Piccio

When I'm doing demo in game-fair I generally avoid to use masters for the first game, and I explain how SS works starting from 2nd turn. I often include some pieces to explain push / lure / place / entomb / horror / fast / condition and the use of SS to enable triggers. I use 3-4 models including 1 enchman (atleast 1 Ml beater, 1 ranged, 1 support). for example francisco+santiago+death marshal VS kang+archer+torakage I think people have to understand that they don't have to simply pew-pew-pew but they have to interact with something to do victory points, so I tipically ask them to "kill the leader" and "drop and keep marks on the centerline" to score victory points. They have to learn the importance of / and when they can use their control hand to influence the duel or damage. If you want to use masters I suggest something simple to learn, avoid "all faction" ressers (kaeris, perdita, mei feng, ophelia/wong, lilith, jack daw, yanlo/seamus)

last Sunday I won a small 3 turns tournament, probably my last before wave5 upgrades, and (most important thing) I finally received my Broken Promises book. I played 2 times "summoning" Mei Feng (interference and guard the stash). I think emissary, Toshiro and Sun Quiang are almost auto-inclusive with her, Sun is really really strong at guard the stash and makes komainus really tanky. I also finally played my lovely "stalker" Misaki (old but gold Reckoning) in the second game, with Emissary, Kang and Sensei. Enchmen/enforcers: Emissary 3 games, Toshiro 2 games, Sun Quang 2 games, Kang 2 games (my opponents got resser and archanist), Sensei 1 game. Non-totem minions played: 1+2 katanakas, 1 pathfinder, many summoned komainu. I put in play an archer in the first game but his presence on board was not relevant. About new book: I really like Gwyneth, I want play her and a couple of Illuminates also out of Jakob's crew, perhaps with Brewmaster or McCabe, I also want to try the new Brewmaster with the selfbuilt obey on poisoned, Tanukis and a reactivating Whisky. .

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Emissary can have 2 marker at the same time. With 2 marker dropped in turn 1&2 in the right place in some strategies (guard the stash/extraction) usually you have to waste your control hand just to let your crew survive while moving near marker to take position for the strategy, don't forget marker is also a severe terrain and has a 3'' range too, so If you are near 2 mark you have to test 2 time, one for mark (you suffer hazardous one time each turn but for the same terrain, they're 2 different). In addiction NVB has a lot of built-in push triggers / lure /obey to increase the effect of markers and can also cheat initiative at the beginning of turn 2 if necessary to drop the 2nd marker in front of enemy crew.

Why not nerf Nekima to Ml6 or min damage at 3 istead 4 ? or limit to 1 the emissary hazardous terrains?.

@Mrbedlam for the same LoneSwordsMan's stones I take Jebsen usually: weak 2damage, totally random triggers, 2 cards needed to reactivate VS 3 ap always, better Ml damage output (selfbuild critical), nice Sh and tactical, more defensive tricks, higher WP. Imho SwordsMan is fine only under recalled training turn(1 more SS) if you are lucky and you don't flip any black joker. Bettari for the same SS is often better in many situations (ignoring trigger, damage always cheatable, ignoring terrain while charging). I sometimes still play LSM as a expensive scheme runner if I think my opponent plays many Sh models, but if I want a solid hitter I go for Kang. Yes Komainu are great, I like summon them with Toshi inside Mei Feng crew. Almost everything is playable for sure on "normal game", but my feeling is about tournament competitive games when you have recruits the best crew. Any good reason to pay 7ss for archers over Snipers? @Ludvig I think you're right, sometimes the problem is the balance between waves and every faction has some almost "autoinclusive" models and some out-dated, but I think other factions still have no-so-overpowered models that can still synergize well with the right master, this is my idea of playable model. For istance would be nice to have burning arrows option on archers to help with Mei claw, or some buff for last blossom while inside Misaki crew (advanced deployment for torakage/yorogumo?, ...), +1damage track on monks attack while in shenlong crew... just to write down some ideas. I don't think the Wave5 master upgrades will change much our games except to auto-include atleast 1 terracotta in many crews. What I like about this game is the possibility to build the best crew concerning schemes&strategies and opponent faction, but at the moment, with GG17 schemes&strat and with "6 is the new 5" my competitive options are sadly very restricted on few models. I would like to chose models that can open tricks and options istead just evaluating stats, damage track and SS cost. I hope something will change in 2018.

