Ajatros

Parker Barrows vs. Shenlog Corrupted ley lines Vendetta, Breakthrough, Spread them out, Let them Bleed, Catch & Release (High river monk) Parker Barrows, 2 stones Doc Mad Dog The midnight Stalker Hodgepodge Emissary Prospector Dead outlaw Bandido Malifaux Child Against... Shenlong, 3 stones 2 students Sensei Yu High river monk Low river monk Fuhatsu The lone swordsman Dawn serpent I ended up losing by a point (we played only 4 turns but figured out that the score would have been 6-5 to TT most likely). I anticipated correctly that he would choose the aggressive schemes, but I thought he would pick vendetta against Mad Dog with either the lone swordsman or Fuhatsu instead of C&R. I would have been better off with picking vendetta also, since in the end I overestimated my ability to drop all the markers needed (although Parker can drop markers like nobody's business). My opponent pressed hard to my center with Shenlong and High river Monk while I dominated one flank after killing the lone swordsman and fuhatsu there. I got greedy on the first turn and went to put adversary on Fuhatsu with the stalker, which ended up being his end after the lone swordsman brought him low and Shenlong finished the job with his demise-ignoring attack on top of T2. Mad Dog carried the team by finishing off Fuhatsu, Lone swordsman, the low river monk and one student while dropping four markers which all ended up scoring me points. The other MVP was the dead outlaw, who spent three turns fighting the snake on one flank alone, slowing it every turn and staying alive long enough to keep it occupied the whole game. All in all a good game, Parker is still fun to play, Mad Dog is still nuts and the Chi mechanic is still cheating 😜. Next time I'll bring less support pieces and more guns, I figured that my list would have been so much better with Sue and a second bandido instead of Emissary & the child. They helped drop markers for life of crime and the kid successfully copied "appraise" a couple of times (I brought it for copying bandit raid but parker got too far), but in the end they did not do much else. I like the emissary for his auras, built in slow on a S6 10" attack and don't mind me, but it does come at a price...

Yes, as the action specifies that you get the soulstone after and for taking the action, not when removing the marker.

I don't think Doc needs any further bonuses. Arcane reservoir alone is a good reason to keep him on the table and out of trouble, I don't think it's necessary to get any healing done to get value out of him. And the bedside manners ability, which is yet unmentioned in this thread, is super strong for pulling models out of combat or LoS of enemy models after a single hit. Especially Parker himself, since he does not like to be tied up in melee. I agree with Benny being an oddball model that doesn't really fit in either of his keyword crews well. His scheme marker/rat creating actions could be quite strong and he brings ranged scheme marker removal to be sure, but Parker does that stuff just fine already and free fast is definitely better than the occasional rat. Maybe buff him so that his melee attack had built in and Loyal rats with tiny rats would be a bonus action (and raise the TN a step or two) so he could potentially swing twice, drop two schemes from the trigger and chunk out two rats. He's still going to die to a stiff breeze, but at least you have the potential to do something interesting without using too much resources. And speaking of survivability, he's supposed to be a rat catcher, so he could have the covered in rats ability to give him a chance of surviving after he gets in there. It would suit his theme well and give an additional reason to summon rats near him.

We played out a good ol' western the law vs. the outlaws shootout with Parker vs. Perdita. Turf War, Flank deployment Schemes: Take Prisoner, Dig their graves, Outflank, Deliver the message, Hold up their forces My List was: Parker, 1 SS Doc Mad Dog Convict gunslinger, SoDP Sue Dead outlaw Bandido Bandido Prospector My opponent was bringing what was basically the whole family plus some bureaucrat: Perdita, Lead lined coat and some stones Enslaved Nephilim Fransisco, LLC Santiago Nino Papa Abuela Steward We Both chose dig their graves and deliver a message as our schemes from this randomly generated, yet very "up close" scheme pool. I ended up winning the game 4-1 (2 from Turf, 2 from dig vs. 1 from Turf). Perdita came in guns blazing and did a ton of damage turns 1&2 killing a bandido and the dead outlaw, as well as putting Mad Dog to 1 wound, but died early in T3 (before I had managed to deliver). In the end I had only Parker and Prospector on 1 wound as well as a lone scheming bandido on the opponent's quarter, while my opponent had only the nephilim and Fransisco on the table. A fun and a bloody game, both crews were very mobile with either bravado or run & gun, but in the end my ability to scheme better and having extra interact actions from draw their attention proved to be the deciding factor. Also, I didn't realize before how good Dig their graves is for parker. Each model he or mad dog kills automatically drops a scheme marker next to a corpse marker...

Plentiful(X) on upgrades means that you can possess X number of said upgrade at a time. Two each in the case of equipment upgrades.

