WWHSD

Lower total doesn't care about suits. Ignore the TN until you've determined who has won or lost the duel.

I'm always sad that Arcanists can't take her. She seems like more of an Arcanist than most of the actual members of that faction.

I've been happy with Powered by Flame every time I've used it. It's nice that it isn't just limited to melee attacks or minions. Adding burning to Ramos's ranged attack is nice.

I hope that the app isn't just a Wyrd replacement for Crewfaux. It would be sweet if there was an api that that the official app hits that could also be used to populate data into third party apps like Crewfaux.

I'm good with PDFs and apps like Crewfaux. I'm not sure that I'd like an app that tracked everything about the game state while I was playing though. At that point I might as well play on Vassal or something and not have to screw with building, painting, and transporting models.

I dug around in the 1.5 core book a bit. It looks like Relic Hammers used to ignore armor and were magical so would do full damage to Spirits (not sure if that keyword allowed them to anything else). That would explain where some of the comments I've hear have come from.

I'm not saying that Relic Hammers are crappy but were they a lot more powerful in earlier editions? I've played with a couple of guys who played earlier editions and they seem surprised that my Relic Hammers are avoiding a lot of their defenses.

What beasts do you usually run in a Ramos list?

At first Open Current looks like it's a great upgrade for Joss if you are running him in a crew that's mostly Constructs. I'm wondering how good it is in practice though. I tend to activate Joss as late in the round as I can. Open Current only lasts until the end of the turn so it seems like it forces Joss to activate early if you want to get much use out of it. In a vacuum, it would seem to be worth the soul stone cost even if only Joss ever really benefited from it. It's the opportunity cost of taking that makes me hesitant. With Bleeding Edge Tech, Powered by Flame, and Imbued Energies all competing for that slot it makes Open Current hard to justify. Is there anyone out there that swears by Open Current?

Or realize that a handful of models have recieved errata and use the errata in tandem with the books. The fluff in the books is great and having all the stats for all of the models in the books is nice. I use the PDFs which allow me to search quickly when I'm looking for something specific and to print out any cards that I need.

It's important to note that if you are defending against an oppossed duel with a TN and your total is lower than the attacker's you will need to decide whether or not to cheat before seeing if the attacker decides to cheat to meet his TN.

I think that Scorpious and Posion Gamin could be interesting in a crew that is planning on a lot of Blade and Claw shenanigans since they count as either a Beast or a Construct. I don't see how that would help Levi out though.

The wording on Mech Rider looks like the cost has to be exactly 4.

For a game like X-Wing I prefer mats made of mouse-pad like material. With Malifaux, there's going to be enough terrain to keep a vinyl mat flat even if it wants to curl up.

In case it's not obvious the Union Miner needs to use 1AP to interact to place a scheme marker and 1AP to use False Claim. The 30mm base is wide enough that if you place a scheme marker in base to base contact and a marker 3 inches away they'll be more than 4 inches apart from each other. Walking into position and then using false claim to drop a pair of markers won't work because one of the markers will get removed before it can be used to score.

I disliked the lines on the mat the first time I saw it. Now I can't imagine having to play without them. Having the center point and center lines marked out really helps. Having the mat broken up into 6 inch square sections is also really nice as well. Not having to constantly measure everything is great, especially when measuring would clue off your opponent what you are looking to do later that turn. Coming from another game it might not be obvious (it wasn't too me) but so many of the schemes and strategies depend on being a certain distance from a certain point on the board that the lines make playing quicker and simpler.

If you do get creative with your tokens make sure that you've got something that can be swapped in if a model needs to overlap the token. I found this site very helpful for quickly making all the tokens I needed to get playing while figuring out what I wanted to use as a more permanent solution. https://birgerro.github.io/Malifaux_Marker_Generator/Malifaux_marker_generator_IE.html You choose a marker size, a color for the outer ring, add a label and an image and then print out a sheet of them. I had the best results in printing using Firefox. Chrome doesn't seem to want to print the correct size. I printed all my tokens, attached it to card stock (my printer doesn't handle the 110lbs stock I wanted to use very well) and then cut it all out.

Crewafaux can completely replace getting a scheme deck. If you want to browse schemes and strategies outside of a game they are detailed in the Gaining Grounds documents and rulebooks. Crewafaux lets one player randomize the schemes, strategy, and deployment and then generate a QR code that the other player can use to import the settings. It then lets you track your score. Like other people have said the difference in Fate decks is all cosmetics and the material they are made out of. I'd do some searches for the different decks to find one that you like the look of. I have both the Arcane Fate Deck and the Classic Fate Deck. The cards in the Classic Fate Deck are nowhere near as slick and glossy so I find that they are less prone to sliding around. I also find them to be more readable than my Arcane Fate Deck.

In a Ramos list you could bring Vogel and Mobile Toolkit. You'd need to cheat in a tome but you'd get three scrap markers out of 1 AP and a low tome. You'd have to go to plan B if you don't the the card for it but getting three scrap right out of the gate is pretty cool.

The Brass Arachnid can only reactivate constructs can't it? I don't think I've ever had anything that wasn't a construct that I wanted to use his reactivate on.