Well, everyone knows we have many dual faction master with the capability to infiltrate many out of faction models, so we should be able to play many different model in function of battleground, opponent and scheme pool. Nevertheless since GG2017 schemes are pubblished to nowaday, I noticed that the list of model I choose in my crew composition is now more limited than before. I play a couple of master more often than others, I recruit certain enchmen/enforcer more often than others, same for minions, some models alway stay in the sponge or on the shelf. I feel more often the necessity to include mercenaries or specialized models to help against certain master/faction in specific scheme pool. This is fine and this is normal becouse the meta. But it take me SS. Some model as the emissary are really solid and make some things more easy then they're in play, anyway they take out SS and force you to make some choices. For example everytime I play the emissary it demands to me to include much henchmen/enforcers I can, to be sure I have always someone in range of it to be fasted. So I realized I often I have no free space to include atleast one "thematic 5-6SS minion activation" that can do something different that simply be efficent scheme runners. My most ricorrent minion choices are terracotta / katanaka snipers / low river monk / tt brothers while listing for a tournament match. I sometime recruit a wandering river monk or a pathfinder to take the table sides (but katanakas often can do the same), a torakage (and dogs) with mc-cabe, Emberling/Effige as a cheap activation with mei feng. Katanakas are all around (good ranged, good melee, resilient and advanced deployable scheme runners), terracotta w. are cheap supports, increaseing a lot the survability of our enforcers beater and the upgrade switching during game is really strong, low river is also a cheap good card draw engine with shenlong emissary upgrade and a cheap healer/condition removal, tt bro often tell me "pay me 5SS, I promise I will score alone claim jump". During a crew composition I never feel a reason to chose anyone from high river/fermented, rail workers, archers, illuminated, wrastels, oiran, komainu, oni.... -) high river m. is nice with mc-cabe because 3 attacks on charge in exchange of one card discard, but torakage is still a better option, I can say the same for rail worker, that are more durable (and this is ok) but very slow and also eats a card to gain . -)archers are generally worst than katanakas (no melee engagement, ridicolous wounds, no resilence, less range, and the no-los shoting is very situational cos needs 2ap and still considering cover). I think they're uplayable model atleast the battleground is made "ad hoc" for them. -)illuminated are not bad at all and for sure very good in lynch crew, but they are already in the same range point of enchmen/enforcers (that can receive buff from emissary, while illuminated generally not), they should tank but def5 is not so safe when the standard ml now is shifted to 6. I often still prefer yin or jebsen with smoke / equality as a resilient beater. -)wrastel are slow and fragile as scheme runners (they were maybe ok with MCCabe support untill wave 2 but I think they're really out of date now). -)oiran are still too much situational, +1wp for 5 points don't help (more) so much to be safe against nerverborn (many models with Ca7 and our wp is 5-6 so we still generally lose duel also with oiran buff), poor melee damage, lure is really hard to trigger. I think they could be an interesting option if atleast they will have -don't mind me- (they could be annoing under fast from they'r 0SS upgrade). -)komainu and oni are great, but only as summon, I never pay SS for deploy them. Obviously this judgment is related to my experience and can be wrong for sure. Something similar can be perhaps extended to enchmen/enforcer range (I can't remember the time I wanted to play Ototo, Fuhatzu or Lust) except that some of them can works really better with the right master (ama no zaku with asami is an example) or against the right faction. But I feel no reason to not choose Kang over Ototo as high cost enchmen. Is it just my fealing (the range of playable model is now expanded but the range of (competitive) playable model is istead restricted) or happened something similar also in your experience?

I got the same on my Yan Lo. To be sure they are not noticeable after painting, I filled with putty (magic sculpt) and then go with sandpaper.

pathfinder tannen & graves duo dawn serpent yin lone swordman

what I like: -yasunori (I really like it) and emissary are really nice. Good Job! -yin and komainu are simple but the effect is really good. -obsidian "skin" is really nice also -McCabe horse what I don't like: -eyes: if you really want to paint eyes including pupil I suggest you to try to follow some online guides ( for example http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.it/2010/05/tutorial-painting-eyes.html) -sometimes the use of inks on vest (example on shenlong peons, chiaki). If you want to take a look of some of mine: https://www.instagram.com/piccio_83

@Ringil I've talked about your Misaki with Sergey during contest. He doesn't reveal the author but your trait is very recognizable. I'm your fan since I saw your works in Monte San Savino some years ago. I think you got no award just because painting skill (no doubt about your) is just one of the parameters of judgment of this kind of contest. Perhaps some other femmes resulted more fatale than her Anyway stunning mini, especially make-up and vest folds.

