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hydranixx

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Everything posted by hydranixx

  1. I had a thought today of how little the core of my Nexus1 crew has changed throughout the past few years. With all the new model releases, the Nexus1 and Archivist errata and change of GG rulesets, while I've come to value Spelleaters more in recent days, it still feels like 'the build' is very linear. Nexus Shambling Nest Shambling Nest Meredith with Flush with Cash Archivist Nightsilk Creeper Spelleater/Botanist with Flush with Cash This gives me 15ss or 16ss with which to hire a flex model, which has generally been: Intrepid Emissary if you fear Assassinate or suspect Meredith is going to get bodied easily. An independent mobile beater like Sand Worm or The Damned. More scheming prowess with extra Botanist(s). More parasite pulsing and Cadmus bodies with extra Spelleater(s). Even with such a linear build, I've typically found that Nexus has been excellent throughout most of GG3. I've tried Mr Ngaatoro and Cavatica though I have had very limited success with them. Mr Ngaatoro generally has felt too slow and clunky to get value from in a crew that's already fairly slow and clunky. I think in some pools, if you bring Nightsilk Creeper and 2+ Spelleaters, Mr Ngaatoro starts to be more interesting as you have a lot of poison sources to get those Neurotoxins going. You still have to solve the issue of delivering him to the enemy crew. To me, Cavatica is a hard pass. Outside of niche tech attached to an 8" attack that requires a specific suit, he offers nothing. He'd probably be our toughest keyword model if he had We Are Legion, but without it, he's squishier than he looks and if he's ever able to generate good value, he'll just die. I am curious of tinkering with more Seeker models since Healing Draughts and We Are Legion do add a lot of incremental healing which is cute with Chronicle - perhaps Austera to help set up two scheme markers for summons in the early game while her Chronicle lets you filter the fate deck. I haven't tried her in the crew yet, but maybe she's worth a look. Anyone given her - or other Seeker models - a spin in Nexus1?
  2. They were hit pretty hard by the bat, but ultimately, you still have 9AP and 18 Health available just for showing up and you can split it across 3 different parts of the board. If you plan on running the list in Carve the Path, which is their best strategy by a country mile, don't forget you can grow your Botanists by pushing Carve Markers over Corpse/Scrap/Terrain Markers as it removes them. It's more efficient than just Slamming them. Web Markers are fine for this, and you'll have some of them while doing your thing anyway, but having only an Archivist and Nightsilk Creeper can pressure your activation order as I often find myself wanting to go with Archivist late in the turn - and if you remove all the Webs you generate turn 1, you miss out on a teleport outlet for Nightsilk Creeper turn 2. So, I've found a Rough Rider good to supplement the Marker generation; Drop a Dust Cloud turn 1 with Kick Up Dust, then immediately Interact to shove that Carve Marker over it. If you want to save Soulstones at the cost of being slightly inefficient, you can also just hire an extra 2ss Eyes and Ears for the express purpose of dying early on to friendly fire and letting its Corpse Marker be removed by a Carve Marker or by a Botanist eating it with Grim Feast. If you're wanting to pick Nexus2 in more than just Carve the Path, I'm not really sure how best to build them these days. The crew probably still wants triple Botanists, the Archivist and a grow engine to support them, but they won't be as efficient at growing or as good at competing on the strat. I'd recommend hiring Intrepid Emissary more as the kids are even squishier now and you'll need to protect them in all 3 of the other strats, and then experimenting with your hiring from there.
