hydranixx

I love Molly but I'm not sure she's that much better than anyone else vs Viks. Their high minimum damage is bad news for Molly, not good. Her Df trigger is great but it will cost you so many cards and her crew will still disappear all around her. She's also short ranged so if she wants to influence the game she'll be in range for a charge. Reva is fine. Free Corpse Candles spawning 8' out to block charge lanes and engage Vik of Blood is good, adding Disguised to friendlies is even better. Add Decaying Aura and you'll take out either Vik in 2-3AP. Take 2x My Little Helper on Emissary and Yin. Yin's probably the best thing to roadblock with, even though she will most likely die, since Taelor's hammer and Mark of Shezuul ignore most defenses, but neither of them ignore Mass of Viscera. She should survive a single charge from one of them if she wasn't softened up earlier. An Ashigaru here is nice too, if either Vik Charge you they'll take 4 damage (which is more than half of each Vik's wounds).

I must mention the obligatory "put Bleeding Edge Tech on Joss" comment. The aura is the main draw to the upgrade, but his lack of Ca Actions and lack of an innate (0) means he can use its active disrupt nearby casting every turn. As long as he's not on Ramos' toes anyway. It's superb at screwing with summoners and other cast-reliant models. I quite like the idea of running the buffed Electrical Fire based Ramos myself, shooting twice and summoning, shuffling around with Magnetism as required. I just wish it didn't take as many lot of moving pieces to give him this decent attack. (I look at Collodi's Attacks and get jealous).

If it's legal for each MZ to borrow her attack twice per activation... I can almost hear the rage from my community already. As soon as I declare Nicodem... let the tears flow

Agreed with Mrbedlam. Heat Wave seems really powerful but being Limited makes it so much less appealing since we'd have to cut Grab and Drop to include it. Wings of Fire is so good when you set things up adequately that I'll feel lost without it. I will give Heat Wave a go all the same, probably with Blinding Flame and Flaming Angel. I think it'd be imperative that Kaeris get exactly where she needs to be to use Heatstroke, and if you can't get enough burning to reduce something's stats to nothing, have something else you can fall back on. For me that'd be Blinding Flame's "you can't declare the charges" trigger to push enemies away to free Kaeris or add some charge-denial control from range. I reckon the combination would make her a capable control piece. Flaming Angel is going to be stapled on her card for me. It primes friendly models for Truth in Flames card draw or a Wings of Fire set up or enemy models for basically anything that relies on Burning, effortlessly, while letting her get wherever she needs to be. Heat Stroke will see the most obvious benefit from it, but I also think it'll be sweet to use immediately after you use (0) Grab n Drop. I'm already visualising Kaeris landing from Grab n Drop in the perfect spot to line up a row of enemies and push through all of them, then throw some Immolation action at them.

I've never really liked Field Generator. Usually Ramos feels like he can be doing better things with his AP and his 8+ card, not to mention putting those 2 ss elsewhere. It is probably better when you're going 50ss full mech list but here I'm not so sure at 35ss . Arcane Reservoir is good. It slightly increases the chances of a high tome for the triple arachnid summon, but even if the 7th card you get is trash you'll always want to discard it for Rail Workers (0) Implacable Assault anyway. Under Pressure doesn't cost you AP or a card and also has Counterspell built-in which can be clutch. It's still going to make Joss and your spiders more accurate and cover Ramos so I think it's worth it. I'd roll Reservoir and Pressure all day at 35ss.

If Students are definitely Wave 2, Nicodem's a no go. You'll never chew through the armour fast enough to stop Ramos and Joss. You summon 1 model for 1 AP, Ramos will summon 2 or 3 models for 1AP, Joss can/will one-hit your model and you'll need 2-3 attacks just to kill each Steam Arachnid. It's unlikely to work in your favour. Joss is WP6, as is Ramos himself, his Steam Arachnids and Howard Langston. Nurses can force a debuff through but you'll probably need your best card(s) so your summoning will be noticeably weaker, so you're likely to fall even further behind in summoning board presence. Wave 2 and lots of Students of Steel? Sure, Nicodem will be great. But with Wave 1 alone it seems like a job for McMourning.

