hydranixx

I agree with Fetid Strumpet, particularly where the Nurse is concerned. Prioritizing your painting and assembly is one thing, but prioritizing buying Nurses, making a conversion or proxying them, is a must as well! With a Nurse, every control card is a very potent resource to take advantage of. One awesome thing Fetid Strumpet points out in S&S's Seamus podcast is that if a Nurse uses Hallucinagens on Seamus he goes from helpless in Melee to being an absolute monster. Ml 7, minimum damage 3, with triggers to either attack a second time for free or push 4" to a new target to continue pimpslapping. It's not always the right use of cards or his AP, but a potential 18 damage in one activation from slapping someone is a wonderful thing. Of course, this is similarly potent on someone like the Valedictorian, so I agree that she's a decent choice in Seamus crews. There is some synergy with the little aura that Crooligans put out, but I think just hiring another Belle is better since you already have Sybelle. Sybelle's aura + (0) Call Belle makes 2 or so Belles sufficiently mobile to run your schemes when you're not Luring things around. If the scheme pool is super interact heavy, then a Crooligan or Necropunk or both are great choices, but in a more general pool, another Belle is more useful. Even when you eventually play Nico, you will likely find hiring Belles to be more advantageous than Crooligans or Necropunks. You might even summon more Belles throughout the game with your 9's and 10's, so its all the more reason to paint all available Belles and 1-2 Doxies. May I ask, when you take Philip with Seamus, do you include a dedicated model to helping get scheme markers in play early for him? With Molly I've found a Doxy + Philip to be a fantastic early game card combo, but as discussed Seamus and Doxies don't see eye to eye as far as your 7's and 8's in hand are concerned.

Hiring all 3 Malifaux Raptors is not a stretch if the scheme pool supports them. They're only 9ss but they can offer so much to a player. I don't have enough knowledge or an opinion about GG2017 yet, but in GG 2016 there were frequently pools where 2-3 Malifaux Raptors was where my crew list begins - even before I picked my master.

Mei, I can agree with, but I don't see how Kaeris would be too strong. There's nothing on her base card, or in her crew box for that matter (thematic introductory games, right?), that is over the top or annoying to play against (upgrades aside). Their damage is less than impressive, and her minions and henchman die easily enough when they get some attention. More importantly, the box has very clear synergies with Burning, so you could introduce her to the importance of making the most of your synergies (and her she might counter them/play around them). I think it'd be a great thematic fire and ice match up, so I agree with @Vorschlag on this one. You're probably right, but my feeling is that if/when Ironsides gets into combat with Raspy and half her crew and ties them up, which is not a far-fetched idea since she's brand new to the game, the game will get very dull, very quickly. Anything with Warding Runes (which is almost essential to Ironsides from what I hear) seems especially cruel to a bidding Raspy player as it strips her built-in s. Edit: That's what Warding Runes does, right? Like, Counterspell, it strips suits, yes? I rarely use it myself...

I would suggest avoiding Von Schill - or if you play him, don't use lots of other Freikorps. With Rasputina being the blaster she is, I bet your sister will desperately wants to use the numerous 's when she sees what they do, and if you are straight up immune to (Freikorps Suits) it will take away a lot of the fun and experience of Rasputina in the first place. I think 50ss is a big leap to get to grips with the game, especially if it's her first wargame. I reckon she'd be flaked out and not enjoying it by the end, so would recommend no more than 35ss in the first few games.

Sorrows don't get struck in combat as easily as the others while they're completing their schemes. That's worth a lot more than it seems at first. They always have the option to jump up to 8" away without incurring disengagement strikes. This is huge with things like Exhaust their Forces or Hunting Party - you can dash away to take it off while your hound/tot/madness would otherwise have to find a way to kill themselves, concede a point or have to take one or more disengaging strike duels to escape. As far as hand control goes, Sorrows (2) Doldrums spell alone has more control and threat in it than all 3 models you mention. If you're winning the duel with that, you can bet they're cheating. Yes, it does cost 2 Ap, but if you've already gotten the VP from the schemes your Sorrows were hired for, they still have some purposes, whereas most scheme runners contribute nothing once the schemes they're there for are finished.

You're really going into this blindfolded if you don't know the schemes beforehand. Malifaux's designed entirely on the picking models and upgrades based on your objectives. Lust may as well take Imbued Energies if you don't have another specific upgrade in mind for her. It's among our very best upgrades and is worth taking multiple copies of on your various models, unless the models are full with upgrades already. Giving Energies to Joss is a good idea as well.