  3. DUA As you know, Jin is auto hire, even against Tara/Lady Justice, where you still hire him and just deploy him in Concealing terrain. Eva is fine if you have specific schemes that you want her to score for you. She's also nice if there are specific places where a well placed Markers with Lock Away cast on it is an absolute menace. She's squishy and very card hungry though. Corvus looks potentially dangerous at Stat7 with lots of triggers, but a 0" melee with a 2/3/4 for 9ss is pretty mediocre. I usually feel that if he's not hitting Shove Aside at least once every turn, and ideally also Execute, he's just not getting in enough hits to be worth his price tag. You can spend wounds to ensure you hit those triggers, but he's already very squishy as he needs to be up close to do his thing so if you're using your wounds aggressively to hit your triggers he can die very quickly. Gibson is, to me, a grudge purchase. I don't really want to spend 8ss on him, considering support models with Tools for the Job usually cost 5ss or 6ss - think Hog Whisperers, Scavengers, Engineers, and Lawyers. Still, he does feel necessary because he enables the crew in a variety of ways. As mentioned, Tools for the Job is very good, the Firefly is useful during your unpack and if enemy models bubble up, and Chromatic Aberration hitting the Burnout trigger on Mordrake who gives the Focus to Ivan is a nice way to get extra value. Card draw is good, and it's very, very good when it's free. From time to time Gibby will get a free card when he Charges up the board and swings at an Umbra minion, and this will feel great. But, outside of Charging, I'm not convinced Gibby hitting a Nocturne is free. You're spending Gibby's meaningful AP to do it and you need to cheat or discard Tomes for Tools for the Job which won't always line up. If you have a 1 of Tomes in your Control Hand, you'll feel great pitching it for built-in Surge, but if you only have a 10 or higher of Tomes, well, that's a pretty big cost to bake-in Surge. Operatives are situationally good. I like them vs Pandora, Jack Daw and Dreamer since Infiltrator gets around Terrifying, and they're immune to Misery, Betrayal, Torment, Feed on Fear, On Your Heels, Waking Dream etc. But most importantly they can replenish your hand by shooting enemies near Scheme Markers, which is very important since Jack forces you to discard if you do basically anything and against Pandora and Dreamer as you'll need cards to power through those crew. But, they are flimsy and they can die in one swing so you have to play carefully with them. Umbra I like hiring a single Nocturne to push Ivan up the board turn 1 and give him Distracted (if I'm not giving him Focus via the Gibby->Mordrake Burn Out play) and potentially drop Shadow Markers if I'm bringing any Botanists. He can then run off to score points. You can hire 2-3 Nocturnes depending on the pool and the opponent. Some crews will struggle to handle Df6 with permanent Concealment, but other crews will target that Wp3 or hit you in melee, and your little shadow mantises will just melt. Of course, if they're off running schemes, it won't necessarily be easy for the opponent to catch them so it might still be fine to hire them even in less-than-optimal match ups. Other considerations I'd hire a Lamplighter before I hire a single DUA or Umbra model 😂. Those lamps give Ivan a for the Concealment and then another once per activation when it's lit, and it's also a place for Ivan/Mordrake to teleport to. I hire 1-3 Botanists with Ivan. The raw quantity of Shadow Markers you produce means they'll grow easily enough, and once they hit two grow tokens they'll be sturdy enough to run your schemes, contest strategy points or push enemy models around. Emissary or Effigy are both fine hires from time to time. Calypso is pretty fun since you're hiring Jin, as he can hop inside Calypso, then Unbury himself again using his own unbury mechanic to launch minions back to their deployment zone multiple times. It's only good when you know your opponent is going to hire good minions, but when it works, it's so satisfying (for the Jin player, at least 😂)
  4. Yeah, Lohith is... fair. Honestly not sure what Wyrd was thinking releasing him like that, considering Soulstone Geode also features a very powerful heal trigger Hopefully they do tweak it eventually. Bare in mind they reduce the opponent's Df by 1 by being in base to base so they're more like stat 6. They really want to mimic a good attack with the trigger to place in base contact, which gives them a free attack with Made to Kill, especially if they grabbed a good attack. Also don't forget Made to Kill gives you a free hit when you are summoned in. They can't get the trigger for Mimic on the turn they are summoned as they come in Stunned, but if you ever summon one late in the turn, then activate it early the following turn, you can go nuts with it. It's particularly savage with Trampling Hooves, so if you hire a Rough Rider take full advantage. As you place your model as part of the action, it triggers yet another Made to Kill attack, and it stacks Injured each swing which combines with the -1 Df to really shred an opponent's Df in no time. If you mean Emissary using Take The Hit just bare in mind that the common understanding is that you can't do this and use Bribery for the same enemy attack. It's still decent, though I'm more of a fan of Hidden Agenda on Emissary if you find yourself with 2ss to spare
  5. It's possible, but you won't know until you try it. There's a very good reason it's extremely popular and very powerful - cards win games. Hire a second Engineer in lieu of your Librarian, bring in Yannic in lieu of your Emissary, and try a few games and see if you like it. Almost always, yes. It's not like you pay 7ss to exclusively draw cards. Yannic has a lot of other relevant text. Democratic Elections is brutal, but don't overlook that Daze trigger. Built-in Stun at 10" with a 2/4/5 is very dangerous. And on Turn 1 she's helping set things up by Interacting and cycling cards so she's going to be adding a Focus for that shotgun. This is exactly why you need dedicated card draw in the crew. Imagine you're down to your very last card in hand. It's a 12 or 13. You really want to hang onto it to Cheat Fate to win a key duel but you're also desperate to get a Strengthen Armour or Shouting Orders off. You have to choose whether to throw that high severe away or keep it - unless you have Yannic around, in which case you get the best of both worlds. Even if the card she lets you draw is terrible, you can just use it as more fuel for Discard effects. Without her, 1 card = 1 discard effect. With her, 1 card = 3 discard effects. If you plan a turn ahead by getting the Scheme Marker down early, you won't need to be Interacting on the turn where you're trying to fight. As you unpack, each Engineer works to sculpt your hand Turn 1, but it's also a good idea to leave 1-2 Scheme Markers near them for Turn 2 so that they can help fuel your card draw engine then. That way they can activate, Tools to grab a good card, draw a couple of cards with their bonus action, and still have 2 AP left to either move, prepare a Scheme Marker for the following turn, or more likely, help the fight.