Langston at 35ss is really all or nothing. I've played him there before and I wouldn't encourage it unless you commit all the way; give him Imbued Energies, buff him up with Mobile Toolkit and Brass Arachnid, then sling him in last activation of turn 1 to (hopefully) mulch their crew. But if they have a way to stop him you've thrown all your eggs in one basket and really far behind. If you are going to take Powered by Flame, double down on your Burning; Arcane Effigy's (0) and now Ramos is throwing 1-2 burning each Electrical Fire attack. There's so many nasty conditions around so Arcane Effigy could be worthwhile for that too. At that point you could even use the new upgrade that improves Electrical Fire. I can't speak with any first hand experience with that though. I'd be comfortable rolling with: Ramos with 6ss Cache Under Pressure, Arcane Reservoir Joss Bleeding Edge Tech, Imbued Energies Rail Worker Mobile Toolkit Rail Worker really, really likes Bleeding Edge Tech and Ramos' buff nearby. I think he's one of the most underrated models with Ramos can hire. You'd have 8ss remaining. Johan's a great choice as usual, Sue's decent if you spare a SS somewhere, Medical Automaton seems quite interesting in this list if you have it or proxy it. I would probably take Johan, or fill my cache, take another upgrade on Ramos and buy Arcane Effigy.

Sybelle & a Belle are 14ss-15ss worth... think at that point I'd lean 2 Kentauroi for 16ss instead, they'll get him and Molly/Nico up the board and they'll benefit from Fresh Meat more than Sybelle and a Belle would and probably contribute more to the gameplan once they get there. Mortimer likes Nurse buff, sure, but now you have two Wk4 models that aren't living or Horrors and can't get buffed from Nico/Molly or get Fresh Meated. I like the aforementioned Rogue Necros, those things are even more insane with Nurse buff.

It could work. An extra corpse that doesn't cost AP is obviously appealing but at the cost of an upgrade slot and 2 cards... I don't know, I'm not convinced. I always find uses for cards in my hand. Maybe I'm doing something differently to you though. This is how I see my opening hands: High cards; Reanimator needs a 9+ for things worth summoning, but ideally I spend 12+ cards on it, possible 10+ to force a Lure with a Belle, Mortimer may possibly need another 9+ and I might save decent cards an important opposed duels. Mid cards; Carrion Emissary, Necropunk/Doxy/"Muwahahah"/Malifaux Child if I bring him (casting Rigor Mortis) all need 7+. Low cards; Crooligan(s)*, Graveyard Spirit if I bring it, might need a discard, Nico's Rigour Mortis needs 4+, friendly Lure needs a 5+, if I bring a Nurse I might want a low card with the suit I want. I hoard low cards if I'm against anything mobile with assassination or discard triggers. Jokers: I hold onto Black, possibly to ditch at the start of the next turn, possibly to keep out of the deck for multiple turns. I use Red to summon or sometimes save it for a pivotal damage flip on later turns. *I bring least one Crooligan every time I bother with Mortimer, which this thread would have me believe I should still be doing, for Fresh Meat options. They won't always go Df stance, but often enough that I want the spare card to do it. Phillip and the Nanny and Undertaker draw cards, but they need middling cards to enable them most efficiently, and they may draw me nothing helpful. I won't know what cards I'll get from them before having choose to how many cards discard for the corpse markers at the start of the turn. I honestly can't remember the last time I finished a first turn without using at least 5 cards. What do you usually find your cards doing turn 1?

Is there not a -1 Ml penalty if they borrow her attacks? Or was that removed during beta? Not that only Ml10 wouldn't be enough haha... It sounds filthy and I'd totally try it. If you can get to turn 3 or 4 without losing any key models you'll reach critical mass and just chew through every model on the board.... But, the crew seems to have very little bite initially and is extremely dependent on Asura and the Emissary being in the right place (and still alive) by the time you reach critical mass. ... if the opponent brings the fight to you with a powerful alpha strike list... Without Asura or Emissary alive I can't see us recovering when they're in our face beating us up. Still super keen to try it

I'm still not sure what to think of either of Nico's new upgrades, but they could come up clutch. Buzzards seems really card hungry - from what I understand, 2 cards for 1 Corpse? I'm a little hesitant to rely on that, but the extra life for Mortimer seems interesting. One of my biggest gripes is spending 12 soulstones for a Living model that uses up his own wounds when Nicodem buffs and supports only Undead. Maybe Mortimer getting two lives is enough to swing the balance for me. I will have the new upgrades next week so I'll start experimenting with it. Honestly though, finding space on Nicodem for it could be tough... Love Thy Master looks more and more appealing with Kentauroi being released since they're flimsy but their charges look crazy good and LTM would let them Charge as soon as they're summoned without the opponent getting a chance to respond. I appreciate all the replies. Thanks for the insight... that's offered some food for thought.

