hydranixx

I'm glad you brought this up, as I do play Mei Feng extensively. She does like her thematic choices, but it's healthy to deviate from pure construct/thematic models as they can really tie you down for some hard counters. I'd be keen to play them with her. I feel like early on Vent Steam would keep them nice and safe, while later on she can dash in and hold up most enemy models with her huge engagement range. With Ten Thunders' access to Broken Promises and Misdirection, I feel like Mei could easily take up tanking duty while the Archers safely shoot into combat. I'm also glad to read that Lynch has some potential with Archers, as he's the next master I'd look to add to my Thunders. At the very least, Ace in the Hole allows the Archers to freely rapid fire if I can secure a single 1 per turn.

Which crews would benefit the most from these guys? I love the idea of playing a few of them near a model holding Blot the Sky; another question I had for you guys and girls: If you do buy Blot the Sky, who holds it? Do you put it on a (reasonably) cheap model to keep costs down, or do you put it on someone sturdy and threatening enough to protect and buff them? (I think I like Kang with his auras, but he's expensive at 9ss and can't really contribute with his awesome melee prowess if he's at the back?)

Does the wisp itself have any form of regular melee attack action? I'm still kind of in love the idea of him stealing Flurry from Bad Juju. Even if his attack is terrible, ditching 2 cards and throwing 6 attacks at someone would be hilarious.

It's not just that the Wisp hatches the gupp for her, it's the added luxury of getting that Gupp when you actually want it, and for a reasonable ap cost. Our wisp can be on egg hatching duty for only 1ap instead of the Mother's 2ap, and crucially, can hatch you a Gupps turn 1. As he only costs 3ss, it's a really cheap way to add both his own ap and the Gupps' ap that could not have existed turn one any other way. Wonderfully, both wisps & the spawn mother are Swampfiends too, so Zoraida players could even take them both with her to Gremlins if she wanted.

I've found the 'core' to any list involves 1-2 Rail Workers, Arcane Effigy and one of the 50mm fast constructs. Langston or Mech Rider, naturally, are perfect fits. The Rail Golem can 'potentially' a lot for you, if you stack up locomotion and you have enough tomes, but it's less reliable. I know what I'm going to get from Mech Rider or Langston when I hire them each game, and I can rely on them, so they're my choices. I guess if your scheme pool & opponent is incredibly aggressive, you could take both Langston & the Rail Golem, as they don't require the same suits to operate with. Mechanised Porkchops.. I haven't had a chance to try it yet.., but I think it's top tier with Mei Feng. It complements almost everything she wants to do and doesn't break the budget. From there, a few utility models such as Angelica or The Captain are good choices. They enable your construct train to work smoothly and get things into place in record time. A scheme runner is mandatory if you've got a scheme pool full of interact action schemes. Look no further than The Firestarter. He & The Captain both provide reliable burning to start Mei's pain train combos as well. Food for thought

I agree. Leaving Kaeris to activate later on in the turn is generally a good idea anyway, more so when Belles are about. Luckily, with GnD, the model need only care about where it is in relation to Kaeris when it starts to activate, not where it is at the end of the turn or the end of it's activation. I try not to apply burning to many of my own models past turn 1 or 2 anyway.

As far as Chiaki goes, she can only remove one condition per AP, so if you mix in other conditions, such as slow (looking forward to Amina, anyone?) or poison (Arcanists' latest sub-theme I guess?) with burning, she has to start making some tough choices. Even then, she only saves one model. You should be able to apply burning to numerous models every turn, seeing how most spirits and undead have weak Df stats, and most our actions for burning are Sh/Ca 6 or 7 to start with. I like Decker's idea, thanks for sharing it. I think I'll bring out Kaeris when I'm facing Ressers next time. Relying on burning damage rather than damage flips is actually a pretty decent plan, even if Kirai doesn't show up; the entire faction you're against either has Incorporeal or Hard to Wound.

Three it is, then!

I won't lie, this is the most exciting part of Sandeep's upgrades for me. I'm already shopping for suitable ways to build my own Arcanist-themed Valedictorian. I can't wait to let the Valedictorian show up with Arcanist upgrades when I declare Arcanists. I quite like the option of putting warding runes on her, maybe coupled with Imbued Protection, and a pair of discounted Oxford Mages.