  6. The issue I tend to find with Patient Strike is that usually the only enemy models that will walk through it are those that can take a 2/3/4 on the chin and not worry about it, and that won't change if your Corps suddenly becomes Stat 6. That said, if you do hire one or more of them and you can afford to hire Mr Ngaatoro, well his Obey goes quite nicely with them so they can sling out some Stat 6 shots at 24" out of activation before or after placing their Patient Strike markers.
  7. Nice write up. Pandora2 is a bit of a monster but you were up against some really powerful masters too, so it kinda evens it all out. To be honest though, I can't help but read that there were 3 games where you only finished turn 3 and think, your meta needs to start using chess clocks😂😭
  8. I've played maybe 5 games with Cooper2 and 50+ with Cooper1. Cooper2 in a vacuum feels like he has higher potential with the crazy combos you can create, maybe even some of the highest potential in the game. It's theoretically possible to deal 20 damage with a single Lord Cooper2 Hunter Bow action without even seeing Red Joker (Opponent Cheats Fate, so Hidden Agenda pings them for 1, while Cooper's bow hits for 5, each separately procing Scent of Blood, for a potential 2x6 damage from the Damned, pushing the enemy through a Pit Trap each time for another 2x1 damage). In a slightly more realistic example, I recall killing a full hp Fire Golem with a bunch of Burning (so, it effectively had Armour +2) in 2 melee swings, by Creating a Pit Trap, hitting the skinning knife trigger to push the Golem it onto said Trap, then Scenting to let The Damned take a swing at it with Stat 7 and push it around on the Trap again as part of its melee, then rinsing and repeating. It was brutal and it was glorious. But it also chews through your Control Hand extremely fast. I've never played a more card hungry crew. That game I even escaped with 2 Runaways on the crucial turn 2 when everything was going down, and replenished 9+ cards collectively, and it still only barely felt like it was enough. Even though the keyword has flips for days, you still have to Cheat some attacking duels, especially with Cooper himself if you want to land the hit to start the combo, and you might need to Cheat to hit some TNs - and then you still need to have cards left over to discard for every Scent of Blood you want to trigger. With Cooper1, it often feels like you have to find creative ways to spend low cards - anything with a value of 4 or under is basically dead weight in your hand. With Cooper2, it often feels like you need to have a 12 card Control Hand to do everything you want. Cooper2 is just one Surge or Good for a Laugh trigger away from being really good. If he had Good for a Laugh on his Pit Trap action like Mah does, oh man, he would be amazing to play.
