OracleToronto

as stated 2" melee is nice (as it is super rare) which helps them protect the scheme markers they have tricks with ... but it is a lot of set up and requires multiple un-interupted actions to pull off ... and its super obvious to your opponent.

Yeah I find that i use Gluttony a lot more due to terrain. But If I am playing a tournament or at a store and the tables are sparce with terrain I love taking the Emissary

In order of feel - complexity - and game style I will try to give my best breakdown. Zipp is a super fast denial play style he shuts down entire areas of the table for your opponent that places himself in the middle of their crew adding a high tax on their actions. Ophelia (full honesty here I haven't got her to table yet) is very flexible with her ability to equip multiple upgrades in game - tends to be more damage focused - they don't have necessary the best tools for every task but have at least one or two for any task. Ulix is a fairly grouped up bubble crew that has some hard counters but he may be the best crew in the game for sheer amount of activations each turn and having other models cause your models in the best position to take actions again. Brewmaster is very much a shut down one or two of your opponents key models and slowly dissolve them with poison. The crew is quite flexible and can usually handle most strats between wither their construct heavy list or their poison heavy list. Mah wrecks face and has access to some of the most powerful models in the game (Rooster riders and soul stone miners) she is a good beater and the trap markers and her crew's ability to push around when your opponent cheats adds just the right amount of complexity and tricks. Sommer is amazing in feel though extremely hard to play. He is a bubble crew that has multiple auras and demise effects in play all the time which can get hard to keep track of. I would just warn that he has a very steep learning curve and a lot more models to buy but I am slowly working on his crew and can't wait to play it with more confidence and knowledge.

Respectfully - I would recommend that you read through the posts on this board to get a better feel for how Ulix operates. Currently you don't have any way what so ever to summon in Piglets to grow into the more powerful pigs - which is very much Ulix's main mechanic. To give you a comparison point I will post my "default" Ulix list: Ulix Penelope Old Major Gracie (with 12 cups of coffee) The Sow (with 12 cups of coffee) Hog Whisperer Slop Hauler Piglet This is in no way a perfect list and many people will point out how they like to do thing's differently. That being said I have 3 sources for summoned piglets in this list 3 tanky/beaters all 3 of which can eat all scheme markers nearby and gain focus from it and 2 of them shutting down bonus actions. Ulix lists are key at spamming actions from models that find themselves in a good place - there are a lot of movement tricks and boosts that the pigs and sooey models give each other and I feel that the list you posted has much less of that. Now that being said - taking stuff because you like it and think it's cool is still fine, and far be it for anyone to tell you that you have to play a certain way and with certain models. May I ask though why Mech Pork and McTavish?

ooops good catch! but yeah even 8 SS is hard to fit in

I’ve really wanted to fit Burt in for that sweet trigger on his gun action for a pig to push 8” towards the target - but 9 soul stones makes him compete with BBB who has a much larger net of support and usefulness lots a shame that he is not pig or suey - I think that makes more sense than wizz-bang

so I can see the fun/flith of exploding Test Subjects with make me proud as they can't get killed by the effect - but what is it that Sparks is doing in that list?

where did you find such great 3D pianos? I am hoping to upgrade to something similar

I would say 12. I play a lot of Zipp and depending on how aggressive I am being I tend to drop 4 a turn usually only 1 or 2 of which get removed. So they can add up

Yeah I have tried to avoid that - partially to try to make sure I don't become reliant on him, but also because I feel the sheer amount of flips this crew can make can in theory cycle through cards faster just naturally. I am currently trying to rely on the small amount of card cycling that the major has to avoid total disaster... Time will tell if it's enough. Part of my reasoning is that I use the Sow with 12 cups, Old Major, and Gracie with 12 cups to layout a massive bubble that can consume scrap markers in exchange for stacks of focus. It is been working great as a wall of angry scheme denial.

I can likely give you a basic pro vs. con of the crew for how it plays if it helps. Pros a large amount of healing plus healthy wound count on most pigs means they play well for someone who likes an attrition play style. a fairly unrestricted summoning capability (compared to many summoning masters) which also adds to it's attrition style. Though you need to bring additional models for your summoning. fairly solid damage output (especially within the 6" aura of Old Major. Unbelievable amount of activation potential. Few crews can match the amount of "out of activation" actions (meaning one of your other models causes a friendly model to act) this can allow for more movement or additional attacks. This is increased even more as most pig models can take a wound through reckless to gain an addition action. In game flexibility - like most summoners you can choose in game what you need to perform your actions and "updrage your piglet's as need be. For example if your opponent creates severe terrain you can grow your piglets into wild boars. If your opponent it trying to stay out of charge range you can upgrade into squeelers for range attacks. Cons This is very much a "bubble crew" which means you have to generally stay within range of other model auras. Especially Old Major as his aura that gives your friendly pigs a positive on damage flips and the desired rams (that can cause healing on most pig's melee attacks.) This crew can struggle with lots of blocking terrain and crew's that can lure models out of position. Resource hungry - Old Major will have a target on his head like you wouldn't believe and worst of all even though his ram generating aura includes him the rule states "other pigs" meaning he needs to cheat in or stone for the ram in order to heal. He will burn through a lot of stones for damage reduction, and for healing - but thankfully you won't need stones many other places. This crew also needs many of it's high cards for summoning in and upgrading the pigs. Thankfully once summoned upgrading them doesn't require a specific suit but the card values need to be high. This means you often don't have the high cards in hand to cheat in for attacks or damage.