I agree that a "sergeant" type of model would be cool, since it would complete the "chain of command". Maybe giving out commands that only affects minions and gets a bonus/is easier to pass if they are freikorps. Also a good chance to make a bit more combat-oriented "Freikorpsmann". Something to the effect of... FREIKORPS SERGEANT cost: 7 Health 7 Df 5 Wp 6 Mv 5 Sz 2 Armor +1 Ruthless Well trained disciples: When a friendly minion within 3" declares an action printed on an equipment upgrade, it may discard a card to gain to its duel and any subsequent damage flip. Grit (hardened): when this model has half of its maximum health or less, reduce all damage it suffers by 1 Attack actions: Clockwork revolver: 12" Stat: 5 Rst: Df target suffers 2/3/5 damage Critical strike Sword: 1" Stat: 5 Rst Df target suffers 2/3/5 damage critical strike Coordinated attack: another friendly model may take a action targeting the same model Grudge: target gains adversary (freikorps) Tactical actions: ⚡foul mouthed motivation: 6" Stat: 6 TN 13. other friendly minion only. This action receives +2 to its duel if the target is freikorps. Target heals 1 and gains focused +1 ⚡I've got your back: 0" Stat: 6 TN 10. target other engaged friendly model. place target in base contact with this model

I tried out Hans after the errata, and every turn I wished I had the trapper instead. I got two focused shots off most turns with nearby I pay better + his own focus (0), but he ate a ton of cards this way and didn't do very much damage. Also, his triggers are not that good unless you are facing very specific enemies and the only generally good slow trigger requires additional discard... Trappers are also fantastic targets for engineers if you have a low (5+) in hand, because getting potentially +2 to damage with a focused shot is bananas. Removing upgrades is nice and all, but it's another specific high TN, and I'd usually just rather try to kill the model anyway.

At least there is hope that he gets a buff in the future

Welcome to the hobby! I would say that pick the box that you like better - it's not use trying to figure out power levels or other such nonsense if you are just starting. Malifaux is a really complex game because all of the models basically have different actions and abilities. The Von Schill box gives you a good starting point, because he's a fairly straightforward master to play, and the models can be used in a lot of crews later on. You can build a 35 SS list out of both boxes, so you don't need anything else to start playing and learning. If you want to expand right away, Hannah is great overall (plus the model is just bad-ass), the Strongarm suit is thematic to the VS box and very strong by itself, and the Viks benefit greatly from Vanessa.

Yeah, I've been toying with the idea of summoning a bunch of abos by generating lots of scrap with rusty and large arachnid T1, and afterwards switching the from ash to Desolate soul. I found out that it's just too resource intensive and you are using your most precious AP to summon models that don't really do much. It's fun though, and in the best case scenario you are summoning Deso engine, reactivating it and charging the enemy's face on T1.

A&D is really good, but every now and then it's good to try new things . Lazarus' function was to be a punching bag for abo card draw, but I guess I could just take Tally sheet on Levi and recruit Anna, Rusty or Hannah. Additionally, in that case I might swap the Abo for the effigy to keep the stone cache up.

I played with the stalker yesterday with Levi in Symbols of authority with covert BT in the pool. The stalker was definitely my MVP, scoring 5 points single-handedly (2 strat markers and 3 for covert). I played against Shenlong, who likes to ball up in the center, so I had plenty of room on the flanks to get into his side of the board unharrassed. The ability to ignore other models is just crazy good, because there's just nothing the opponent can do to stop you and having activation control means that you always have the . Next time I'll try to stab something with him to see how that goes. On another note, what do you think of this super mobile Levi list: Leveticus + 5SS pool, Desolate soul, Pariah of Bone Waifs Lazarus, Oath keeper The midnight stalker Dead Doxy Kentauroi Abomination Freikorps engineer That's 9 activations right out the box, five anchors and sooo much movement tricks. Abo and the engineer draw cards (the latter can also hammer armor on laz), the Doxy is pushing Lazarus around to autofire positions anchoring my center. Kentauroi is just a fantastic taxi, and does a lot of work in other areas as well. Stalker and Levi do their thing.

NOTHING worse than unfinished curtains

Good point, and good point.

I would love to see new sculpts fro the Viks. The crew seems fun to play, but I just can't see myself buying and painting a box full of something designed by a horny 13-year old. I mean come on, Ronin, who in "This world" are samurai without a master, have suddenly become cheesy sword-swinging schoolgirls? Granted, the samurai in this game have gatling guns so historical accuracy is questionable at best, but still . I don't have a problem with models where being scantily clad serves a purpose (eg. Belles), but the Viktoria sculpts are just crazy over the top. Other than that, a shirtless Schill (or shirt partly ripped) would be cool. So more shirts for women and less shirts for ripped dudes is my take on this issue, I guess? Also, less flamey-guitarey Sue gets my vote. Dual wielding guns, active pose and with a bit less burning instrument on his back. Or maybe just have him focused on playing the guitar? Now it looks like he's really mad at someone who shot a fireball at him during concert.