We have plenty of good Ca attacks, some of which also ignore armour, but most of them are on fairly immobile platforms - think Mages/Ramos/Gunsmiths. They lose some of their firepower and much of their positioning when they Walk to get around cover, get into LoS or into range to take the shot, while exposing themselves to a counter attack or a Lure. I reckon Cassandra is one of the best choices to consider if you're really troubled by the spirit. She's generally a good all rounder model anyway, so she's rarely a liability to hire. Her Ca action is amazing against low Df targets. Walk with Nimble, Focus, cast Breathe of Fire for that 2/3/5 damage track. You're looking to nuke a target in front and blast backwards to kill the spirit and wound anyone else nearby, while neatly auto triggering her push to scoot 4" to safety. If she's still exposed to a counter attack, Southern Charm is a thing. A few days ago I used her in this manner to kill 2 Void Wretches and Karina in one go, then push just out of charge range of the opponent. Cassandra's filthy, I'm starting to play her in almost every list now.

They're tough to use, but they're worth their cost if you use them well. You can always choose to take both Sorrows and Madnesses. They're not a cheap combo but they happen to work rather nicely together if Pandora's about. Yes, they are extremely flimsy so they can and will die to most things if you expose them prematurely. However, they add lots of surplus damage to Pandora's WP attacks if you bring them in at the right time. They're also surprisingly good with the current 2016 scheme pool for securing VP. With their 8" Misery Loves Company for only 1 AP, they're filthy with Public Demo, and decent picks for many of the other interacty schemes like Exhaust or Headhunter. And if you do have the titanium balls required to take Occupy their Turf, Sorrows have the ability to leapfrog a good 18" or so up the board in one turn to get it fairly reliably.

Most of the time you should think of them as byproducts of Kirai & Datsue Ba's attack triggers. Free models are great when they come attached to your attack actions. It's a huge tempo swing when you remove 2 of their AP and add 2 of your own to the mix. Sadly, Gaki are not nearly as impressive when you're directly summoning them since this requires the same 1 AP and potential stoning for the that something more worthwhile (Shikome/Hanged etc) wants from your Master. However, if you do already happen to have a Gaki (or multiple) in play, then it's fair to say they are slightly more attractive as summon options since their attack triggers work in tandem with other friendly Gaki. If you incidentally summon 1 of them while killing something, then Molly or Kirai should feel a bit more inclined to directly summon another, especially if you have the suits to secure those free attack triggers. If you're up against important Ht 1 models (Ophelia!) or if you've Paralysed any of their important models, Gaki do also have the option of outright killing them with their Swallow Whole attack. If Molly or Kirai have a high card of the right suit for that attack and a mid card for summoning the Gaki, it's ridiculously entertaining to eat their master in one duel. If you're playing Kirai and/or Datsue Ba, you definitely want to have them available. Hitting that trigger so summon a free Gaki when you don't own their models absolutely sucks.

Welcome back to the hobby! I have to say that nothing gets under people's nails quite as much as a good Pandora player. She's evasive, fast , deals tonnes of damage and she messes with the activation order of your opponent's models (extremely powerful and can be frustrating to your opponent). There's 2 main builds with her - one in which she is up close and personal, spreading AoE damage, forcing Horror duels, tying people up, and the other in which she is controlling your opponent by paralysing their models and dealing light damage. She can fulfil whatever goal you set to her - as long as that goal is making your opponent miserable (she has an ability literally called Misery). Yeah, I'd say she makes people tilt really hard. She may have some appeal to you seeing as you're already leaning towards Neverborn.

Seeing as you mentioned the word "grow", Lilith is clearly the only option! (some of her crew mechanics are to "Grow" her little demons growing into bigger demons by eating enemies!). The above advice is all very sound. I thoroughly agree that the aesthetics and theme of certain factions plays a large part of which ones you want to collect. The only thing I'd add is to perhaps do a little reading a bit about each of them before making an informed decision. I'd recommend PullMyFinger, which is a website that gives you the rundown on models. Here's a link for each of the three that interest you so far: Lady Justice, Lilith, Viktorias. My gut feelings for each of them as intros are: Lady Justice is a decent choice since she whacks things pretty hard, doesn't care about line-of-sight when she's charging and has plenty of Wounds to keep her in the fight. These are all good for learning the game with, and at the same time she's not a completely all-or-nothing master; she doesn't punish you or your opponent for slightly misplaying by immediately killing the entire enemy team / immediately dying in one shot. The Viktorias can be very polarising, so might not be fun to learn the game with - they'll often either get killed easily and early since they're very fragile, and leave you with a bad taste and probably a lost game, or they'll completely stomp face since they hit like a truck, and leave the opponent with a bad taste. Either way they won't help you learn how to understand and approach schemes and strategies (the heart and soul of Malifaux) or how interact with your opponent to earn VP. I think they're a great 2nd or 3rd Master to pick up, maybe after you've learned the basics of the game with a more well-rounded Master. Lilith's good for learners, intermediate players, and expert players all at the same time. On the surface, her stats are good, her abilities and actions are fairly linear, and her kit is easy to understand. But she really does reward a smart player. The more you play her, the more you can learn how best to exploit her abilities and spells to really screw with your opponent. She's not so much a melee beatstick as a hybrid of melee, debuff and control elements.

