hydranixx

Anna Lovelace has Rush of Magic, so it's a little extra cycling. She's almost auto include for me, regardless of which faction I am playing, against Ten Thunders... as long as she vaguely suits the scheme pool. In Arcanists, the aforementioned Imbued Energies is probably a good choice on her. Some masters have at least one way to cycle or draw cards. Kaeris' 0 and to a slightly lesser extent Mei's Price of Progress upgrade, can net you additional cards during the course of the game.

Forgotten Life is a good choice to start Molly with because her box set coupled with 2-3 Punk Zombies and a single Drowned are likely to cover all your summoning bases in 80-90% of the games you play. The students are probably essential if you want to play her competitively, though, since there's only so much a Punk Zombie can do for you. As any Horror Molly player will vouch, Punk Zombies are the combat model Horror Molly will summon most of the time. Their HtK is exceptional when paired with Black Blood. The modest 11+ required to summon them, and the they get for their attacks, makes them pretty economical as far as summons go, which is important since a Molly running at peak efficiency is usually going to consume your entire hand. The only time I bothered with Horror Molly (usually play Spirits) I had great success with Viscera, since it suited the situation at hand (hunting down a Blessed of December). It almost inspired me to play Horror more often. The Students allow you to tailor your summon based on the enemy model, put it point blank in the target's face, then chain activate into it. If you have the right suit for their triggers, you can make the one or two attacks you get rack up impressive damage, unlike Punks who will most likely only do 2 damage. The combination of HtW, Armour and Terrifying means that they're extremely painful to remove as long as you summon them in where they can get at least a few wounds. The most overtly useful is probably Steel, because as already mentioned in this thread he can get around Armour, followed by Viscera & Sinew. Drowned, I summon exclusively for their Finish the Job. Their attacks are not impressive enough to justify their relatively expensive summoning cost, regardless of which version of Molly you're playing. If you want an economic beater, the Goryo or Punk Zombie only cost 1 card higher and have better accuracy, and if you're stuck on a 10 to summon, I find that Doxies are the way to go. Doxies are more accurate, can boost mobility and even when they die they hand out buffs. Their (0) is not to be underestimated. Nonetheless, Drowned are integral to Molly's toolkit, purely due to the mechanics of her summoning coupling with Finish the Job. The automatic scheme marker at 7" access makes Molly good at things like Hidden Trap or Breakthrough, while Set Up has become a staple. Necrotic Engine will be summoned on occasion. It's cheap to summon which is good when you have an unimpressive hand. The fact you can throw it 10" instead of the usual 6" is really useful, for Killjoy as mentioned but also because it can always choose to chain activate regardless of distance so you can harass things from a long distance. It's not an offensive powerhouse, but it can force cards out of your opponent's hand. It has an automatic ability to eat Corpses when it activates too, which can be ace if your opponent would otherwise want to use them. I have never heard of anyone summoning Crooligans or Autopsies with Molly. They generally lack the offensive bite, utility or long distance summon you want from your 1AP+control card investment. Draugr are interesting, but again, I've never seen or heard of anyone summon them in with Molly.

Seems curious. Have you come up with all the effects you might want included? I was thinking of combining a few of the ideas generated, and brainstormed with this 2ss upgrade: Grizzled Veteran (2) Grizzled Veteran: This model's crew may choose to automatically win the Deployment Flip. Tactical Ruse: Before drawing control hands for the first turn of the game, place 1 friendly model that is in play anywhere in your deployment zone. If the model that was placed has the Friekorps characteristic, it may then immediately take a Walk action. Make It Rain: Once per game, this model may take the Stand and Shoot Tactical Action as a (2) Action instead of a (3) Action. If it does, draw a card, then discard this upgrade.

Most events run specific deployment+strategy pairings each round. I can't ever recall seeing Squatters on Standard Deployment in organised play, for examplem since the markers just end up too close to each other. Surely a reflip does nothing for tournaments since it's automated?

My issue with 'walked right into it' is that flipping for deployment is very integral aspect of the game. Forcing your opponent to deploy first, in the deployment side they want the least, eliminates a very important part of the pre game set up (and make it a very npe for your opponent on some boards, especially with Trappers since FtS means you will always get to deploy second and secure good firing positions). How about simply automatically winning the deployment flip? You still get some control of deployment edges if the board is really awkward, but you don't get to ALSO deploy after your opponent has. Perhaps you could glue it on another upgrade and price it at 2ss (similar to Tara's to initiative upgrade).