The McMourning list looks good. It should be very capable of dealing with anything Wave 1 Arcanists can throw at you. I agree that Sebastian will be your lynchpin - not only for his damage, but for that defense aura which might be the only thing that can save you from nasty Acolyte bolts or shut down Rasputina if she shows up instead of Ramos. The scheme pool doesn't seem like it would suit Nicodem. I can't remember if the Students are Wave 1, but outside of Student of Steel Nico has nothing that will handle Armour +2. Joss will eat each of your summoned Punk Zombies in one swing ignoring their Hard to Kill, scoring Dig Their Graves easily. Your attacks will be sticking 1 or 2 damage on him at most. Even The Hanged only put 3 damage on Joss or Ramos when they're at full wounds and each following attack is weaker. I think it all depends on how much value you can squeeze out of Student of Steel, provided you own 1 and can summon it, but I think McMourning/Seb are probably a better choice. As an aside, @oryxwild your list looks super reliant on TN actions and getting the right suits. Sybelle and Mortimer will need 8's or 9's respectively for their tactical actions, the Rotten Belle needs a 5, Necropunk needs a 7, and this is before Nicodem meets all his TN's for summoning. Sybelle, Nicodem and the Nurse are suit-hungry, Johan sometimes will be as well. If you don't draw a god hand for the first two turns you're going to be settling for half.

I don't see him as purely corpse generation. I actually see him as a utility piece disguised as a gravedigger, who doesn't have enough actual utility to be worth 9ss. Fresh Meat is a worthwhile spell but it shouldn't be the only reason we're paying 9ss. It's great for Molly on turn 1, and then he goes back to twiddling his thumbs the rest of the game. I'm sure it could be valuable for McMourning too, though I've never heard of anyone hiring Mortimer with McMourning. Maybe its some crazy tech no one thinks to try. How often have you hired Mortimer with McMourning? Fling Rot is awful, even for Shikome. I summon them a lot they're my beater of choice too. 1AP for a Ca5 , from a henchman of all things. Most of Fling Rot's problem is that damn icon. He can only realistically threaten things your opponent doesn't care about since everything that is important is engaged or in cover by turn 2, and he's already consigned to using Fresh Meat twice on turn 1 for his huge cost to be remotely worthwhile imo. His corpse production can be adequate for 1 turn of the entire game, for an extremely high price. He's spending more than half of his wounds, costing 12ss, using up all his AP and a 9+ card, and prematurely activating My Little Helper. It always feel awful using it early - it's super good on turn 2 or 3 to screw with the opponent, but then he can't double down on Corpse Bloat. Just... take Asura for 4 less soulstones? I liked him in Tail 'Em and in Headhunter since Chatty is legit there but these are both leaving the pool in GG2018. Outside of these, I find Phillip and the Nanny far more flexible and useful at denying and scoring than Mortimer is already.

With each passing Wave, our faction is blessed with more lovable flesh bags, devious necromancers and ghastly spirits, threatening to leave models and upgrades from Wave 1 in the dust. I'd like to focus on Mortimer for a moment; from what I gather on facebook, forums and first hand accounts, our original grave digging henchman already sees very little play outside of some niche builds. Once every self respecting Resser player has their Wave 5 Asura, Kentauroi et al filth, converted or otherwise, I suspect that Morty will be completely obsolete. We simply have more efficient options for all the things he's trying to do. In terms of corpse generation, Asura Roten offers Mindless Zombies instead of just corpses, does this more efficiently since she doesn't spend 2AP or use up 3 wounds apiece and an expensive upgrade to make them, and can loan out either a fairly good damaging attack or a very debilitating debuff attack to nearby Undead, including to her aforementioned Mindless Zombies. For scheme manipulation, scoring or denial, Phillip and the Nanny's (1) access to Chatty and (0) access to removing scheme markers (and turning them into corpse markers, no less) arguably stronger than his innate Chatty, and has Transparency-esque access to dropping Scheme Markers on successful attacks. Would you believe that they're also both cheaper than Mortimer? His only unique attribute comes from Fresh Meat. If he's just there to cast Fresh Meat, couldn't he sacrifice his pointless Ml7, some of his wounds or stats, and be a few soulstones cheaper? What would you change on his card or upgrade options to make him appealing again, if ever he was appealing?