  9. This was my first thought too. Botanists automatically handing out Staggered when they hit someone would appear to make them even more appealing - providing the scrap generation source is reliable. But discard 1 for draw 4 is even better than what Yannic does with Austera and Twigge 😉 When grown up, Botanists have a better stat to hand out Staggered than the Damned does ❤️
  10. Our 9th Master will soon be gracing us with her presence: Tiri, the Nomad, and for most of us, we've just had our first peak at what will most likely be her core box models, courtesy of T&G. For anyone who hasn't seen this, I'll drop the link at the bottom of this post. I decided to dive right in and play her in two games so far, testing out what will likely be her core box model, and seeing how they feel on Vassal: Game One - Corrupted Leylines vs Sandeep2 Tiri, the Nomad Hidden Agenda Oro Boro Kett Aua Warrior x3 Flush with Cash x1 Bellhop Porter Intrepid Emissary 7ss Cache Game Two - Turf War vs Lord Cooper1 Tiri, the Nomad Oro Boro Kett Aua Warrior x2 Flush with Cash x1 Bellhop Porter Intrepid Emissary Winston Finnegan 5ss Cache Overall, the crew felt fairly unique and strong but not over the top like some titles (at least until we see more of her models - she is from Madness of Malifaux after all 😂). My initial take is that in a vacuum she plays vaguely akin to Maxine1; there's a parallel between picking to Follow Tradition or Embrace Technology in Tiri's activation and picking your Polymath suit with Maxine in the start phase, plus she has armoured, clunky Constructs, she uses Shielded, she can hand out Fast to friendlies, and of course, Let Bygones be Bygones definitely feels a lot like Captain of the Superior, at least at first. So, let's Talk Letting Bygones be Bygones As long as you stay in the bubble near your master, have Shielded, and do a thing you already want to be doing, you probably get to draw a card. Nice. You can often draw this card without having to Cheat Fate. Also nice. The really easy example here is Tiri's Impassioned Defense, which as long as she's going before her Shielded is ripped off of her, almost always read for me as: Put Shielded +2 and Focus +1 on a friend, and draw a card. I did flip the trigger a couple of times and did end up declaring when it came up naturally since you're probably going to want to declare a on at least one other action later on in Tiri's Activation anyway, and setting up two models with Shielded will have greater long term gains for you - but I don't think I'd purposefully cheat for the trigger very often unless I'm actually missing the TN. The TN itself is so low that I only had to cheat for it once across both games. But on the other hand, you do have to declare the trigger itself, so you can't be stunned or otherwise ineligible to declare triggers if you want to draw that card. Stunned is already one of the strongest tools in the game so having a particular weakness to it is slightly worrying - fingers crossed Bygone has a model which can remove Conditions. As far as getting the itself goes, you'll have to either top deck it, cheat it in, or bake it in by having Shielded on you when you're chosen to activate - but whichever way you do it, you also need to actually win the duel. There aren't many actions requiring Simple Duels in the keyword so far - only Tiri and Kett have one of these - so your Aua Warriors and Oro Boro have to attack someone in order to secure that card. Of course, you can always punch a friend for a card. It's particularly spicy with the Aua Warrior's Discus Grenade since you can also push the model for 3" - drawing a card and pushing a model for 3" feels like a great trade off for 1 damage to me. Impassioned Defence setting up your other models adds an interesting little mind game of "I just put Shielded +2 on Kett/Aua Warrior/Oro Boro - do you want to try deny Scars by attacking me to try rip Shielded off? If you do, I have Armour so I'm likely take very little damage overall, and if you only hit me once and take off 1 Shielded your effort was basically wasted." I found that I had to work hard to get multiple cards a turn out of Let Bygones be Bygones, which is probably where it should be. Free card draw is dangerous to balance, and this type of card draw felt fair because your opponent has many ways they can influence or mitigate it. So, do I Follow Tradition or Embrace Technology? Yes. I really, really like how you have to choose whether to Follow Tradition or Embrace Technology - there's a lot of awesome things they unlock but equally there were multiple instances where I caught myself realising that my model would do a super cool thing if only I had been Embracing Tech, but I was instead Following Tradition, or vice versa. I especially like that the trigger tied to each of these on Tiri herself seems like it would want to be applied at different times in the turn; Mirage feels good early to turn off Vendetta/In Your Face/Hidden Martyrs etc while Remake the Old World is great for going late in the turn and denying enemy markers. So you have to make a meaningful decision on when to activate Tiri herself, and what to pick - and not just for herself but for the other models as well. For instance, if the opponent tries to shut down Kett's Scars by taking off his Shielded in melee, but you're in Follow Tradition, his knockback can move an enemy model away AFTER RESOLVING, and since you have Df6 there's a decent chance even if your opponent actively tries to knock off his Shielded they'll come up short. Of course, if you're in Embrace Technology, his ability to steal Focus is extremely rude - within Concealing he becomes a nightmare to deal with against Ranged crews and