Jinn

I think it is relatively likely that I would use Johan's cleanse with Tutelage. But I usually try to fit Johan into a list I bring 3x Oxfordians anyway, just for the to attack flips near M&SU which also makes taking Sandeep's attack actions a little easier, so I'm not bringing him primarily for the cast but it is a nice bonus. I'm also interested in trying out a Coryphee with Tutelage for the 14" teleport to showgirl action. It can be used with Student of All for an emergency escape which is pretty cool.

She's not an academic unfortunately and it is a (0) action to make her one for the turn. Unless Sandeep gets instinctual somehow he can only use the (0) actions of academics. I really wish Hannah was an academic though, I mean she was a head librarian on earthside, come on!

Yeah, he has a trigger to ignore armor and if he kills a target with armor they drop two scrap markers in addition to what they would usually drop.

I know you're talking about the Armor +1 trigger here, but as it was at the end of the Playtest they should still be able to get the Reinforced Sheet Armor condition which should up their survivability considerably. I would probably put that condition on my leader in any game that I brought Steamfitters, just as insurance against the RJ. With Ironsides though, steamfitters become almost a replacement for her Iron Determination upgrade, which is very welcome in the wake of her new upgrades. I really hope this change is real just for Ironsides sake, Marcus and Sandeep don't really need it.

Performers will also be coming in with Manipulative 13, so they'll probably get a chance to activate before dying.

You should look into the two Foundry Gremlin models she can take, Sparks and the Mechanized Porkchop. They are in the Shifting Loyalties book. The downside with these two is that they can only be taken with Mei Feng outside of Gremlins, they are relatively cheap models to buy though. Sparks can make Mei Feng get +1 Armor until he next activates (or dies) putting her at +2 Armor total, and he can make non-leader constructs fast, as well as some other tricks. The Mechanized Porkchop can place a scrap marker after taking a walk action (Wk 6, so quite fast) so you can walk up once, drop a scrap marker, walk up again and leave a nice rail for Mei Feng to ride right into the enemy crew. Additionally, friendly models that declare a charge near it take a damage and gain to attack flips for the rest of their activation, which is amazing with the combos Mei Feng can pull off. In the future, if you start moving into Ten Thunders Mei Feng, you'll want to pick up the Shadow Emissary and Toshiro the Daimyo (Ressur/TT zombie samurai, not thematic to Mei Feng) to get a very effective summoning crew with all of the free scrap markers the Emissary and the Porkchop can provide. You definitely don't need to go this path with her, but it is a powerful option mechanically. In summary: look at the Mechanized Porkchop for an aggressive improvement to Mei Feng and Sparks for a great defensive improvement, they each cost 7SS so they can be fit into a crew quite easily. Mechanized Porkchop on the Wyrd Store: https://giveusyourmoneypleasethankyou-wyrd.com/collections/gremlins/products/mechanized-porkchop Sparks on the Wyrd Store: https://giveusyourmoneypleasethankyou-wyrd.com/collections/gremlins/products/sparks She is also getting a new model from wave 5 (Broken Promises) called Neil Henry in the coming months which should be quite interesting.

That is true, but the reason that upgrade has that ability in the first place is so that Asami can't just be cleansed of Flicker. If your opponent brings Johan (or Chiaki, which would be a lot more dangerous, as she doesn't need a suit) and lucks into a high ram you could also lose Asami there if you switched out the upgrade. The worst case scenarios for that upgrade just seem very dangerous and a little more widespread than I'd like. The bad scenarios with expunges and Marcus will probably only happen infrequently, but does that flicker bring enough to the table to be worth it? I'll definitely try the upgrade out before I swear off it though. My favourite (theoretical) Marcus Alpha target has to be the Desolation Engine (if anyone actually took it); you walk it 10" towards as many of your opponent's models as possible and then use the (0) action Consume to sacrifice every one of your enemy's models within 3" of the Desolation Engine, including itself. It doesn't even get to leave behind any Abominations because it is sacrificed instead of killed.

Sandeep, with Tutelage, can make a Coryphee an academic and then take the Dance Partner 1 action (needs a 4, he can stone though) to place in base contact with a friendly showgirl within 14", though he would have to discard a card to take the action. That is some very nice range, it might be worth bringing the Duet with him just for this. Edit: Just looking over some cards, it seems that they planned for something like the tutelage upgrade when they designed Kudra; her (0) cast's illusionary forests are removed whenever her crew takes the action again, so no double LoS blocking walls for Sandeep.