Cheers for that, I was never aware it worked like that. It doesn't come up very often for me. It seems that I learn something new about Malifaux every time I try to teach something about it lol.

Yes, there's been some chatter about what they can provide Seamus with; I've heard at least one podcast featuring some excitement about combining Carlos with Lampads. This does seem like it invests a lot in models that don't normally synergise of buff Seamus, and I think Carlos will sorely miss his personal Stunt Double upgrade... but it could be worth exploring. I'd like to bring Cassandra in to copy some of our nasty trademark Resser spells. Lure, Take your Meds, Weigh Sins, or Whispers from Beyond are all very appealing, especially so if you cast one of them from the trigger on her saber attack for free. Her (0) Southern Charm coupled with My Little Helper's one off use seems particularly nasty to deal with. Maybe Cassandra, Carlos and 1-2 Lampads could produce some vicious Burning results, but that's a heck of a lot of soulstones spent trying to make Burning really work. Also since it's in Ressers, the opponent will often bring condition removal to cover some of the numerous debuffs we have access to. I might have to try it out to see for myself.

As your opponent in this event, I hasten to add that my control hands vs you were garbage too. Turn 1 I had just enough to force a single 1-wound summon through, and that was about it. I believe I pulled ahead because I had copious amounts of s (Rogue Necro & Punk Zombies) which let me win most duels without requiring cheating.

That's some beautiful terrain and two beautiful crews. I especially like Pandora and Ashes and Dust. For your question, I've found that high stats on Actions are great when you really want to win specific duels, specifically if you have good damage tracks or powerful debuffs. When you tie on the attack or action, you're still winning the duel. Your example is classic Viks, where a 12 or 13 all but assure you of throwing you 5 minimum damage at someone and potentially whirlwinding half their crew away. However, high stats are only good when you're willing and/or able to use your control hand aggressively to back them up and force things to go your way. If you find yourself without a control hand, even a stellar Ml7 or Ca8 still seems really trash when you flip a low card that you can't cheat and your opponent's model flips or cheats a moderate. Conversely, modifiers stack the duel in your favour. They don't ensure that you will win, but they make it more likely that you'll be winning after the initial flip. Your opponent will be more likely to have to cheat first to win, giving you a chance to drain their hands of cards and/or cheat second to ensure you succeed. Modifiers are also great for sifting through multiple cards to access better suits. If your Viktoria of Blood managed to flip a 9 & 13you can choose which you want to use after your opponent cheats - either forcing the 13 through to win the duel if they flip or cheat high, or taking the lower 9 for the trigger if their total is low enough that the 16 can get through - without touching your control hand. Even if you flip 2 very low cards, it means that the second terrible card you flipped won't be present in your next duel, and you can still cheat if you have cards left. modifiers are always good to have; both at the start at and at the end of a turn, though you tend to notice their usefulness more towards the end when hands run dry of high cards.

I'm not sure I follow the Seamus-Sandeep comparison. Until very recently, all Seamus did for his crew was shoot. He'd focus, teleport, then shoot a model. And that shot could be amazing, but it is only one shot. He had no buffs or heals for his crew, no way to reposition his crew, and was ineffectual if your opponent is in Melee with other models of yours, or hiding in cover. He rarely gets to summon anything because he is often forced to use a (0) to just to let his teleport work (and also because he needs all the decent cards to make his attacks stick). Sandeep on the other hand, shoots, hits, summons, buffs, heals and repositions himself and his crew, all relatively well, when you need it, and then lets his crew do it as well. I suspect Seamus' new upgrades has changed a lot. Regardless of his build though, I think that Seamus will almost always feel like the wrong master to pick if he's not using his .50 Flintlock every turn, usually with Focus, which to me means that he's still very one dimensional when compared with Sandeep. Seamus shoots, and Sandeep does everything. It makes perfect sense that you complain about Wong and the Victorias. You've actually played against them, whereas you haven't played against Sandeep. His relative strength will only become genuinely apparent when you're on the other end of the table facing off against him.