These were my first thoughts also, because fluff-wise the guy is supposed to be this super scary jack the ripper -type, but his damage output and abilities are really not reflecting this well. He's just the perfect solo schemer, who does not care about being tied up and can dish out a moderate amount of hurt if needed. in GG2018, I feel that he is going to be very strong in Symbols of Authority and Ours, and can do a bunch of schemes really well.

I have started with the VS starter box as well, so this is pretty much exactly how I built my first crews . VS crews tend to suffer from low activation count, and I found out that Hannah with Ancient tomes helps out with this quite a bit. It's very frustrating for your opponent when you put their key model into your pocket in your first activation of a turn. Being able to copy the Finish the cur-action is really good too, and with both survivalist and the shirt VS himself is not likely burning a bunch of stones to stay alive so Hannah can use them to bury stuff.

I didn't even think of that, that's a good point

I kinda like the idea that the specialist is slow and has a low defense, because they are lugging around a heavy tank of combustible liquid after all. The primary attack is actually really powerful with a focus, so I don't know if it needs a revision, but I would change the move and burn to something like the following: (0) Move or Burn: All models in 6 must take a TN(xx) WK duel or take 1 damage and gain the Burning +1 condition. Enemy models that pass the duel are pushed 4" away from this model. Friendly models with Paralyzed or Slow conditions lose the Paralyzed or Slow conditions. This would make model better in close quarters, could get you out of jams, and the removal of slow & paralyzed would always have a little bit of a drawback. Dealing 2 damage or pushing enemies away is powerful, but you are damaging your friends in the process, because that's what you get for squirting flammable liquid all over the place, which means you also don't want to use this action all the time to push/burn enemies all willy nilly. Freikorps crews could still remove the burning with the steam trunk's fire extinguisher (you'd have to discard though, so just suck it up I say) or with an interact action like everyone else.

Simplest way is probably to just put dangerous attacks from range on key models, The trappers are great at this because they can activate early, and the (I pay better + focus) means that you'll most likely have a good card from the flip and the Sh 5 tempts the opponent to cheat because they can.

I pay better is awesome, but I usually stick it on Hannah and form a tag team with trappers. Schill's upgrade slots are already crowded. Trappers with double focus wreck things, and they can reposition to keep up with Hannah if you want to move forward. One thing I like about the Nythera + oath upgrades is that as long as you have OK on yourself, you can create some fun shenanigans with charge, punch, place, shoot, reposition trigger back to contact, 2nd charge punch, send the enemy flying again and shoot. Everything after the first slap is on positives, and you and can move something up to 12" if you keep hitting. You'll want to drain the opponent's hand before though so they are less likely to stop you from hitting with your attacks. Has anyone tried Anna with the new upgrades? I feel like it has potential, because her main attach does not randomize in combat, and Schill will be in the thick of it most of the time. Give her oathkeeper and she can finish off models that Schill has wounded. Although yes, the emissary basically does the same thing with an aura and the added bonus of better scheming abilities and shirt generation.

The pariah upgrades open up many possibilities, but I suggest going for the thematic Leveticus pieces and other Outcast essentials before going wild with out-of-faction stuff. Hannah and Johan are very useful models that see a lot of play in all kinds of crew. Ashes & Dust and Desolation engine are nice big beaters that have some nice synergies with Levi. These have been suggested by people above and for a good reason. There are surprisingly few "bad" models in the Outcasts faction (desperate mercs are pretty bad), although some have stronger synergies with particular crews than others. If you want to go out of faction, just try stuff out by proxying and find out what you like. But there are soooo many opportunities that it might seem overwhelming, and that's why I suggest keeping it simple until you get the hang of how to play Levi.

I think they could shine in certain scheme pools, but by default Levi has better options out there. Pushing enemy models towards your beaters is nice, but belles do it better and are cheaper. They place scheme markers in btb with enemies, which can be powerful in schemes like dig their Graves. With htw, htk, a (0) push and decent speed they can do some solo scheme running and can beat up most cheap counterparts. Aeslins aura is great if you expect to be pushed around a lot, but I'm not sure if it is 9SS great...

I don't think you have to show off every aspect of the game if it is his first. Experienced players often forget how much data there is to take in when you start Malifaux, and information overload can make for a frustrating game. I suggest simple beater crews with some scheme runners, and I think Marcus with his beasts are great because they are very thematic and not too complicated. Something like 35SS is an ideal starting point. As for strategy/schemes, guard the stash and extraction are great because they keep the game compact, and objective holding is something gamers recognize as a familiar concept. Then add to that some thematic and unique schemes, such as frame for murder, recover evidence or tail 'em. Quick murder is a simple and fun scheme as well.