You might be right that upgrades are the way to go. They would certainly be easier to add than supplying entirely new card(s) for the crew. Even so, he's not glaringly awful so it's probably not correct to inundate him with tonnes of new options that would drastically improve him. 2 new upgrades in total seems reasonable. I like the concept of On the books, though Burt benefiting from VS's aura... that's a mess. In particular, Augmented Kick would add something to VS's arsenal that is sorely lacking; generating ap efficiency. Two 6" pushes for 1AP and a low ? That's usually going to be worth the damage flip on friendlies to promote their mobility (especially considering Friekorps all have Armour so it's more like a 1/1/3 flip). Of course, a 6" push is amazing against enemies too. If you were prepared to spend high cards and/or stones for 's he could do a pretty good impression of Lightning Dance and kidnap enemy models. VS's Augmented Charge means he should usually be able to position appropriately; the charge itself will generate 12" of forced movement on that model if you connect both times. That trigger is also nasty (reminds me of Nelly a bit, where she pushes and slows a model for 1 AP). Some damage, Slow and a 6" shove... Overall an exceptional trigger for Extraction. If you were to theorycraft only 1 or 2 upgrades what would you have them be @Voodoo Specter?

Molly's summoning require no corpse markers, but they come in with only 1 wound remaining for each nearby enemy model (3"). In most circumstances, whatever you're summoning comes in with only a few wounds. Rewatch the video; either you missed them marking wounds, or there were 7 nearby models as Durza mentions, or the Molly player hasn't read her action properly

Agreed. For a similar price, you're better off hiring an Ice Dancer or 2 Wind Gamin etc. I usually opt for The Firestarter with IE for this role with Mei. He's excellent at scheming, and is decent at hunting enemy scheme runners so he fits a similar role as Torakage. I find 'Ignition' a welcome addition in this crew, as he can empower Mei's Claws get their to damage, or stack Burning on a model that the Emberling can go snuggle with later on in the turn so that it doesn't expire.

A 5ss model with a min 3 ranged attack, that becomes min 4 on a flipped or cheated ... It sounds like you're kind of making them like a mini Rusty Alyce, except that they're only half her ss cost. They almost have identical statlines if VS is leading. At least Gremlins have the courtesy of being squishy, or hurting themselves, when they convert minimum 2 damage into minimum 4 damage with their minions. Friekorps, especially with VS at the helm, are tough as nails. I like your second option too. A (0) push is versatile, and would transform a humble Friekorpsman into a relatively durable scheme runner, instead of trying to make him into yet another ranged damage dealer that competes with Bandidos, Dead Outlaws and pretty much all the other Friekorps models. Pushes are desperately needed in the Friekorps subtheme, and would go a long way towards mitigating their lack of AP generation. I'm interested to hear what you propose.

As much as Sonnia can produce fantastic results against Nicodem, a lot of that relies on the Nicodem player's experience, or lack thereof, with facing blasters. It's true that she can absolutely destroy his crew in 1 or 2 activations if he's in a mediocre position and is only summoning, but he has many tools available to help him endure her spells: Shards of Kythera from his Emissary, options for applying additional s to her attacks with Crooligans, Sebastian or even one of his upgrades, in addition to any available Hard Cover features. Simply standing a bit further back, well out of line of sight, works well enough for the early turns, since he's usually coming out in Interference and it's ok to chill in the back for most of the game. Personally, I'm much more afraid of McCabe than Sonnia, especially of his Glowing Sabre. That things cuts through my copious Hard to Wound/Hard to Kill/Armour +1/+2, and it can be wherever the McCabe player needs it to, at the right time. I can only answer this inversely, as a Nicodem player myself. Hyper aggressive masters do me the most harm. From what I hear, Lady Justice+Emissary taxi would be positively terrifying to face. There's so many things on her card that just ruins Nicodem's day, not least the fact that she denies Corpse Markers when making kills, which makes attrition impossible for Nicodem. She can one shot his summons if they fail attacks against her and she can kill multiple support pieces in a single activation. Of course, she also has the option to potentially outright kill him, if she is well positioned after her taxi ride and prepared to spend the soulstones. With his decidedly awful Df4, the Onslaught trigger becomes legitimately scary if she buys it. He will die unless he uses multiple soulstones defensively, in which case his summoning is dampened for the rest of the game. I think a good Lady J player can warp how one can play Nicodem entirely. In terms of general play, the models that cause me the most trouble are ones immune to conditions that can just get in my face. A lot of Nico's damage or debuffs come from conditions, so Numb to the World is a great option for Guild players. Poison, Adversary, Slow, Take your Meds... None of them work... So Nicodem sits there kind of scratching his head while your high value enforcer rips into his summoning engine around him.