he can freely steal it as he becomes targeted, and he can rip it off enemy models whenever he sees fit - Kett robbed 3 different models in Sandeep's crew across 3 turns of their Focus which I can honestly say is some of the most fun I've had with the crew. Pro tip: Whichever option you pick, remember that Oro Boro is always immune to damage from Hazardous - he either reduces it to 0 if you're Embracing Tech or he's literally immune to it if you're Following Tradition! I completely forgot this as a I watched him die to Hazardous terrain in both games where he should have lasted longer. So, what is Tiri getting from Explorers? Intrepid Emissary feels ok at best here, to be honest. Phalanx only offers Shielded when you activate near him, not when you choose a model to activate near him, which is what Scars requires (a very deliberate and understandable decision by Wyrd, I think). In both games, he offered some light healing, pushed and Slowed some Minions and tanked a couple hits to keep softer models safer. But he didn't deliver 10ss worth of value. He's kind of just a big clunky brawler in a crew already filled with small clunky brawlers. The Bellhop Porter genuinely does feel like he has a place here. Offering Shielded to help set up nearby friendlies with At Your Service is surprisingly useful. Once Markers start getting laid down he'll be activating with plenty of Shielded every turn due to Full Pack - in both games he had multiple activations in which he gained 4+ Shielded which he was able to share with whichever Bygone model needed it most. Oddly enough, he does appreciate the Emissary's Phalanx as it lets him give even more Shielded to nearby friendlies, but again, by hiring both to do this you have two big cumbersome models which both kind of offer the same tech: I've Got Your Back, 2" melee, pushes etc most of which I think has diminishing returns in this crew. I gave Winston a spin and didn't regret it (though then again he's so often such a solid model that perhaps this isn't really a surprise). Dirigible Ride with the Heal trigger feels extremely good to keep Kett topped up and in the right position to make the most of his abilities and actions. With the models released so far, Winston can Dirigible Ride all of them which is close to essential as the rest of the crew is very static. So, what about Outcasts? Yannic! Among other things, but mainly Yannic, who looks outrageously good with Tiri. The aoe healing is very welcome, but the real gem is that little Follow Tradition Off The Path combo with the baked-in : Discard 1 Card and 1 nearby Scheme Marker to move a model 2"/3"/4", make it immune to enemy Schemes for the turn, and Draw 3 or 4 Cards depending on whether you have drawn a card from Let Bygones be Bygones yet. Insanity. Well played Outcasts, you win this round. T&G link as mentioned: So, what do you think of Tiri on first impression? Concocted any crazy combos?
  11. Game Size: 15 Soulstones • No Dead Man's Hand. • When hiring, Totems (or Effigies, if your Leader is a Henchman) are not treated as Cost 0. Instead, each player receives 2 additional Soulstones that they may spend exclusively on Totem(s). For example, Lord Chompybits (usually Cost 8 would Cost 6 Soulstones for Dreamer to hire, whereas if Ophelia wanted to hire Young Lacroix (usually Cost 1), she could hire 2 for free, or 3 for 1ss. • When hiring, if you declare Viktoria Chambers or Nexus One of Many, additional copies of your Master are not treated as being Cost 0, but their Soulstone cost is reduced by 2. • Fixed Crew: Each player hires their own Crew, independent from their partner's Crew and declared Faction. When hiring, players share a Rare limit; at no point can the combined Crews of both players contain more of a single model than its model limit. Once hired, no changes may be made to crews between rounds.
  12. I've thought about this before. The main issue, other than just costing a tonne of stones, is you'd have to commit to hiring all 3 before you see your opponent's crew and knowing for sure what marker removal they've brought. The other issue is if the Lamps are all at least 1" apart to score the reveal VP, it'd be fairly hard to end the game within 3" of 3 of them with your master for the end game VP. You'll almost definitely need to Create more of them to help with that. If we assume for a second that they don't bring marker removal, then sure, I think it has some play on Cursed Objects or general killy pools, where you can plan to play extremely conservatively and not allow the opponent to kill your models without over extending themselves. That 1 'free' vp could be pivotal.
  13. Yeah, it's been a good success, and it's a lot of fun. I tweaked the hiring rules slightly from standard Doubles Rush to make hiring a little fairer between masters with really powerful, expensive totems, and those with somewhat milder totems, but it's almost a copy-paste of that format.
  14. I wasn't opposed to the format - it just wasn't initially my favourite 'solve' for the broken stuff. My preference order was more or less: 1) Community-consensus driven errata to the really broken/weak stuff, where we share what we're testing directly with Wyrd. 2) Targeted title bans, 1 from each faction. 3) BalanceFaux 4) No Madness of Malifaux. 5) Standard. I acknowledge my top two are highly idealistic and in practice would be extremely hard to actually agree on and implement, so to me, BalanceFaux is a good compromise. Banning all titles in some events feels heavy handed at first but I think it's still better than playing standard in every event, where you're matched against Nexus2 every second round and Damian2 just walks over everyone with absurd win rates.