Well, I know what 2 Master combo I would run, hands down. The look on your opponent's face when Ironside & an Oxford Mage push Ramos forward for a turn 1 charge, smacking people for up to 3 separate 7 damage Severes... And then summons an Electrical Creation in front of their big beatstick so he can't charge you back xD. I love it.

I've heard similar sentiment from my local community. There is some discussion that Neverborn did perhaps get less love than some others, but some people appear to believe NB were already very powerful so the slightly underwhelming releases were justified. I'm not really sure where I stand on this as I don't play very much NB myself. Of course, none of this made me feel any better while being on the receiving end of Zoraida and a Wisp. It felt decidedly oppressive. After seeing what this thing was capable of, I felt obliged to kill it much earlier than I wanted to. It's really dirty lol, and this is all before considering how potent they'd be with Fickle Winds of Fate... There has been considerable attention for the role the Knights will play in the future... By Leveticus players, of course

I just played a tournament with 2 Raptors in each list, and each time wishing I had taken a third, so I'm glad there's a thread for these guys. I think they're one of the very best Peons in the game... They're cheap, versatile, mobile and surprisingly hitty. The Beast trigger must do wonders for Marcus, but I find that with other masters, the trigger is still super strong for messing with your opponent's deck. Your opponent really doesn't want to lose the duel on your first attack if you flipped the or on the off chance you have a ready in hand, so they'll be pressured to cheat. If they don't cheat, you will get to stack their deck to make sure they are losing the next duel, so again they either have to cheat, or take damage and risk a further trigger to remove good cards from their deck. If they are cheating on any of these 3ss attacks, their control hand gets diminished quickly. If they're not you're getting unparalleled control on their flips. You can't call yourself a real Arcanist until you hit a model, find their Black Joker and stick it on top, swing a second time, then find and discard the Red Joker from their deck. The fact that this spectacular trigger comes attached to a 3ss throwaway Peon model on a 11" threat range with Flight, potentially hitting 4 damage on Severe, is just icing. There's very few models that have Severe damage higher than their ss cost. And this is all secondary to it's usual role of being top tier schemers/anti schemers... For scheming, as mentioned with Practised Production they're fantastic with Leave Your Mark. With Grab & Drop Kaeris they're half way decent for Convict Labour/Search the Ruins/Leave Your Mark and they're absolutely gross with Plant Explosives or Set up. For anti scheming, they're just as good. Fly 16" to engage and deny interacting from enemies (with Df6 no less), or use its (2) to land anywhere at the end of the turn to tie up enemies/block doorways. This action is killer in Interference, obviously. The only scheme where they're a liability is Hunting Party if they're killed. Even then though, you can design your list to run a single Raptor in your back corner using his (2) all game to completely deny the scheme. Thus, I can't see a reason to play any less than 2, outside of the above anti-Hunting Party list.

I like it. The biggest restriction in doubles is the 'only' 3 Imbued Energies between 2 of you clause lol. I like the direction you're thinking of going - there's so many M&SU synergies you can take advantage of with 70ss to work with. Field Generator & Bleeding Edge Tech seem great with so many friendly M&SU models hanging about. Also, Ironsides + Challenge the Crowd + Field Generator = to Df duels - you're always dodging attacks or hitting that trigger. Handpicked Men might even work on Ramos himself - check the wording. He's actually quite a beast in Melee with his severe of 7, but is very inaccurate because he has to spend AP to Focus and his single powerful Ml 5 attack can be avoided. With Handpicked Men though, he's a different monster. He's gonna be able to charge something to swing with what is essentially 2 Focused attacks and then still have an AP left to summon or swing a third time (again with equivalent of Focus).