Yeah, definitely, we already have 3 M&SU masters, plus Joss & Hank, who are close to auto include in many crews. Supposedly Phiona has only the Living characteristic, so not a Construct; I imagine she's indifferent towards Foundry models. Maybe if Mei & co start talking smack about Nellie's newspaper, she might have a go at them..,

This is definitely one of the better targets to engage early on, I agree. He's super flexible in who he can sap AP from because he can burn SS to survive longer and keep annoying things. You can fling him into a cast-heavy crew, or summoning engine, with Bleeding Edge Tech, then use the (0) 3" ability in much the same manner. They can't reliably walk away, their Ca Actions become decidedly weaker and a lot of their abilities just straight up won't work if they're in an engagement. It forces a metric tonne of pressure on the opponent to free up their casters and use AP from the get go. Against summoners, even 2-3 models AP mixed up or delayed is everything, and The Firestarter can gladly die late on turn one after having absorbed most of the opponent's resources. If you're against physical damage crews, such as Guild perhaps, another option could be to take Imbued Protection and fly into as many models on turn one as you can. Between Df 7 (!), 6-7 wounds, SS damage prevention usage and the discard ability on Imbued Protection itself, he is so much tougher to shift than you'd imagine, especially if he's engaging models that want to be shooting, not stabbing. It works nicely with Kaeris because she doesn't usually need to burn SS for cards if she's doing her Truth in Flames turns 1/2 and she rarely needs to spend her SS for extra suits imprinted either. Kaeris with Grab & Drop already excels at scheme marker games, but with The Firestarter +Imbued Energies , it's just salt in the wounds for your opponent. He can feasibly move 10" (with flight) and drop 3 scheme markers along the way in a single activation, and that's just obscene for 8ss. If all you use him for is a 7ss mobile source of burning, you'd still be impressed with his performance. The fact that he can also convert models killed by burning into VP in some schemes, or places tonnes of scheme markers with impunity in other schemes, is icing on the cake. He contributes so much in most matches he's an auto include for me as well.

As far as aesthetics go, he's a breath of fresh air. Arcanists continue to be the only multi cultural faction, and now, the most learned faction. I like Sandeep. My only reservation with Sandeep, is that the poison Gamin in his box look... Meh. I hope the sculpts are decent, because in the pictures, they're very uninspiring.

I agree. I'd implement some changes to our existing Essence of Power rather than creating a new totem. I'd retain the focus on Ca Actions, but also provide some option to dick around with opponents: 4ss, Peon, Insignificant, Df Wp Wd Wk Cg Ht 3 6 4 4 - 1 Incorporeal. Accomplice. Spellcaster's Conduit: Friendly Arcanist models within 4" of this model may add 2" to the Rg of all Ca Actions. Spark of Innovation: Once per turn, when a friendly Arcanist model within 4" Activates, Essence of Power may suffer 1 damage and gain the Slow condition to give that model the following condition until the end of it's Activation: Inspired: "This model's adds +1 to all Ca Actions until the end of the turn." (1) Dissipate Magic - (Ca 5 / Rst: Wp / Rg: 12): Target model suffers 0/0/1 damage and gains the following condition until the end of its next activation: Nullified: "This model loses all inbuilt suits in Ca Actions, and when declaring Ca Actions, receives -1 to the duel total." (2) Knowledge, At Any Cost (Ca 5 / TN 10): If successful, sacrifice Essence of Power. All Arcanist models within 4" gain the following condition until the end of the turn: Erratic Insight: "This model receives -1 to all Ca Actions. If a Ca Action attack this model performs kills an enemy model, draw a card." Impart Learning: After performing this Ca Action, draw a card.

Cheers, that's very kind of you. I wonder if you have any of the aforementioned Corrupted Hounds? Stitched Together & Widow Weaver are also models I'd like to playtest, if that is ok with you.

I must ask, and please forgive my ignorance with this, what makes Tosh so valuable to Mei? I can't help but compare him to Mechanical Rider, which not only is also a fast Construct in it's own right, but doesn't need to consume scrap markers to summon Constructs like Toshiro does, which to me, means that Tosh needs Porkchops to babysit his summoning engine. I think I'd want my Porkchops running up front near Mei to give her more resources to Railwalk with? I admit that Mei does seem much better off with Thunders upgrade options though. Most are exceptional for Mei in the right circumstances, whereas the Arcanist options, while consistent, are not exciting and don't give her such profound changes to her game play. I'm not yet sold on her model pool available with Thunders, but that's probably just because I'm still very new to Thunders so I haven't had a change to try much.

I'm well aware of Porkchops & Sparks; they're very popular options for both types of Mei. I was just seeing if in Thunders, any of the Arcanist Foundry options ever see play.

Do any of you Ten Thunder Mei players find yourself bringing in any of the Foundry models from Arcanists? Metal Gamin aren't so hot anymore, but what about Willie, or a Rail Golem?