  15. I'm keen to try this format - and I'd vote to keep the name as it is. I started collecting Malifaux in M2e almost exclusively because the game had better balance that anything else in the market. Pre-Malifaux Burns, after the Explorer's errata, it felt like the game was more or less about right balance-wise. GG seasons could come and go and they would influence the trends of masters within my faction, Explorers, but each master felt like they had space to see play. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked Malifaux Burns was released. The game is littered with ridiculous master titles now. Nexus2, Perdita2, Damian2, and to some extent Maxine2, just to name a few. When these titles show up, it often doesn't really matter that the opponent knows exactly what you're doing, knows how 90-95% of the crew will be built, and almost definitely knows what the schemes are at the start of the game - if they didn't pick a similarly broken master, they are usually powerless to stop you. You can afford to make misplay after misplay and still win because the power level disparity and AP disparity (especially for Nexus2) is just too vast. Getting consensus on how to fix them with any community-driven errata is close to impossible, so an approach like Balancefaux concept might be the best bet, if the goal is to play a balanced game. Explorers Speaking from the Explorer's perspective, our two stand outs are Nexus and Maxine. I positively adore the concept of the Nexkids / Nexus2. When they came out, I was so excited to try them. But these days, I feel terrible seeing Nexus2 on either side of the table because they're just way too strong. I want to enjoy playing with and against them again, but I can't bring myself to do it, they're just too powerful. Nowadays, when I play vs other Explorers, I ask for a gentleman's agreement that neither of us playing Nexus2 so as to not ruin the game; if one of us takes Nexus and the other doesn't, depending on the pool, it's often game over before any cards are flipped, and if both of us take Nexus, well that just sounds like a headache. It's a slightly similar thing with Maxine2. Even in games where I see the pool and the opponent's master and think to myself, "hmm, Maxine1 has a lot of good tech here, if I pick her I'll have the ability to out think and outplay the opponent", I often find myself still forcing the Maxine2 pick anyway. I build the crew somewhat predictably, and play it somewhat predictably, and I'm not really doing many fancy tricks, but I can still make it work since her raw power is so high. I'd welcome a chance to pick and play Nexus1 or Maxine1 without feeling that I've made a suboptimal choice, because my opponent might have picked an extremely powerful title master. Balancefaux would give me that opportunity without feeling like I'm just playing with one hand tied behind my back.
  16. Just coming back to this, I decided to give a Harpooner a spin in my Vassal World Series game of Maxine2 vs Basse2. We played Covert Operation with Hidden Martyrs and Leave Your Mark in the pool, so I figured the various push effects and Poison that the Harpooner offers could be useful to deny scoring. Plus, if Basse overextended any of his models early, I could kidnap them with my Harpoon (provided it hit) The Harpooner actually did fairly well, bullying and pushing around a Sand Worm before locking onto Basse, stacking Injured, pushing him through a Marker hit by Beau's Hazardous Tactical action twice in two turns, eventually whittling him down from 10hp to 0hp (though this was after me slowly chewing through his stones throughout the game) - before eventually dying to yield me a Hidden Martyrs VP. Seems like a good innings, but it's hard to gauge how valuable it actually was because it was surrounded by several powerful models and supplemented by the absurdly strong healing Maxine2 brings. Even a substandard model can look good when it has such powerful keyword synergy. I no longer think Harpooners are as completely unhireable as I previously did, but they still remain extremely niche and I doubt I'd rush to hire them unless it's a perfect pool for them. My list was: Maxine Agassiz Orville Agassiz Harata Ngaatoro Beau Fishbocker Dr Beebe Calypso Harpooner Hopeful Prospect (hired purely to try remove Stunned from Maxine) Intrepid Emissary 3ss Cache verses: Cornelius Basse with Flush with Cash Bernadette Basse Jonathan Reichart Sand Worm Pearl Musgrove Austringer with Flush with Cash Austringer 7ss Cache
  17. I reckon Botanists have some play with Seeker if you hire a Lamplighter. Jedza can remove one of your two free Dim Lamps early one with Lost Knowledge to give your Botanists one grow token each. As the game develops, they can either hunker down in the scrum where they'll love your remaining Lamp once it's Lit - Df6 on a is still very hard to hit, and if the opponent removes it they get another free Grow token anyway - or they can spread out and score for you. With Grim Feast or hitting the trigger on their Shockwave or trigger on their melee they can most likely secure a second Grow token at some stage even without other models actively removing markers. Each time a nearby eligible Marker is removed, Botanists Heal +1 so there's a bit of Chronicle trigger synergy there. Is it the best crew to support Botanists? No. But will the crew sometimes still want to hire 1-2 Botanists? Yes.