Mei without S.Emissary lose a free attack, but charging near porkchop, under recalled training, with some stone to trigger free kick from tiger claw (seismic claw) she still can have a great damage output if you are able to cheat for heavy. Perhaps the winner had to safe play around FFM and can't manage to finish off threats with burning damage (for example really bad control hand, no way to charge with because asami upgrade of just too far from pork, no way to switch recalled training, monk on the other side not activate yet...) or he perhaps doesn't want to empty his control hand (for example yasunori from other side not activate yet....) Congratulation to the winner and to the finalist both!

dogs are cheap and fast as scheme runners or melee missiles. torakage is fast and flips is really good. high river monks generates 3 attacks on charge oirans can gain FAST quite easy with upgrade, boost your WP and can't be charged. katanakas, dawn serpent and yorogumo are good minions to reactivate. If you take Kamaitachi istead Luna everything with Hard To Kill has is survability increased...

It can copy (1)AP from a construct or from an upgrade attached on it. Lazarus takes the action but can't declare triggers. So yes it can copy action also from Mei if she becomes a construct.

Jebsen is my shenlong best friends: -4 ap under recalled training when you have ML6 and 2+self built critical strike -he can easily run to schemes if needed. -his defensive trick can make shen's totem the final target of shooting when they are near to him (1 SS when killed). -HTK, means that can be healed from shenlong or low river monk or equality (i put equality on him if i manage to use as scheme runner) and survive. Anyway Shenlong tactics in the first turns is mainly push in right place and give fast, until you need to switch to heal upgrade, or use your APs to slain something (with fire or poison upgrade) or if you need to push enemy models/schemes away from objectives. And so his "take focus or def at(0) near me" is also a very offensive ability. At this point what do you want? -something that benefit well from "free"Focus without wasting other good (0) actions or someting that benefit well from 1 more AP and something that "I'm too slow, push me". free focus+fast&push is nice for katanakas, they can shot 2 times from a long range with a fair damage output, they can start kill enemy scheme runners already at turn 1. free focus and eventually fast&push is really nice for the emissary that can attack 2 times under focus (and easy cheat for 6 damage) and still use an AP to push and fast another model. Anyway if you take a LRM I suppose you want to draw 3as many time as possible istead focus. any other models that can take recalled training can be a death machine for 1 turn: jebsen (as we already talked about), lazarus (that can be pushed in the right place to shoot up to 4 times, easy generating a lot of blast), kang (ML7, can take an armor ignoring upgrade but is pretty slow), izamu (who can be also a good tarpit with shenlong healing support). Yasunori .... Illuminated can shoot under focus to give brilliance and still have 2 ap to charge (with +2 damage). ... and as already told lrm is really interesting with emissary (free upgrade synergizig well with emissary push) and 3 cards draw that help you if u don't have draw any 11-12-13. I think Shen doesn't need the help of Sensei unless you think you need a 2nd healer to make your tarpits survives on objectives.

Ok so I undestand why I won the painter contest last year at UK Nationals Regards from Italy Aaron. I suppose you remember me.

Inspiring works. The bearer face is awersome.

you already have a good start for misaki (katanakas & sensei) kang/ototo can be heavy beaters for shenlong crew If you already have McCabe shenlong monks and misaki torakages works pretty well with him sword. anyway mei needs more construct. -)I suggest to take emissary + effige first. emissary is strong with every master, effige is a cheap scheme activation (and a construct for mei) -) then take toshiro and komainu (one box should be enough) and you will have all the best for mei (emissary+toshiro is a solid summoning duo). -) after that you can chose between izamu / bettari (izamu is a tarpit when healed if your opponent can't ignore armor, bettari is a tricky beater) if you go izamu you can then take yan-lo crew to have ashigaru (for toshiro) and another solid support / runner (chiaki). Emissary is really nice with YanLo (because it gains ancestor trait) Istead to make Asami crew work you will need Obsidian Oni and expecially Jorogumos. -) at this point I think you can take Yasunori and terracotta warriors to have more options. A single low river monk works fine with emissary+Shenlong (card draw engine) -------- others further options: Lynch: graves, samurai, emissary, tt brother, depleted, bechoners, yin... Mc Cabe: guilds dogs, dawn serpent, kamaitachi ------- tengu are good for regen +1 and scheming. ama no zaku is working well with asami or with yin sidir with promises can help in wp duel, oiran as well. lust if fine for pushing / repositioning yamaziko, willie, archers offer you blast tannen can help with asami summons ----- mercenary: I think I played succesfully jebsen, anna, lazarus. Maybe johan a couple of times. I think I never played m. child, snipers (you already have katakas) I'm sorry but I've no experience with brewmaster, anyway performers can "expunge poison" and dawn serpent can help stacking it, ama no zaku/yin can help with paralyze tactics.