I think M2e has a very good level of replay-ability so I don't see the need for M3e. There's so much variety in each game: unique scheme, strategy & deployment pools, board layouts, mercenary options & diversity of factions just in the "basic game". Add to this seasonal Gaining Grounds changes, global events (remember the hype when Arcanists realised they could get a werewolf?), yearly model releases, designers staying active with their community through these forums and facebook... You have a recipe for a game where you can play a thousand games without the sense of repetition. Many other game systems lack this replay-ability, so releasing new editions (even at the cost of invalidating existing strategies/armies/cards) becomes the only way for them to stop their game becoming stale. 40k's an example I'm familiar with. There's only so many 40k tournaments you can endure where 80% of the players mope around with space marines armed with a bucket of dice and the latest big titan before you lose interest and the game becomes very stale. Admittedly 8th edition looks to be unique in the sense that they've finally started actually listening to what their customers want, breaking decades long traditions of ignoring the people they pay them. I suspect that the game is still going to be too big to balance fairly, and that the way they release new content will still keep invalidating at least some of their older content. From what I've seen, this contrasts extremely hard with how Wyrd makes updates. Wyrd's changes are usually implemented in tandem with existing rules, rather than in conflict with them. A great example of this that we're all excited about are the new master upgrades - which will drastically improve the play experience of many masters - without removing options all around them or weakening other masters. I don't think anyone wants a full overhaul of Malifaux. A few tiny tweaks here and there is sufficient. I also reckon a height and vantage rules update would be welcome, as the current rules for them, while playable, are just not very intuitive.

Angelica is a good choice. I'd vote for December Acolyte personally.

Toshiro, Sebastian or Rogue Necromancy all sound good to me. Alternate Ikiryo or Datsue Ba could be interesting.

Events like this are few and far between, but from what I've heard and seen, it would suit Parker more than most of his fellow Outcast masters. Usually you'd pick the best specialist master for the particular game, and Outcasts are full of specialist masters. But picking a specialist master for 3 rounds? You're going to find some really tough matchups. Parker is enough of a generalist that he can do ok in almost any game type, so honestly, this event structure is probably where he shines most.

I think Toshiro is the right choice as well, for the same reasons stated. He's especially nice in Thunders (as opposed to Ressers where I've played him the most) since there's better Minions in Thunders to take advantage of his Ml buff and Focus/Fast (0)s, and of course because his access to summon is worth so much in Thunders since they naturally have so little of it. Yin is also a terror and I always recommend picking her up. She's a specialised model, but can a complete pain to deal with if your opponent hasn't brought high WP and buckets of . I think her strengths are better utilised in Ressers though so she's not a huge priority for Thunders. For the Izamu vs Yasunori question, I think they're both good models, but for different reasons. I don't think they compete with one another, actually, since they kind of excel at different things. As the opponent of both, I can tell you at least from what is perceived by the opponent, Yasunori offers far more damage and is generally more accurate at getting that damage to hit. I'm not convinced there's anything more psychologically scary than playing against a competent player who hires Yasunori. He could very well be the best in the game at what he does, or at least best in the faction; raw killing power on a long threat range and frustrating layers of durability. The additional 2ss price tag is too low to make Yasunori inferior to Izamu in any meaningful way (unless your master is Yan Lo). Most of Izamu's comparative value comes from Warrior's Death, Melee Expert and the 3" on his attack. If the game lets you abuse these abilities he becomes a fine choice. Sometimes the extra point of Armour will be clutch, when your opponent can't bring any armour ignoring attacks to bear on him. If you can manipulate where their anti armour tech goes (or just kill it lol) then Izamu becomes a god. I've always found him terrific at Squatters Rights and Headhunter since he can do so much in one activation here and is pretty good at denying it. I think he's going to be an excellent at this new Hold Them Up scheme, especially with Yan Lo ferrying models into his Ml8 disengagement range.

I agree with many of these suggestions; both Yin and Emissary are great for Reva (many consider them autopicks with her), Carrion Conflux can be the correct choice for Emissary if you have good minions, and Shieldbearers provide a lot for Reva. For Reva, I think their 6ss investment out performs Drowned almost categorically. The list that thatlatinspeakingguy offers is a step in the right direction. I have heard that it's usually better to hire Shieldbearers in multiples if possible (due to how their Soulstone -> Fast interaction plays out), though admittedly cutting a Belle for one seems painful. It could be worth trying a list with 1 Belle and 2 Shields and then 2 Belles and 1 Shield out yourself to see what you prefer.