As my regular opponents are catching on to their value v.s. how easy they are to kill I find I am having to play differently enough with them I may start using them less altogether. But yeah when they work they are incredible value for their stones.

Also a miscalculation that most beginners make (including when I started) is assume that like McMourning - Brewmasters crew wants to have tons of poison on their own models. However you will find roughly half your models are simply immune to the negative effects of poison and don't really gain anything by having it on them. Models such as the Whiskey Golem, Fingers, etc will have a specific rule or trigger you want to look for which requires varying degrees of poison - even Brewy himself only needs 4-5 points to be comfortable in most turns. So basically avoid wasting actions applying poison to models who don't need it or overstacking models that only need a little. When applying it use action efficient methods (such as charging with Moon Shinobi 2" past one of your models to get the movement and use the "free" attack that comes with the charge action to use Have a Drink to apply poison to the model you moved past. This way you get the desired poison but also the movement for the Shinobi.

The hardest lesson I have learned so far is to not over extend your Akaname. They are brilliant scheme models (especialy for schemes that need markers near models or in the thick of things) but the have horrible defensive stats and their trick to use "flicker" tokens to gain positive flips is seldom worth it as your opponent can likely cheat higher with what every their attack stat is. That being said two of them make it into any list I make (though depending on how much range the opponent is likely to bring I get cautious taking them into Reckoning or Turf War).

One difference (bonus?) I find to taking the Sow As well as Hog Whisperer is she summons off of crows rather than rams which increase your odds of having cards in hand to get the piglets out.

Thanks it is a simple but fun conversion

Bayou have our "Inferiority Complex" upgrade which you should always toss on a damage dealing master like Ophelia when facing crews with terrifying. She also gets a lot of work out of the "swagger" rule giving her focus when she walks.

He is also the most guaranteed way to get poison where you need it. Especially when it comes to your opponent's models as there is no TN or resists on "A Toast"

I rebased and undercoated him again to make sure he fits into my Bayou crew.

condition removal can be brutal - though usually the amount of ap and points the opponent has to spend to make that big of a dent on your poison tends to balance it out. MY most hated opponent is Lady J. Her conditional removal bubble is super powerful. Especially as its not her bonus action so she can leap in do a 4" pulse that strips the conditions off of all her models and yours! (minus Lady J herself). Last game against her I decided to mitigate how much I relied on poison and instead built the "mostly construct" crew. Only to find out she has a bunch of anti summoning tech as well making Cooper far less effective (she also tends to deny you dropping corpse or scrap markers when you die). So I thought "fine I will still build a construct crew but instead of relying on Whiskey Gamin I will bring Sparks, Porkchop and a survivor. That way I can use "bombs in your belly" on my my Whiskey Golem and Porkchop and litter the board with produced scrap markers from Porkchop and the Survivors (as well as Akaname) This will give me some "ride the rails" shenanigans as well as vent steam and scrap markers creating a ton of hazardous terrain which means I can slowly shred their health when they activate.... or so I thought. It turns out Lady J has easy access to corpse and scrap removal through her Exorcists. To date that is the only Malifaux game that I conceded in Turn 4 because I had no options to use any of the tricks or tech I brought. Don't get me wrong Brewmaster himself is a great counter to Lady J herself, as he can get locked up with her and she can't get the poison off of herself so it becomes fairly easy to get 3+ poison on her making her activate slow with no bonus action while within 4" of Brewy (the 12 cups of coffee is a must!)

see that might be the best "first step" at addressing the double master frustrations people are having (especially in competitive play) when you declare masters you should have to declare both "I'm playing a Dreamer and Zoraida team up. Ok i'm declaring Zipp"

I am likely biased as I converted my Johan to be a Janitor with a mop and bucket when i used him for condition removal in my McMourning crew in Me2 and I was super happy he was infamous for Zipp so I can use him in my Bayou now.

i get a lot of great use out of Johan. 2" melee range his huge when protecting markers etc. Also Skeeters can use "fly with me " on him without a 2 point upgrade as he is onoly size 2.

it DOES allow them to force an opponent to drop a scheme marker through their trigger (which you can get from stoning) and then your reach can prevent them just picking it up again ... but again a lot of set up. They are finesse models that can do exactly what you want .... if you invest the stones/time etc ... and they still die to a stiff breeze

Thats my biggest sadness with them. I run one sometimes with Merris on one flank to toss the free scheme marker with bomb's away near the Bayou Smuggler to give it fast. It also has a 2" melee so can actually guard the markers you don't want you opponent to remove (or turf war markers). But i really wish they had a gun action to makesure they are useful in some way every turn. When it comes up "Changing Plans" has scored me a point when ever I had to use it (it also makes detonate the charges much easier) but you are taking a 6 ss model that spends most of it's activates setting up for something that is too easily telegraphed to your opponent. They are not "unplayable" and you will find something for them to do each turn ... but Zipp is tight on points to begin with and there is little the Smuggler can do that makes her the pick over 2 Flying Piglets.