  18. Could be worth trying, but I generally find Hidden Agenda on EVS models to be a bit sketchy. Half the power is being able to Cheat Fate facedown, but I find myself discarding cards to cheat via Deep Discovery at least as often as cheating regularly, so it doesn't come up as much.
  19. For 7ss they just don't do enough. I actually used to like them when I first started the faction. But after trying them out several times, I've decided they just don't do enough for 7ss. At 8ss, the Tidecaller is almost always a better pick, competing for those for Reconfigure, and being even better at pushing models around into Hazardous - while being immune to Hazardous himself. My main problem with the Harpooner is their Reel In feels like it should be the most important and interesting part of the card, but it's just extremely clunky and needs a suit too, but they could also really benefit from having an extra wound or some defensive tech outside of just decent Df. Harpooners to me basically exist for exactly two things in their current state: Replacing a Hopeful Prospect in an EVS crew, and Replacing a Hopeful Prospect in an Apex crew.
  20. I'll bite. First, start with Harata Ngaatoro. One of the strongest things Maxine2 does is exploiting his Distraction aura and Ngeri from his Haka while Healing him to keep him alive. You position him near an enemy model so that their WP duels are on a , and then just swing away with Maxine's Aetheric Tear melee attack. Ngeri disallows them from getting any s in any opposed duels (this includes when they are attacked by you) so they're stuck on that to resist - they can't get back to a straight flip even if they wanted to spend a Soulstone to do so. Jokers aside, Maxine at Stat6 will almost always land the hit, with multiple great triggers, applying Injured +1 and sometimes you'll just randomly get to a straight flip for that Sever 5 since your opponent can't cheat fate. Subsequent attacks get even easier to land straight flips on since the Injured stacks up, so a strong Maxine2 activation is often just Converging Ley Lines herself and Harata into position, and then just slapping them with Aetheric Tear 3 times. With that in mind, my core would be: Maxine Agassiz Orville Agassiz Harata Ngaatoro (Flush with Cash optional) Beau Fishbocker Dr Beebe and Calypso (but probably don't hire vs Tara, Lady Justice or if they opponent's master has heaps of Ignore Armour attacks) From there, there's some great picks depending what you need. Within the keyword, a Machinist is often a great pick, Kiya has her moments (especially if you do hire a Machinist and/or an Emissary). She can be a bit slow and clunky, and is generally better in Maxine1 crews, but she still sometimes has a place here, and if you need Irreducible and are willing to give her a bit of support, she can deliver some great damage. From time to time the Tidecaller can be useful but he's not a common hire. Most importantly, just don't hire Harpooners, ever. OOK and Versatile-wise, anything that targets WP will really appreciate Harata's Distraction aura, so Vernon & Welles with the Glimpse the Void trigger is great. It's hard to resist being hit by it, and with that applying to all WP duels, there's a big chance the target will be Buried too. Again exploiting Distraction, Mr Ngaatoro and his Obey can be brutal. Things that synergise with Healing also have a place, since Breachburnt will be constantly Healing your EVS models throughout the game, so there's a lot of Seeker models I would consider for their Chronicle ability. The Damned would probably be top of the list since his Chronicle's chip damage would add up very quickly. If there's big Severe terrain pieces where you know your opponent will be, Grave Goo can be a brutal hire since you'll turn that terrain into Hazardous, and almost every single EVS model can push other models around. Mass of Tentacles in particular is super dangerous for this, as it also deals damage so when you push models through that Severe you'll be pinging them for 2 instances of 1 damage, plus Poison +1, plus the damage from your actual attack. I sometimes hire Sand Worm on Severe heavy boards to just add more min 3 punch. Maxine2 is great at bullying models and I find the Sand Worm can complement that quite nicely. I solo'd her the past weekend for a small 3 rounder with these lists for these pools: Round 1 was Flank Guard the Stash vs Explorers Basse1 Round 2 was Wedge Cursed Objects vs Jedza1 Maxine Agassiz Orville Agassiz Harata Ngaatoro Beau Fishbocker Dr Beebe Calypso Intrepid Emissary Kiya Manimi 4ss Cache Round 1 had In Your Face and Assassinate, and with Round 2 being Cursed Objects and having Vendetta in it, I built the list to be tough and hard hitting and just ran it back to back. Emissary in particular goes a long way towards protecting Harata as he's a bit squishy and is always the biggest target in the crew. I did consider a Machinist, as they support Kiya, Calypso and Emissary well but it felt unnecessary vs the masters I was against. Round 3 was Standard Carve the Path vs Reva2. Maxine Agassiz Orville Agassiz Harata Ngaatoro Beau Fishbocker Dr Beebe Calypso Model 9 Vernon & Welles 6ss Cache In Round 3, In Your Face was again present, but Kiya and Emissary both felt slow and cumbersome. I wanted to hire another 9ss model to combine with Harata to potentially score the end game point of In Your Face if I wanted to take it. Model 9 having Run and Gun allows him to push the strat while contributing to the gameplan, adds a lot of chip damage, and can be easily healed by Dr Beebe or Beau so he's tough as nails, so I picked him. Vernon & Welles is fantastic on Carve the Path in general, but he also has the added benefit of abusing Harata's Distraction aura as I detailed above so it was no brainer to take them.