Thanks for commenting guys. I think a lot of us get stuck in our ways when it comes to upgrades so it's good to revisit exactly why it is we justify certain upgrades and why we avoid others. I don't speak for all players who take Seize the Day, but for me, it is less about relieving 'pressure' to win initiative, and more about the extra control it provides. I don't necessarily put myself in a position where I must win initiative to have a chance, but I am always in a position where winning the flip is advantageous in one way or another. No matter how cagey I play, there will come at least one turn every game (usually turn 3 or 4) where winning initiative allows me to secure or deny a VP (especially with Accusation, and to a slightly lesser extent, Dig Their Graves, being so common in pools) or to kill or save something that absolutely must be killed or saved. In some games there will be multiple turns like this. Seize the Day pretty much doubles the chance that I'll win that potentially game-winning initiative flip, so for me it's a big priority and can't be easily replicated or replaced. I do like Arcane Reservoir, and I can see its value (especially if you're packed with discard affects). With multiple Railworkers and Hard Worker I could even agree with you that Reservoir is worth at least as much and most likely more than Seize the Day. Though it does sadly pale in comparison to many other sources of card draw, at least it is 'permanent' and doesn't require you to actually do anything. Yet I honestly believe that if you're taking Reservoir, Seize should still be strongly considered as Mei's third upgrade. While Vapormancy is attractive for the Ca attack and trigger, I never get excited from it unless I know I'm going to encounter lots of Incorporeal models. The vent steam trigger can feel superfluous; I will often ignore it in favour of triggers provided by Seismic Claws, and if I really want a stack of Vent Steam, I'm not risking an opposed duel with my opponent to secure it. I'm just making it happen for 1 Ap. I will make a concerted effort next time I play Mei Feng to purposefully not take Seize the Day to see how it compares. Different metas seem to produce different priorities, but I'll humour you and try your way to see how it goes.

If you find it necessary, then fair enough. I usually manage with 6, though admittedly 7 is nicer with discard affects. Were I to run Arcane Reservoir, I would probably drop Vapormancy for Seize the Day.

I'm not sure trying to Assimilate Mei's actions is that great in the first place. But if you want to make it work, I second @spooky_squirrel's idea that the potential extra stack of Vent Steam is probably one of the most compelling reasons reasons to do it (if your opponent brings range). This doesn't require you to meet as many TNs as setting up a Railwalk, and it makes him a really tough bunker. You put enemies on without Mei using any AP herself, while Lazarus sits pretty wailing away with Auto Fire. In my opinion, Lazarus copying Railwalking serves two main purposes: Escaping combat during his own activation. Angelica or the Captain can push him, but then your opponent is allowed to activate next and can simply Walk or Charge with a model to engage him again. Using Railwalk here lets him get away so that he can remove Accusation, for example, or to get back in range of an objective, or simply to shoot the right target. Getting an angle on a particularly important target. Because Railwalk essentially gives Lazarus up to 7"-9" free movement depending on the size of the construct he jumps to, it allows him to dramatically reposition himself so that he can shoot at previously hidden/entrenched enemies without giving them a chance to find cover or escape LoS. While it has the potential to be outstanding, it is by no means cheap and I believe it should be used sparingly and opportunistically rather than every turn. If you have to cheat to succeed Spark's action and your Railwalk and then discard for Auto Fire, you've used half your hand already.

The only changes I would suggest, give your collection, would be to drop one Railworker for a Steam Arachnid and to try a few games exchanging Arcane Reservoir for Seize the Day. Arcane Reservoir can be great but it;s often unnecessary. At 2ss, it is not a cheap upgrade and it often provides only a very small gain. Seize the Day on the other hand, is always exceptional at 1ss, especially with an aggressive, mobile fighter such as Mei Feng.

Though Reva usually outshines him as a source of raw damage, some scheme pools or boards really encourage a Seamus pick. If it's a packed city with tonnes of buildings he'll have a much easier time than her getting around and making his damage count. For denying points, he's a pretty safe master when the pool contains Tail 'Em, Eliminate the Leader and to a lesser extent Accusation. For scoring points, Undercover Entourage is very easy for him to score and even easier for him to fake. Sinister Rep tends to be the more common of his limited upgrades, and it does wonders for powering up your WP attacks or Terrifying abilities, but Bag of Tools can make him very efficient at Dig their Graves and Set Up, and somewhat 'ok' at Search the Ruins and Hidden Trap. He's still a niche pick imo. I usually have to see some combination of Tail 'Em, Eliminate the Leader, Undercover Entourage etc before I start thinking about taking Seamus, and then I want to see lots of blocking impassable terrain before I lock him in.