My choice would be Gaki. Their model is gorgeous, but their rules are so underwhelming. You'd rarely hire or purposefully summon them. They seem to just be a sort of by-the-way addition to Kirai & Datsue Ba's actions, and Kirai who does it from behind a big screen of spirits anyway. I would want a master that gets stuck in there with his fellow Gaki. Plus everyone despises Kirai. Thus, my master concept is someone who favours up close and personal fighting, personifies hunger/greed/ambition/ and happens to work well with Gaki. Stats - something along the lines of: Df6 / Wp5 / Wd13 / Wk4 / Cg 5 / Ht2 Abilities: Unimpeded Impossible to Wound +1 Insatiable - At the start of this model's activation, if an enemy model has less Wounds than their Wd stat is within 10", this model adds +3 to their Cg stat until the end of the turn, and may push 3" towards the nearest enemy model in LoS. Hyperphagia - When a model is killed or sacrificed within 4", this model may be placed in base contact before removing it, and heals 2 Wounds. Actions: (1) Craving's Bane (Ml 6 / Rst: Df / Rg: 2): Target suffers 2/4/6 damage. If the target has less Wounds than their Wd stat, this Action gains on the Attack flip. Would be nice to have a trigger that gives the target a condition that grants Hard to Kill to all Gaki as long as they remain within 8" of it. Not sure where else it'd go.

I can't speak for Colette, but with Mei Feng you already have a good base to work with. If you were looking to add to her hiring pool, I would recommend acquiring Coryphee, Langston (Colette wants both of these too) Porkchop and Mech Rider, in that order. I've really been loving Coryphee with Cassandra in my Mei, Ramos & Kaeris crews, and I know that Colette will get even more out of them. Mei as an Arcanist is more support oriented since she can't take Misdirection or Recalled Training. She's not quite as capable as Thunders Mei for getting that one turn of railwalking-melee carnage and surviving in the thick of things forever. She will want to work more with her Construct and Burning synergies to get the most out of her. Colette likes Ice Dancers, maybe. I've never used them myself, but I often hear great things about them. Maybe they're what you're referring to about her liking some Rasputina stuff. Gamin vary between being ok scheme runners, decent point holders and good synergy pieces/enablers. They can be slightly weak as hires if you don't bring them in for a specific purpose such as Rasputina's Ice Gamin field or Wind Gamin to run schemes on a board with lots of terrain everywhere. They also make for flexible and reliable summons - we have Mech Rider who summons Ice/Fire/Metal Gamin on a (0) and Sandeep who summons and buffs Gamin too. I like the option to bring in 1 Fire Gamin with Mei and Kaeris, but I don't deem it necessary. Rasputina needs her Ice Gamin for cheap activations and setting up her network. If Sandeep tickles your pickle, you probably want at least one of each Gamin for the flexibility it gives you. If you were looking to play just Colette and Mei, I would say you probably don't need any extra Gamin. Also, buy Malifaux Raptors. They're the best Arcanist model in the game!

I can't speak for Mouse, but I agree he does seem underwhelming. The general consensus is just save your 4 points? I used to look at the Eternal Flame and think "wow this thing is terrible" but comparing to Mouse it's half the cost, has a heal that's generally more reliable, and has 3 times the durability. Now I don't feel quite as bad playing with the Eternal Flame haha. I'm curious why you dislike bringing Peons though - I think our generic faction Peons (non Totems) are each fantastic support pieces in the right crew - mannequins, toolkits, creations and raptors. Peons are in a good spot for the current set of strategies and schemes, since they rarely directly award points to the enemy but are capable of denying them points in many instances. They're only really a liability in Hunting Party; with any other set of schemes they're free to harass your opponent. You're not really an Arcanist until you drop 3 Raptors into a game of Interference and never lose a single strategy point to your opponent. Also, Practised Production and Raptors is disgusting for Leave Your Mark, Breakthrough. Arcanists have the best non totem peon in the game! Back on track though, does anyone play hyper aggressive, melee focused Ironside builds? I've played an extremely aggressive, top-heavy Mei build recently, and I wondered how capable Toni is at the same thing?

Oh, there's no love for Gunsmiths, don't worry. They're awful. They just happen to become less awful when Burning and Ironsides are in the equation. I don't think she ever has upgrade space to buy Message from the Union, even if it was a decent pick.

