playing with (and it has a very easy to access database of all the Strats & Schemes), while purchasing the cards in the official Wyrd Malifaux app is some of the best value out there (you get all of the information for each model, so you can read up and plot during your downtime ;-)

Sure. That's the thing - with Som'er there to hand out to his entourage, they start presenting a serious threat in those numbers, and if the Schemes are right, a few of them just toddle off to drop Markers around the centerline before dying ;-) It's really not as silly a crew as it might first seem. You know it's serious though, when Lenny is along for the ride...

Legend!!!

That's SO Gremlin that it would be worth doing, especially against someone who hates the Faction. Two distinct looks on their faces: - when you deploy 14 "OP" Bayou Gremlins (using thread spools as proxies, because who owns 14+ Bayou Gremlins??), in a concentric mass around the Banjonista; - when you then kill all of them Turn 1 in an orgy of Drunk & Reckless Dumb Luck triggers (maybe with some Ricochets and Blasts mixed in for variety), and draw all your cards into hand, only to end the turn with Som'er surrounded by Corpse Markers, and have to discard your hands back down to six... I *love* it!

That's true - Som'er can pull out a lot of cards, but it is dependent on using AP to splat a lot of Bayous, and have a Banjonista or two having around. Sammy & Old Cranky would give draw & redraw. The new Criers would also help that (for a while). I think Som'er's strength there is in sacking both player's hands, then rebuilding his own. The Rezzers I'll have to look into. Next time we do a Campaign, Of be interested in trying out Nicodem or Molly, so it'll be good to take a look at the possibilities.

Doh! I keep mentally switching back to Guild, because I'm currently playing Lucius there. My bad!

That sounds good - some decent options there, depending on what the Schemes are. Didn't mean that Hannah et al were bad models - just that there's a feeling of a distinct lack of synergy in the above. Lucius can always do his Commanding Presence thing on them tho. One tortuous side avenue that Anna Lovelace opens up is to summon Mindless Zombies with her Attack (with the Doppleganger copying), and bring along a Domador de Cadaveres to turn them into cards. That's really, really stretching it tho.

Have just started playing Guild Lucius, and it struck me that in Neverborn, he's got access to quite a few card draw/cycle models, and that he could make up a crew that's fairly disgusting re: ^that. Question is, would that crew be able to actually play any Strats & Schemes with any hopes of success? Then again, Maybe the better question is, "Is there a crew that could do this trick better"? So here goes: Declared Faction: Neverborn Crew Name: Most Card-Cycle Crew 50ss Leader: Lucius - Cache:(4) Deep Pockets 2ss On Wings of Darkness 1ss Primordial Magic 2ss Doppleganger 7ss Bloodwretch 5ss Bloodwretch 5ss Anna Lovelace 9ss Hannah 10ss That still leaves up to 7ss for something else, and since this crew is a bit short on damage, I'm not really sure what else to plink in there. Anyway, this would give the crew a have size of 8 cards ("Arcane Reservoir" on Lucius & Hannah). It would draw 10 cards each turn & discard 2 ("Rush of Magic" on Puke Snake & Anna). If it stoned for cards, it would see 3 instead of 2 ("On Wings of Darkness"). If the Blood Wretches use "The Rage Builds" then damage something, you draw 2 cards & discard 1 (I also threw them in there for some cheap Scheme Running potential). When Lucius activates, he can chuck a card for another one, and if it's lower than the card discarded, he can draw again ("Deep Pockets"). "Ill Omens" on the Doppleganger then ought to pretty much guarantee Initiative. Thoughts? I reckon that seeing & holding so many cards ought to bring a distinct advantage no matter what the Scheme pool, however: all the cards in the world won't really matter if you're not able to engage your opponent in a challenging manner. Ie, if you can't bring reasonable Attacks against them, and if you don't have reasonable defenses, all those 13s in your hand still won't overcome a superior model's higher stat + an 11 or 12..

Wording in the rulebook is that the Attack Actions are generated by a Charge Action. Plus, FAQ #1 says Focus may only be used by the first Attack of a Charge - not the Charge itself. And FAQ #133 says that models ending a Charge within Brewmaster's Drinking Contest need to take the Wp test for each resulting Attack. Tenuous??

