Memnaelar

I think posting the exact wording *might* be frowned upon (and posting lengthy stat blocks of cards would almost definitely be) but as Ripples of Fate is now out and *spoiler* discussions are all over the Forums, I think you can safely discuss what the upgrade does without any issues.

Well, now, that's an interesting question. What's the Montresor upgrade do exactly?

She's not as potentially thematic as Sue, but I feel like Hannah gives you the same card-draw functionality for half the price of taking both of those models. Is there more to wanting to include Sue & Hodgepodge in particular? My downside to using the hodgepodge here is that, unless Book 4 has some Confluxes for the new Masters (which I sort of doubt), it's not as much bang-for-your-buck as it would be with the older Masters with whom it gets synergy.

HA! Nightmare Beast charging from a long distance was Bete's delivery system when he killed a Lust that I mistaken advanced too far, not realizing the danger it was in. That would likely have also been Killjoy's delivery, except that my charging in to attack Tara with Ama No Zako led him to unbury Killjoy in base-to-base with Ama in order to head that off before it got ugly.

Yeah, Tara ended up dying at game's end as Jack just beat the tar out of her (Jack, of all people) but that was well after all the points had been scored. Ama no Zako threatened her but in melee but then she pulled Killjoy out to mitigate that somewhat and I had a hard time closing on her with Killjoy and Bete screening initially. I do think Aionus is a solid counter, but at 12 points, I worry slightly about getting my value out of him. Removing Bete from the equation would be nice, but I'm guessing that my opponent wouldn't start with her buried if he saw Aionus across the table from him. Still, that does slow her approach.

Yeah, Rusty's aura, coupled with her shooting, seem good at stopping what's otherwise a plodding advance from my opponent. Nothing Beast is far less frightening when it can't charge. I ran Ama no Zako as my primary hitter and that was clearly a mistake. I diverged from where I normally run Hannah who would have been sturdier and much happier handing out blasts than Ama was (she was overrun quickly). Rusty, however, might have been better than either.

So I ran my Jack crew against a Tara crew that started with Killjoy and Bete both buried and the Nothing Beast as a held-back charge-of-opportunity to unleash Bete/Killjoy in the first round and had real problems taking it down. I expect the list to be further refined down the line, likely adding a Chiaki + Nurse for added healing and condition removal (which, honestly, is problematic as my Nurses were the only thing keeping Killjoy in check most of the game). I recognize what *I* did wrong in terms of fighting the list -- coming to him and letting him have the fight he wanted instead of splitting my group and trying to run schemes -- but the list still throws me off my normal game a bit and I have a hard time focusing on how best to combat it. I know some of the basic thoughts behind it (deny kills, use terrain to block charge lanes, aim for scheme points) but I'm still open for input on how best to disrupt a team that runs that against me. I know I have an advantage in activation control so long as he's starting down two buried (even with Tara's reactivation), but I'd like to hear some other thoughts on how folks tend to counter Tara crews that run this way as the general internet wisdom doesn't seem to fear this approach from Tara all that much. Takes?

I realize that all of her actions appear to have a Mask "baked" in but I'm still relatively new to the game and uncertain of what synergies or problems having a baked-in Mask for her Cutpurse upgrade's Pilfer action (which is just a straight up Ca5 v. Df) might offer. There's no other synergy I immediately see for her and stripping the suit by way of a counterspell aura also doesn't mean much. When will I ever care about this Mask, if at all?

It can cheat damage flips against it, regardless of jokers or minuses.The most powerful being in Malifaux is not the Hag of Fate, it's not the Spirit of Vengeance... It's a newsie. ;-)

I tend to agree with Jafar. One Hanged is more than enough, unless there's a very specific reason you want two. I can think of only a few -- like if you want to play with durable, mobile (via incorporeal) minions while running Public Demonstration from GG2016 as a Scheme, for example. Otherwise, in terms of what's on their card in exchange for the cost, not enough benefit to doubling them up.

I think the general consensus is that in friendly or even casual tournament play, you should remind your opponent. In competitive tournament play, I don't think the obligation is as strong, although if your opponent is new to the game or the crew, it'd be sporting to at least give them an overview of those abilities before the game starts, even if you're not reminding them every activation.

I'm more and more coming to the notion (after 5 plays of Jack) that the Child is nice to toss in as a 2SS extra activation but that if you've got the extra 2 SS, Ligeia's probably a better take in general. For the most part, my Child was just that model that took me from 7 activations to 8 activations (which isn't a bad thing at all in its own right) and given that I was running a strapped for SS crew with base cache, I couldn't take Ligeia without sacrificing an essential Jack upgrade or a model. I've really only had the Child be directly useful twice in the five games where I played him, once when he healed a Nurse who'd taken a pounding and a second time when he, Hannah, and Jack all borrowed Whispers from Beyond from the Hanged to slice up a crew of elites. I think he gets a fair amount of utility, though, from providing that cheap extra activation and from providing the threat of Just Like You!, even if you may not have the card for it in hand, so I don't think I'd advise *against* taking him. He's worth the 2 SS. To me, though, it's clear why Ligeia, by comparison, is worth the 4.