I haven't played much with Arcanists lately, though I managed to squeeze in two games this week, both full of scheme markery goodness, and remembered why I loved playing Kaeris. Unfortunately I've not tried many of the new(er) models things with her as I've been focused exclusively on Ressurs until recently. I'm particularly interested in Carlos, Amina and our Emissary. Do any Kaeris regulars have some experience with these 3 they would like the share with me? I tend to pick Kaeris (Grab and Drop) when there's 2-3 scheme marker schemes available and/or when there's plenty of Severe/Hazardous terrain to fly over or throw people into. I've never seen a reason to take Purifying Flame. With all the pushes and obeys in my meta I just imagine my models being put somewhere outside her 6" and burning to death... But perhaps someone can shed some light on when it could be useful?

I had a thought for this card draw list; Necropunk(s). It isn't 6ss, but you already have lots of anchors in this list so it's ok. It does the job of both the Dead Doxy and the Flesh Construct in a roundabout way. The auto heal upon activation makes it a great candidate Abominations to draw cards off and it's leap means it can give 2 markers for Philip and the Nanny with relative ease, plus of course earning you VP later in the game. If you had both a Doxy and the Necropunk and were careful with your positioning you can set Philip up with 4 markers on turn 1. It's also 1ss cheaper than the Flesh Construct so you could add Oathkeeper to Philip and the Nanny/Vanessa or another ss to cache. Necropunks seem cute with Alyce if you ever bring her in since the cost to Burn out is significantly lower when it automatically heals again when it activates. Thoughts on the Necropunk in this list, @Joel?

I like your list, but it is very unorthodox. The Gunslinger and Punk Zombie are interesting choices. I think they're fine in games where your opponents need to come to you but Wk4 is still really sad when you're spending 7-8ss apiece. At least the Gunslinger is ranged I guess. I would try avoid Dead Rider unless you already own him and don't want to invest in another big hitter. He's can be 'ok' with Nicodem but is often said to be very underwhelming with other masters, Seamus included. I can't imagine he does a great deal for Sybelle or Belles. Rogue Necromancy has always served me well when I have Doxy/Belle support. How do you feel about RN instead?

I concur that Mei's an excellent starting master. Good stats, good mobility, immunity to slow and paralyze, fantastic counter shooting or casting crews, plus in ideal circumstances she can combo multiple attacks into enemy models... I didn't know much about Malifaux when I picked her up, but I found her really good to learn with. Kang and Railworkers are admittedly quite slow, but they're tough as nails and pack a punch. Mei makes up for their relative lack of speed all by herself, and her Emberling is quick enough to get wherever you need it. If you start with Mei Feng, decide you like her, and decide you like the game after all. You can then pick up Yan Lo as your second or third master. There's sufficient crossover between them to share a pool of models, and he'd feel smoother to operate as you'd have a better feel for the game. He's a bit finicky for brand new players. You can play 35ss games with her box alone if you include upgrades (I suggest downloading or ordering the generic upgrade as the same time as the crew).

One issue is that she needs a mid level for the summon to work. That's fine on the turns you have a 6-8, but when we have anything higher, that could feels like a waste of an otherwise good card. Yes she is a Henchman, so she's able to stone for it, but Nicodem is reasonably stone hungry as it is for summoning, suits and maybe cards. One thing in Asura's favour is that you get a Mindless Zombie BEFORE Nicodem goes on turn 1, so you get to waste an extra activation (that can threaten Hands from Below!), and it gives you a free card when you summon from it (Undertaker) without the need to cast Mwuhahaha first. But obviously, if you have a good hand and want to summon stuff, 2 or 3 Corpses is better than 1 Mindless Zombie. More playtesting and time will reveal if/when the trade off is worth it. I can't imagine there's space in the average 50ss list to fit two expensive Living Henchman models. You're right (in my opinion) that the generic upgrade buff that the Emissary provides is worth more than Nicodem's specific one most of the time.