The Terracotta warrior can block the damage that the Emissary is causing for the +1 flicker, which makes it much more viable with a turn 1 Jorogumo or Obsidian Oni. My (probably irrational) fear with borrowed time is that you'll run up against a hard counter to it semi-often. It says that enemy models can't remove or end conditions on you, to stop you from being cleansed to death, but that also means that any expunge is going to deal damage equal to your poison and then leave that poison on you. It also means that Kaeris can stack burning on you and then engulf you multiple times, and then leave that burning to resolve at the end of the turn (she'd probably kill you anyway if you didn't have misdirection though). My biggest fear though, is Marcus. If Marcus alphas you (Ca:7, maybe 8 with his new upgrade, vs Wp5) he can choose to summon a tengu (or whatever the weakest Oni is), lower your flicker for the mask and then transfer all of your flicker to the summon and kill Asami. There are probably other scenarios that I'm not thinking of and it these problems will only appear in a few match ups, but when you are probably only getting a mask or two out of the upgrade, is it worth the risk? The two factions I play are Arcanists and TT so I may be overestimating the prevalence of these match-ups.

From the wording on "The Bigger They Are" it says that actions get +1 damage. As far as I am aware that means that all damage within the action deals +1 damage, even triggers. So if the trigger says deal 2 damage it increases by +1 and if, for example, a trigger said deal 2/3/4 it would deal 3/4/5 instead. Edit: this was FAQ'd, see posts below. As for which upgrades you would remove, I have no idea; I don't even know JDs usual upgrades so maybe someone else can answer that. Just looking at it, and from playing Arcanists, I would rarely go with a discard for fast upgrade on a master.

Just looked over the cards, I don't play JD, it seems that if you put The Bigger They Are on him and the Firing Squad Injustice on the target it increases his damage spread and the damage of his trigger separately. So 2/3/4 + 2 damage (from the trigger) goes to 4/5/6 + 4 damage. This would be 3/4/5 + 3 versus a master as TBTA doesn't work on them. The damage spread and the trigger's damage would be reduced separately by armor or SS as it is actually two different instances of damage. The threat range would be Oathkeeper for two 5" walks and a 7" charge with Rg: 2.

Wouldn't the action not count as resolved until all of the triggers are completed? So the cards wouldn't return to the deck meaning you couldn't cycle forever. I may be misremembering and it might work differently to how a flurry or charge action, for example, aren't resolved until the actions they generate are resolved.

Before Raspy showed up the Cult of December definitely had a patriarchal streak. The priests of December used to remove the tongues of Silent Ones and controlled the organisation as a whole (below December). When Raspy showed up she ritualistically cannibalised the priests and uplifted/freed the Silent Ones.

Well on the beasts side of things, the Slate Ridge Mauler is already really tanky with Impossible to wound, hard to kill, immune to damage from and and gets healing on an attack trigger, if you give it Armor +1 it becomes even harder to kill and the metal plating blocks the first severe (read RJ) so that impossible to wound is not going to backfire. A few other models that might really like armor: Johan, Snow Storm (A +1 and Bulletproof +3 means a Sh needs to deal at least 6 damage to deal more than 1 after reduction) and the Blessed of December (hard to wound, armor and eat your fill) off the top of my head. Another thing to note is that warding runes should block most enemy cleanses with Counterspell. You can also use Ferdinand Vogel's beast form to generate scrap for a Marcus list with the steamfitter.

I would love to see some more rogue spellcasters (or Warlocks as the Guild call them) in Arcanists, especially more average/unnamed ones like the Oxfordians. There are several magical theories mentioned in Through the Breach that could make for some great models. Here are the theories mentioned in the Fated Almanac: The Oxford Method We already have Oxfordian mages and their magic is barely even illegal, where are the real Arcanists? The Whisper Necromantic theory that doesn't fit Arcanists at all The Darlin Theories Magic that is channelled through Pneumatic limbs and is based on scientific principles, simply awesome. The Court Procedure This is a weird one. Students are meant to teach themselves and gain knowledge that allows them to recognise other practitioners. According to its creator (Lauren Descartes), "...power comes from forcing others to obey rules that the powerful do not abide by." These guys are apparently quite organised but I'm unsure as to whether they would fit in with the Arcanists. Given that it is described as being used by aristocracies, it may not fit in. Thalarian Doctrine Guild approved enchantment of objects to create items anyone can use. Might be interesting as a single ability/attack/tactical action but probably not a whole model given that it is actually legal, so why would a practitioner join the Arcanists? The Balanced Five This theory is interesting to me, it is based around Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Metal. The theory comes from the three kingdoms which makes me want a dual-faction Arcanist/Ten-Thunders mage that has synergy with Kaeris/Raspy/Mei Feng/Shen Long and some of the burning based TT models. Could even give it poison synergy if you use the trope of earth=poison. Hedge Magic This is, I feel, what people think of when they think of a rogue Arcanist/Warlock. Hedge Magic is a personal magical theory that is unique to each practitioner and makes little to no sense to anyone else. Hedge casters are often uniquely good at specific magics while being incapable of casting simple spells in other categories. Tradition Magic Magical theories passed down within families for centuries on Earthside, finally being useful in Malifaux. This could make a good Henchman as a backstory is likely required given how different each of these theories should be. The only problem I foresee with making new spellcasters is that they may make Sandeep even stronger than he already is if they are given the Academic tag.