I think the Hanged are great with Jack, regardless of how many other Horror models you have with him. Placing him in the middle of a combat zone turns that zone into an absolute mess for your opponent. Whispers from Beyond is great because against most significant Enforcer, Henchman, or Master models, the attack is doing a ton of health damage that ignores -Dmg flips (although, weirdly enough, not Armor) and will often yield you a better result than a moderate flip on other similarly costed models might yield. Even if your opponent doesn't have healing, that's going to cause a sharp intake of breath. Since you're pushing it around, you can fire off Two Whispers fairly easily and burn cards from your opponent when he tries to attack it to mitigate the WfB nuisance. Additionally, I find that they're pretty great targets for, say, Frame for Murder. Because they *will* be just aggravating enough for your opponent to want dead at all costs (with only the Nurse being similarly annoying, imo) and just hard enough to kill (given the WP duels) that they'll potentially use a powerful Henchman/Master to do so (whereas the Nurse doesn't demand the same level of firepower).

Does the model that has I Pay Better (and I realize that this is a general aura question, but I'm not certain of the answer) eligible to use its benefit? Or do models providing an aura generally not gain the benefit unless so specified?

Should I have gotten a confirmation email for the April promotion? I went to the web page and submitted a copy of my receipt but haven't seen anything come back for a few weeks in terms of feedback that it was received. edit: I see now what I didn't see before - that there's an email confirmation toggle on the submission page. Re-submitted in case I screwed something up the first time and requested my confirmation and all is now hunky-dory.

But in answer to the original question, no, I would not think Drowned generally worth it (compared to other minions) if there's no hazardous terrain and no way to generate hazardous terrain. Only exception is if you're facing a Melee heavy crew combo'ed with a some marker-heavy schemes and even then I think there're probably better minions.

I think the Drowned are going to play very differently with Jaakuna (who I haven't used) and Ama No Zako. Ama is more durable (as she should be) and I recently saw how dangerous she can be when she charges into someone and then drops her 0 action hazardous terrain. Having some Drowned nearby to make it even more miserable and to punish anyone who tries to help the charge victim survive Ama is actually pretty nice.

I think you can definitely show off how crazy-powerful Kirai and Kaeris are in the narrative and give some suggestion of how they completely blow away the PCs in terms of overall power level. Maybe have one or both of them draw on the power of a Soulstone in the midst of the combat and explain both just how valuable that stone is in terms of scrip as well as the rush of power they feel just in the wake of its proximity when the Master harnesses it. Really pump up your description the collateral damage to the neighborhood between Kaeris' fire and Kirai's spirits if they're still not convinced. It's tough because it's not always entirely fun for PCs when you're doing NPC Masterpiece Theater and they're observers rather than participants, but I'd keep the conversation brief and really focus on the environmental hazard two dueling Masters create -- that's certainly what the module's Ongoing Challenge and Battle Events suggest. If one of your player talks about attacking one of the Masters, point out that they're essentially watching the equivalent of a volcano taking on an earthquake from the perspective of their PCs. The chances of things working out in a way that's productive for the PCs if they do that should be obviously slim and, of course, they have poor Philip to tend to and he's the most important part of that moment anyhow.

I've been slammed at work and haven't yet had a chance to sit down and compose my review on Nythera yet but I think that it's definitely a penny dreadful that requires setting expectations with your players both in and out of game. Out of game, telling them a bit about its origins as an Organized Play mod that had world-shaping consequences will, I think, set them up for a bit of the linearity of the storytelling so that they don't actively strain against it *quite* so much. I think that while coming to some out-of-game agreement about what sort of degree of sandboxiness/jumping off the rails the story you're telling will support is necessary in ANY game you're running, it's especially important when running from a prepared adventure. Your group has the experience to be prepared for that sort of conversation and as a first time DM, they should cut you some slack. Stuff it indeed. ;-) In game, really reinforcing the magnitude of some of the NPCs with which they're dealing and providing some guidance about some of the potential repercussions of their actions are both going to be important. I will say that the later chapters seem to branch out a bit more in terms of providing different options if the players choose to buck against working with one NPC or another or what to present if some critical NPCs die along the way, so while it's still a linear set of events in a lot of ways, there's a lot of consideration about how to handle branches along that linearity.

Really pleased with the first skim this morning. I will take the time to write a full-on review for it in the next week after I've had a chance to properly sit down and read it, but it definitely makes me sad to have missed the event last year. And raises my anticipation for the Malifaux Book 4 models and fluff more than a little!

So, quick question on buying from FLGS for local promotions - do you need an itemized receipt?

Thanks Icemyn for a detailed report. It was really enlightening and, frankly, I'm surprised that this hasn't been exploited in the competitive scene more since it's a technique that I became aware of within a few days of looking into M2E (and Outcasts specifically) and stumbling on Hateful Darkblack's Intro to Hamelin video on Youtube (which was posted over a year ago at this point). You certainly refined the technique and gave a proof of concept on how it can provide a pretty nasty alpha strike or at least positioning advantage to any Outcast Master. I also think it's really commendable that you gave such a detailed write-up after the fact and are advocating for a discussion of the balance (or lack thereof) in this strategy. A lot of competitors I know wouldn't do that. Frankly, I can't imagine that there's a strong argument that this is healthy for the competitive game. I'll admit that I'm new to Malifaux but I think the advantages in terms of tempo are fairly straightforward and nobody among the players I've described the strategy has argued on its behalf. I'm all for more arguments on how one can use the stall against the player utilizing it but it seems unlikely, outside of a close deployment situation, that you could really make someone pay in Turn 1 which is, of course, when it's going to be utilized.

You can make it come up if you choose to run with Jaakuna Ubume or Ama no Zako. There's some pretty good synergy there, esp. with Jack's ability to provide additional aggravation assistance.

More than fair. And yes, my account email is my DrivethruRPG email.