Yip - make him Fast, then take his (1) 1/2/4 healing flip. Push him 2" then Charge - or drop a Scheme. Do a standard 3/4/5 Attack - none of it seems terrible. It is a shame about no Triggers, I'll grant you. The built-in Crit Strike alone is lovely...

Hoffman giving him Cyborg, then dropping a Scrap marker, then the Ex taking a (0) to install Hydraulics for the rest of the game = same same. Opens up Machine Puppet as well :-)

See the above for my take on the Ranking Sites statistics. You've got it right - your friend needs to stop calling "confirmation bias", and actually spend time digging into the numbers. Gremlins are not - in aggregate - OP in the competitive scene.

Right you are! Damnnnn... :-( Well, I guys the Gremlins will have to keep petitioning for their own dedicated Undead Master!

I second, third & fourth all the advice to try switching crews for a few games so that your friend can get a taste of what the Gremlins are like. Once you play with them, you realise how tricky they can be. I know it may be difficult to convince your friend to do this - especially if he thinks that Gremlins are irredeemable cheese - but it's a universal constant that you won't understand a situation fully until you experience it from both sides, right? Now. Francois is a d*ck. Every Faction has models like that. Your friend will just have to learn to get over it, & deal with them (as we all have to do). Nekima is scary. Killjoy is scary. Hungering Darkness, Joss, etc. Frank's thing is he's cheap - but he's also Df4 with no tricks like HtK, Armour, etc. Your friend could throw cheap models in to tie Frank up. Make him Slow. Shoot him down at a distance. Lure him in to get smashed, or push him away so he can't charge... There are always options. Finally, it's a stressful game to learn, so don't let all this get to you. It's a very fun & rewarding game as well! There's so much stuff that looks like complete BS when you're facing it, and when it's new, that it's easy to forget that all of YOUR stuff also looks like complete BS to your opponent - it's just that you're used to it, so it seems awesome & totally fair ;-) i always find it useful to keep reminding myself that everything in the game seems to break the rules somehow, so there's no point getting worried about any of it!

Yeah - 12 stones is a hell of a lot to pay, to not get something that you feel is an apex predator, or a super-tricky schemer. It kinda matches the Whiskey Golem in that way - it's trying to be a generalist, but when there are specialists that're clearly better at what they do, and are cheaper, the Rider looks more like just a fluff choice.

It's still stuffed for me (Nexus 5 running Android 6.0.1), but following Corey's advice I manually set my phone's date back to the 29th and the app is working fine. Will use this as a work-around in the meantime. Edit: latest update available & applied. All fixed. Thanks!

Done! Just wanted to check first that I wasn't the only one, & it wasn't just my phone.

Had a rough idea for a (0) cost Upgrade for the Rider, as well. I don't think the Riders should necessarily be tinkered with, as they've got their own mojo going on - vulnerable early, hardy late, and while you pay loads for them and you may feel they aren't worth it if they're only doing things for 3 turns (especially given the opportunity cost), they can be pretty dangerous if they survive. Maybe with the (0) Upgrade, he drops 2 * 30mm Soulstone Markers when he dies. That's a pseudo-price reduction, but is only really likely to come into play if he gets attacked early. Maybe the number of Soulstone Markers dropped starts at 5, and reduces 1 per turn - mirroring his growing power - so that you don't feel as compelled to have him behind a rock for the first two turns, since it won't be as big a loss. You just need to have some models able to move over the Markers to pick them up & add them to the pool.

Just used Pale for the first time last night, in an Enforcer Brawl. Got to say - respawning every time he dies really goes a long way towards fixing his issues. That should definitely be in the next Errata Seriously though, I got good use out of him. The (0) push was really handy, and I fluked a 12 on round 5 against Bishop to smack him for 9 wounds. So lucky. I've got Pale Rider-tinted glasses now. Actually, does Hoffman's new Cyborg mod give the Rider a leg up? He could then attach those mods to give him +1 AP to get around even more, or give himself a to Sh & Ml to guarantee that (0) Attack on Turn 5, or get Armor +1 to cover him till his pseudo-Armor kicks in. Other than that, the generic Guild upgrades aren't that thrilling (as I realised last night). "Debt" is fine, but we could definitely do with something more compelling - something like the Gremlins' "Dirty Cheater", or the Arcanists' "Imbued Energies", etc. That might offer the Rider a new lease, depending on what it is.