Commands in Wind just gives to your flip whenever your model targets another model with an attack action. So yeah it is just attack flips from your models, no df. People bring Gamin because they can be good, cheap activations, especially when you have synergy through frozen heart with silent ones and acolytes. Also, the backup of being able to summon the Banasuva on a hired gamin if you have poor cards for summoning (like a hand of <8 and one high card to summon the Banasuva, it happens some times) can be a lifesaver. Wind Gamin can be hired as good scheme runners that hit way above their weight class (4 attacks at base 4, 1/3/4 damage) that don't count for most opponents schemes. Finally, if you are confident you will be fighting Collodi or a nearly all construct crew then hire metal gamin for magnetism (Ca 8, range 16, 2 damage to construct ignoring armour and then push 6" towards them) and then summon more and make your opponent sad. So yeah, Ice Gamin, Wind Gamin and Metal Gamin are pretty good to hire.

The Brass Arachnid is somewhat infamous for being way too big for its base. I know some people have based it so that it is climbing a wall on the 30mm like this: http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/xandersk8r/media/BrassArachnidWIP002_zps734363cf.jpg.html. Personally, I switched out its giant legs for the legs of one of my Steam Arachnids, leaving it looking a lot more like it did in 1E. This is an image of someone's Brass Arachnid from 1E, which looks similar to the 2E one with steam arachnid legs:

The Constriction ability is worded: This model gains to disengaging strikes. Razorspine Rattler's also have the Wicked ability, so they deal damage with disengaging strikes. My question is do they get to the disengaging strike's damage flip as well as the attack flip?

Yamaziko is going to have a lot of trouble against Peons with that and you won't face any Masters for a while in a campaign so the is less valuable. Are you expecting to face any Arcanist players that use Malifaux Raptors? A single Malifaux Raptor could make Yamaziko really difficult to use. I don't have much experience with Ohaguro Bettari but she looks quite good for a campaign.

While no Fatemaster would allow this, rules as written it seems as though you can change the TN of a spell to an arbitrary number by applying the Terror Immuto and the Reduce Resistance Immuto. For example, let's take a Magia with TN 5 and add the terror immuto (TN +1). It is now TN 6, then we add the reduce resistance immuto, lowering the TN of the horror duel provided by terror by 1 with the benefit of reducing the spells TN by 2. This leaves us with TN 4. Both of these immuto can be applied infinitely and the terror immuto increases the TN by 1 each time while the reduce resistance reduces it by 2 while the effect of the spell remains the same. By doing this you can increase the TN of the spell by 50 with 50x Terror and then reduce it by 100 with 50x Reduce Resistance. This means you can either increase the horror duel provided by the terror immuto to an arbitrarily high TN or you can add another immuto (such as increased duration, range or severe damage) as much as you possibly can (infinite for severe damage) without increasing your TN. Obviously this isn't intended and no sane person would allow it but I'm wondering if I missed something in the rules or FAQ that invalidates it... I assumed that the reduce resistance Immuto could only apply to target numbers of the Magia but the FAQ states that it can be applied to any duel that is the result of a spell, which should include immuto right?

Johan gets to attack flips while he's within 3" of a friendly M&SU model as well as a 2-action to heal all M&SU within 6" (I think it's 6") which includes him. The flip is pretty good with his flurry. The synergy with M&SU makes him really good with Arcanists and Hoffman and he is already good enough to be hired as a merc.

Played against Parker with Rasputina tonight and got a win for the Self-Righteous Man.