I always wanted to try this. It's probably one of the exceedingly few ways Gunsmiths can become potent (usually they're just trash, but when enemies are Burning, or Ironsides is around, they are a little better. Both at the same time? They actually have some appeal now. Triple positives on the attack are all kinds of fun). But I don't think many players find space for the Molotov upgrade on Ironsides. There's usually a lot of love for her other personal upgrades and sometimes she wants some combination of Seize the Day, Reservoir, Warding Runes etc. I'm not 100% sure if the same rules apply for Ironsides, but whenever new players get into Lilith and ask for advice, experienced players often tell them to play Lilith like she doesn't have a sword attack for the first 10 games. The idea is to exclusively learn how to use her utility; use her pulls, and pushes, and snares, learn how to position your own models and your forests well. I believe Ironsides could be similar. If you pretend she literally doesn't have Melee attacks until turn 3/4 you will learn to get the most of her pulls, where to place her, how to efficiently buff your M&SU friends. When things start getting congested and points are scoring, that's when she starts tying up more models and killing things. That's really the heart and soul of Ironsides; support early, brawl late. In addition to the models and crew choice advice that squirrel offered, I recommend Johan! While he'always popular, with Ironsides, he turns it up to 11. They complement each other perfectly, and his massive 3/4/6 damage spread absolutely adores the free focus and Solidarity buff. This is one of the few crews where his heal actually has some application too. I don't think any Ironsides list is complete without him

I caught up with the person I mentioned above for his advice and opinions. He played Tara almost exclusively for a year straight. In his view, Tara is good at almost any set of schemes and stones as she multiplies the strengths of her crew and can get 6ap per turn. Having more models in your hiring pool really helps her thrive in her role. She requires a lot of planning and card management, especially with her base crew's Df mechanic and Bury mechanic. He's only played her in Outcast, so can't comment on the Resser side. Karina can be quite good. She's a bit of a gamble since she can't stone for suits. He usually averages 1 summoned Punk Zombie per game and sometimes an Autopsy or two as well depending how many he gets. Scion of the Void is his mvp, and offers a few nifty tricks for an enterprising Tara player.

Feminazi alert.

Are you perhaps thinking of Dead Outlaws? They're the Outcast Undead Bandits, whereas Wokou Raiders are living Ninja/Bandit hybrids. Unless you meant to unlock Wokou Raiders AND give them the Undead characteristic with the upgrade as well? I like the idea for this captain of yours @godswearhats. He would need another name, though, as there's currently an Arcanist henchman literally called "The Captain", too. Lucky Pete & Morgan both sound interesting enough, but perhaps they could have some synergy/support for the hazardous terrain subtheme. Morgan has some similarities to Sybelle when you look at their kits. The only reservations I have is automatic Armour-ignoring attacks on both the master and his henchman is a bit oppressive. Maybe consider having only one of their attacks ignore Armour, or both their attacks ignore Armour, but only on triggers?

Well, yes, Cass would be slightly vulnerable to attacks which ignore defensive triggers, but that still doesn't stop Southern Charm. If I was facing an attack with a built in to counteract Charm that also ignores defensive triggers, well, I'd then be genuinely impressed! I think Df7 + ss damage prevention is still pretty good though, even then. Anna doesn't seem particularly scary, unless I've missed something. She does stop our pushes and places, but we can still push and Slow her, we still get our scheme marker from S&M (I think?) even if Cassandra herself can't be placed (maybe? haven't checked the wording on the upgrade too closely) and we still dodge almost all attacks since Southerm Charm + Df7 is aids. I might have missed something on her card; I haven't played her much yet and when I do I lose in record speed because I'm trash with Ressers anyway. Yeah, more and more I'm bringing Angelica and/or Cassandra into many of my 50ss crews. Mobility is just so crucial and no one does it better than these two.

If you're looking to play Tara, you'll be getting as many models as most summoner masters anyway lol; some combination of Killjoy, maybe Bete, Guild Marshals, Scion of the Void maybe? Possibly also things for Karina to summon if you ever want to play her that way - Punk Zombies, Autopsies... You might also consider some staple choices like Nurses/Belles/Graveyard Spirit or Trappers/Johan/Sue etc. That being said, I agree that she is a flexible master. It's an added bonus that she works in both factions you're considering. If there's anything holding her back from being popular, it's that she's very intricate, and she really requires lots of playtime to really understand. Anyone who's ever played Tara will tell you that you need to be patient while you learn her. There's lots to take in, and there's so much she can do that it's easy to get overwhelmed at first, and when you don't know when to take advantage of all her tricks, she begins to seem underwhelming. I'll be playing against a veteran Tara player this evening, which is a kinder way of saying I'll be getting destroyed by a veteran Tara player this evening, so I'll try query his opinion on learning Tara, her flexibility and her place in both factions for you