- if you use acrylic (i think so) remember to temper your colour with enough water, to check this you can try to make some lines on paper. - take some paint with the first third of your brush and then remove excess - now paint using the extremity, if the colour is ok and the brush is not too old you should be able to make a very thin lines with any brush. -a this point if you can control your paint on a plan surface, you can do also on a 3d surface.

Hi, you can do skin tones mixing together white, yellow and red tones in different %. for example you can take for reference: titanium white / yellow ochre / red ochre (ochres are "hot" colour, so they are pretty naturals for skin tones, warmed by blood flow). when you have mixed the "basic mixture" you like (I suggest to take a base tone a bit darkest to the medium tone you desire for the skin) for lights add some white for shadow add a bit of red ochre or brown (for example you can use a van dyck brown) add a small part of blue/black if you need to desaturate the darkest shadows. remember that: - asian (male) skin generally has more red part than yellow. - female are generally paled, so you can add white to desaturate your base skin colour. as example this is my Lone Swordsman i painted some time ago, mixing theese 3 colours and adding a bit of brown when necessary.

obviously crew always depends from scheme/strategy, in any case for my experience: Shenlong: always: peasant, jebsen often: bettari, emissary, katanaka, kang. Mei: always: emissary+toshiro, effiges often: porkchop, emberling. McCabe: always: - often: katanaka, high river monk, torakage, dawn serpent, chamaitachi, luna+dogs Misaki: always: - often: katanaka, sensei yu. Asami: always: bettari often: ama-no-zaku Yan Lo: always: soul porter often: izamu, emissary Lynch: always: hungering often: emissary, samurai, ten thunder brother, beckoner Brewmaster: (I have no match with him)

I suggest to buy Shadow Emissary and Izamu. You can fill the 35 with Soul Porter & Chiaki. If you manage to ramp-up Chi fast you really need to hit a couple of times Izamu early turns (low def but armor and self heal to mitigate the damage). Shadow emissary can help scoring delivery the message (push+fast on Chiaki for example) in addiction to Lighting Dance placement, in any case help increasing crew moveability and giving ml6 to Yan Lo.

For me it's autoinclusive with Shenlong. He can give to him push+fast and focus as 0 action = 4 AP + free focus, with 3 weak damage and ml 6. He also has a defensive trick to kill a near Shen's peon and get SS back. With recalled or equality (to enter and exit from htk) is still a cheaper option than many other TT stuff. He's also great as scheme runner.

A part from Yasunori (yes is really good but not cheap) I think Bettari is our best hitter: You can almost cheat on damage for 6, nice positioning trick, terrain ignoring charge, ignoring defensive triggers she can take-away master with the right hand. High threat from enemy. She's cheap and sacrificable (tradable). She do her best with shen-long and asami obviously, but I played her succesfully with Mei charging from a Porkchop. Kang is also really good expecially vs resser/arcanis (+/+ bubble buff): ml 7 and 3weak, but need some support due his low Wk, he can also take the armor ignoring upgrade (hard worker). Ama is also well playable with asami (can charge flying for 1ap in +2focus and easy cheat for 7 if you exceed def (low ml5) ). For the same reason (+2Foc) Emissary with 6dmg Heavy (eventually with splash damage) is ok for a support role. Concerning minions Dawn Serpent has over average attack stats, Jorogumo hits hard but ml5, and some 6 points nijas becomes missiles with McCabe Sword. Due to recalled training and our fast/focus buff many mercenary as Jebsen, Lazarus, Joan, Anna works fine (but ok, we are just talking about TT in-faction model). While GG2016 I gave many chances to Ototo and lone Swordsman: Ototo have to be in frenzy to do something and his wp4 is annoying for horror/manipulative check, I think it's too much for his cost. My Swordman always flips pretty bad (atleast 1 black joker) on his recalled "big" turn, in any case 2 cards for reactivate are resources extensive if you don't play Lynch.

-) effigy (cheap and tought construct, accomplice) -) toshiro (he can summon koimainu from scrap (created by emissary / emberling / porkchop / obsidian oni), he also got some sinergy with rail workers (they're both construct and living) so you can summon ashigaru or koimainu, he can benefit from emissary rite of strenght -) koimainu (medium base resilent constructs, free placement) -) mechanized porkchop (gremlin, foundry construct, ml boost in charge and scrap free drop) -) obsidian oni (can put burn and drop scrap, also healing support) -) rail golem (it works better with arca-mei but still thematic, willie and sparks are also foundry) -) perhaps high river monk if you want fire synergy. -) terracotta warriors (recalled training works pretty well on mei) -) katanaka and tengu are also staples minion for TT. Nice ranged damage and cheap scheme runners. Tengu can also stack regeneration on summoned koimainu