  21. From an outside's perspective, anti-armour is always very high on the priority list for me when I play against Red, irrespective of who the leader is. Even if there was no Peacekeeper, if I see Nellie I know she'll have The Printing Press at Armour +2, she might hire Phiona, and it's a safe bet I'll see 1-2 Lead Line Coats in any Red player's crew. I can't remember the last time I played against Red where they didn't pack two coats. Of course, it might be different in your meta but that's certainly my view of playing against Red on Vassal and in New Zealand.
  22. Huh, I never thought about that, but yeah that actually sounds really spicy on Lord Cooper2. It would trigger twice in that scenario, and as you point out yes, that'd be very costly card-wise. But, you could be biting someone twice with Rex at Stat7, plus potential Adversary, plus Predatory Instinct, so it'd be very accurate. Assuming you hit with both bites that's still anywhere between 9-17 damage plus up to 3 triggers from a single AP.... ... I gotta get Lord Cooper2 on the table more! I like Hidden Agenda on many masters both offensively and defensively. You just have more AP to take advantage of it and your actions are more meaningful so cheating face down is often very strong. Anya's a great example where Stat 7 with a Stun trigger is very dangerous, and the ability to cheat Face Down makes it significantly harder to play around.
  23. Most of the keywords you've listed are happier to stay in keyword more often than not. Wastrel and Syndicate are probably the most likely to reach for ook models (and if you were to ask about Wastrel, I'd say there's a case for almost every single Minion being a niche ook pick). But there's plenty of great ook picks, it just depends on the table/map and your opponent's crew. As far as generalists go, The Damned, Austera, Rough Riders and Winston are pretty nice to hire into a variety of crews. They each offer good all round value if you play carefully with them, though it's worth noting they are all made of paper and won't stand up to a few hits. For specialists, Ullr, Jin, Grave Goo, Operatives, Brocken Spectres and Sand Worm and so forth will all have maps/match ups where they'll excel, but not all the time. For instance, Jin and Calypso create a cute repeatable combo to keep Unburying and knocking Minions back to the opponent's deployment, but I'd probably only invest in that if I were already playing EVS or DUA in Corner, or maybe, Standard Deployment.
  24. *Dreams of stopping Tara2 kidnap combo comes to a sudden and violent end*
  25. I generally find Anya2 operates behind the frontlines pretty nicely so is hard to jump upon - and I also generally hire the Emissary and keep it near to her if it's likely she'll be threatened. Most of her keyword is extremely flimsy so he is a massive help to staying alive, plus his Take The Hit has great synergy with Yannic. Staying behind the frontline, it might seem like she won't be able to influence the game enough but her ranges are good, her summon doesn't even have a maximum range, and of course, Treasure Map itself lets you play her more conservatively during the turn but still have another 4" threat to be in position to deny Schemes. That said, I usually feel like Flush with Cash is not worth it on most Soulstone users; buying and using it even once costs you 3ss and gives your opponent 1ss which is a huge cost, and your Soulstone user could have just used Soulstones to Block or Prevent damage 3 times for that price. Flush with Cash can still be worth it on a model like Harata or Meredith - who are key build-around models for their keywords that also happens to be short ranged, and in Harata's case, can't use Soulstones to protect himself. I tend to have most of my Drudges summoned quite far away from her, protecting and repositioning my Scheme Markers near the frontlines where I'm trying to score things like Set The Trap or Leave Your Mark, or pulling enemy Scheme Markers out of position. But if you like the Drudges being closer to Anya, and if you know your opponent will definitely kill them, then yeah I could see the value of popping on Flush with Cash - though you could just put it on the Emissary who could intercept any attack that comes your way anyway.
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