I have also wondered about including Hayreddin with Yan Lo. They both have a habit of wanting nearby things to get hurt/killed to gather their unique resource. One thing to consider is that even though Yan does kind of want to hit Severe with Spirit Barrage for his Chi trigger, he can gather Chi much easier by just killing a summoned Seishin (Datsue Ba/Goryo) on a weak flip, or finishing off a weakened enemy. This way he doesn't cost you a Severe card. A lot of Yan Lo's core ancestor models have uninspiring damage tracks (lots of 1/2/3, 2/3/4, 3/3/4/, 3/4/5 tracks), so the difference between Weak, Moderate or Severe isn't huge. I think the best part of Hayreddin's Aura is partially wasted here. However, a humble Belle, going from Weak to Moderate as result of the , essentially triples her damage output, while RN's 3/5/6 which becomes even more vicious when it gets an extra flip. With all of these models getting out of activation AP from Smell Fear/Pounce, Hayreddin lurking nearby while Yan Lightning Dances someone between a pack of Belles and RN could be a very interesting way of ripping someone apart. I would be interested in hearing more about Hayreddin, with any master for that matter, as I too adore his model and want to hire him more often.

Advantage. I assume @Torsul writes this due to Marcus and Seamus both having access to upgrades that lowers the WP of nearby enemies by 2? Either of these put Pandora down to WP5, where she becomes much easier to hit and her Incite is much easier to avoid. Pandora's a dangerous thing for them to hunt though. Even though they neuter her WP, her base Ca stats on Self Harm and Self Loathing are good, and Marcus (Trail of the Gods + Shillelagh) and Seamus (.50 Flintlock) both have minimum 4 damage attacks that she'd absolutely love to use against them. If she also has overlapping Misery auras, the damage stacks up even quicker. My Seamus shot himself in the head twice in one turn when she Self Harm'd him; 10 damage later... Against Pandora: When you're against Box Pandora, as others have indicated, it's best to avoid her as much as possible, and play for your schemes. The Strategy will very often still be painful (Pandora is most popular in Extraction-type strategies for a reason; stacking her auras and Inflict into a mosh pit), but sometimes you just have to tough it out and throw some fatties in the middle to score you 2 or 3 VP on the strategy. The cost to attacking is often too high, but killing her support model core (Sorrows/Madnesses/Iggy/Widow Weaver/Poltergeist) undoes a lot of the pressure and damage she brings. If you ever play Voices Pandora, suggest to your friends that they consider disabling her before she disables them. iirc she also has an upgrade that makes models Insignificant. Either or both of these upgrades severely hamper one's ability to score. Traditional condition removal can help, but as you know Incite can often get around that. Any control actions they can throw at her usually help a great deal. She's as delicate as anyone else when it comes to being on the receiving end of harmful conditions. Alternatively, throwing high stat attacks at her will force her to use her hand on defending, which means there's fewer resources for her to pour into disabling models that will yield you VP.

If you're struggling against summoning spam lists, your best chance is to try rip one key part out of it as fast as possible with Belle Lures of your own then Lightning Dancing it, pulling it half way across the board. For that matter, any crew that is bubble-based or relies on positional based synergy is fair game. If you focus his efforts on this he can be extremely good at it, simply because he can get his Lightning Dance to a very high Ca value, and doesn't need a suit for it, unlike Lilith for example.

I agree. I think many masters encounter similar 'problems'. If I'm playing Arcanists, I'm not sure I'd ever hire Mei Feng if I didn't know what faction my opponent was declaring. So much on her card is counterplay material; Vent Steam, sneaking Kang into the faction, access to Hard Worker etc. Most of her things are so very specific that she feels very lackluster when she runs into a game against someone who ignores everything she does. I'm sure many players feel the same way about one or more masters they commonly play.

It seems most 'useful' against Ressers in particular. Most of the lineup, even beatsticks and masters, routinely clock in at Df4. Some of our stuff even has Df2 or Df3. There's also tonnes of Hard to Wound and Impossible to Wound, so you get to flip even more cards when you do land a hit. Sooner or later you're going to find a Joker, and I think with these guys, both Jokers are good. Either an almost certain hit (Red), boost of damage (Red) or knowing it's been taken out of the deck so your more important duels can succeed (Black). Their Disguised ability also seems pretty good against Ressers due to heavy emphasis on Melee. As a Resser, the only thing that scares me more than Kang is when someone outputs massive quantities of attacks that circumvents my Impossible to Wound/Hard to Wound/Armour +2. I have lots of TNs to meet and abilities or actions demanding a discard, so I don't have many cards to cheat defense duels with. Again, I'm not sure this makes them worth the 4ss. I imagine people would totally hire them in Outcasts at 3ss if they lost the SS regain trick but retained everything else. Would do you reckon, would you hire them at 3ss? What would you change on their card to hire them at 4ss?