I hear Shadow Emissary is dope with Mei as well. I think it's a good thing that our beloved Emissary isn't a construct though. We get enough anti-Construct hate from Relic Hammers and the like when we announce Arcanists, and also, Leveticus already steals half our faction. Let's not give him one new toy.

Haha, damn son I don't even want to imagine. Hounds are so cheap as well that they barely touch the ss budget. Everytime Zoraida or Marcus considers hiring a Silurid, I can play 2 dogs for less ss. Depends on schemes & strats, of course, but they also boast more damage. I like that they have a buff to their attacks if they're Obeyed, though admittedly I'm unlikely to be Obeying them if there's better stuff around. I'm a filthy Arcanist main. I am aiming to dip into Ten Thunders, seeing as I mainly play Mei Feng, so yes, I think Illuminated are a very strong option. They seem to be popular even outside of other Brilliance models.

I've recently acquired Mama Z's box set as a prize in an event, and I'm intrigued by what she offers. She has an enormous hiring pool, but I don't want to spend money for models that I can't use elsewhere (I play no other NB or Gremlins). However, I do have plans to have a big pool of models for Marcus to use, so Beast models that work well with Zoraida are perfect choices. My issue, is that I don't which Beasts ,if any, that she can hire are actually good choices. Specifically, I'm looking at Corrupted Hounds, Waldgeists & Wildboars. Let's say I get access to all three; 4 Hounds, 2 Walgeists, 3 Wildboars + Zoraida's regular box contents. How much mileage could I get out of these models? What are some other things I should consider buying, that don't dip too deeply into pure NB? I have heard great things about McTavish, and he is a Mercenary I suppose. I can't help but feel like he doesn't do much outside of Gremlins or Swampfiends though?

I couldn't agree more. The ability to loan out whatever action your lowly minion needs to get the job done, and then follow it up with Sandeep casting a spell of his own afterwards for free, opens a lot of options up. The most straightforward of which is moderate damage from Arcane Storm, while the rest can get additional movement, healing or interactions. There's a lot of combinations that he offers even before we start to look at his summoning, though I think both of his (0) actions would be particularly nasty on a freshly summoned minion. Imagine Arcane Effigy with him - use it's (0) to pump up all his attack actions with either extra burning or discard, walk or focus for 1ap, then cast Arcane Storm with Beacon, then let Sandeep use Student of All to fire an Arcane Storm of his own. Accomplice then lets Sandeep have his activation afterwards, firing potentially 3-4 Arcane Storms, all benefiting from Effigy's (0) action, and able to reposition once with The Path of Salvation anytime during the middle of this. That's one crazy alpha strike. The Valedictorian is a good Resser Henchman, but I think it will be an even better Arcanist Henchman . Mages are awkward because they're really slow, but really want to be in range to Furious cast. Sandeep is the perfect solution, and they will heavily benefit from the extra movement provided by potentially both of Sandeep's (0) actions. I like it.

I agree with decker; there's usually 1-2 crucial, game deciding initiative flips per game. Seize the Day is invaluable, and a bargain for only 1ss. I also like Reservoir, but I don't want to rely on it every game. 2ss is a costly investment if you auto include it. I think I'll try a few games without it and see how I fare.

I feel like every time you could stay with only 2 upgrades, you may as well just take Philo Stone too. It seems better than using a ss from your cache for your control hand, and you can use it any turn you require extra cards to work with.

Arcanist upgrades are awesome. Are there any situations where your Master plays fewer than 3 upgrades?

I've noticed that between the Mei with upgrades, Railworkers & Kang, they have a use for all 4 suits. Some are situational - such as the armour buff with crows or the Pin/Push with rams - while some are always welcome; high Tomes & Masks are both exceptional for Mei's Df trigger, and for her numerous attack triggers you want to hit. Also, with Implacable Assault and Hard Worker (0) actions present on her models, you basically always have an outlet for using even your low cards & black joker for big bonuses. For these reasons, card advantage with Mei is a must. Arcane Reservoir, Price of Progress, Imbued Energies on her friends, and triggers such as the Mech Rider's card draw, are more valuable to Mei than they are for almost every other Master in the faction. I don't think playing her without at least one source of card draw is a good idea. Also, a situational, but rather cute combat trick: Fish or cheat for rams with your Railworker's to Pin enemy targets, then Mei can start freely combo'ing between two of them for a single AP, potentially infinitely, until they die or her Claws miss. Just like the impassable terrain trick some people mentioned, it requires some setting up and is no guarantee, but can be extremely rewarding. Kang's and the Captain's pushes can help position targets perfectly for this.