The number of cards that you burn with the Steamfitter should be similar to what you burn if you went the Electrical Summoning route, except you can discard crappy cards instead of needing a high card. I'm wondering if it makes sense to have the Brass Arachnid give the Steamfitter reactivate on the first round so he can pull whatever high card Ramos uses for summoning out of the discard pile. - Brass Arachnid activates, and gives Steamfitter reactivate using a high tome.. - Steamfitter activates, grabs high tome used for reactivate, discards something low. Walks and discards two low cards for scrap. - Ramos activates and summons spiders using the high tome that was used for reactivate. - Steamfitter reactivates and picks up the high tome so that Ramos has it for next round. Drop another scrap marker if you've got enough mediocre cards in hand or a scheme marker if you've got an Enforcer with Well Rehearsed.

That'd be great if that's what the Steamfitter does. I think the last Wave 5 play test doc I saw just let them place Scheme markers. Joss + Electrical Creation is what I've used so far playing Ramos. I haven't picked up a Mobile Toolkit yet but it seems like it would be nice to put that soul stone I save into Ramos' stash. The real downside to the Toolkit would seem to be the larger AP commitment from Joss that it requires if I'm wanting my scrap as far out as I can get it (which I usually do). I can't picture playing Ramos without Joss because he's such a solid piece and Creative Salvage keeps giving Ramos options on where to summon.

Thanks for the feed back. I added activation and AP counts for each option as well as an option that uses a minimal amount of activations without requiring the as heavy an investment of resources in cards (and possible stones) that the Electrical Summoning option did. For the options that had Joss killing things, I gave alternate activation and AP counts if getting the spiders quickly was more important than moving forward. IT didn't seem worth writing them up as separate options.

I was kind of working through the various options for getting Ramos some spiders in the first round and came up with the following list. There's probably nothing new here to see for a lot of players, I'm just trying to put it all in one place and see if I missed anything. An assumption was made that moving forward as far as possible in the first round is desirable. Some AP can be saved in some of the options if Ramos wants to summon closer to the deployment zone. I also left out any variations that just have a third model killing something for scrap if it didn't result in some benefit above what Ramos gets for just making his own scrap. In the options that use Joss, he could be replaced by a Large Arachnid to save points (or free up Joss for something else) but that seems like it's overall a bit harder to make work. 1. Electrical Creation + Magnetism Electrical Creation activates, takes Damage, moves up to 8. Ramos Activates, attacks Electrical Creation with Magnetism, Electrical Creation relents, Ramos pushes 6, damage kills Electrical Creation, Electrical Creation drops scrap, Ramos Summons spiders and has two AP remaining. Notes: - Only spider summoning requires specific cards or suits. - Only a Black Joker on the summons stops Ramos from getting spiders. - Ramos gets movement from using Magnetize. - Uses 2 activation and 4 AP. - Points invested in engine: 4 2. Mobile Toolkit + Magnetism Mobile Toolkit Activates, moves up to 10. Ramos Activates, attacks Mobile Toolkit with Magnetism, Mobile Toolkit relents, Ramos pushes 6, damages Mobile Toolkit, Ramos attacks with Electrical Fire (needs a 7), Mobile Toolkit relents, minimum damage kill Mobile Toolkit, Mobile Toolkit drops scrap, Ramos Summons spiders and has one AP remaining, Ramos has one AP left unless he got a Black Joker on the attack that prevented him from killing the Mobile Toolkit. Notes: - Electrical Fire and Spider Summoning both require cards, only spider summoning requires a specific suit. - Only a Black Joker on the summons stops Ramos from getting spiders if he has cards and stones for cheating. - Ramos gets movement from using Magnetize. - Uses 2 activations and 4 AP. - Points invested in engine: 3 3. Electrical Creation + Joss Electrical Creation Activates, takes Damage, moves up to 8. Joss activates, attacks Electrical Creation with arc blast, Electrical Creation relents, minimum damage kills Electrical Creation, Electrical Creation drops two scrap. Joss does whatever he wants with his second AP unless he got a Black Joker on the damage flip. Ramos activates, walks to within 6 of scrap if needed, summons spiders. Ramos has 1 AP remaining. - Only spider summoning requires specific cards or suits. - Only a Black Joker on the summons stops Ramos from getting spiders. - Leaves scrap for second round summons. - Requires Joss in crew. - Uses 3 activations and 4 AP. - If forward movement is not desired this can be done in 2 activations and 2 AP. Joss will suffer a wound from the Electrical Creation exploding. (skip Electrical Creation activation) - Points invested in engine: 4 4. Mobile Tool Kit + Joss Mobile Toolkit moves up to 8. Joss moves into melee range. Joss charges, attacks with Arc Axe, Mobile Toolkit relents, minimum damage kills Mobile Toolkit, Mobile Toolkit drops two scrap. Joss charges instead of walking + attacking for the extra inch and insurance against Black Joker on damage flip.. Ramos activates, walks to within 6 of scrap if needed, summons spiders. Ramos has 1 AP remaining. Notes: - Only spider summoning requires specific cards or suits. - Only a Black Joker on the summons stops Ramos from getting spiders. - Leaves scrap for second round summons. - Requires Joss in crew. - Commits all of Joss's first round AP - Uses 3 activations and 5 AP. - If forward movement is not desired this can be done in 2 activations and 2 AP. (skip Mobile Toolkit activation) - Points invested in engine: 3 5. Electrical Creation Summoning Ramos activates, summons Electrical Creation (needs 7 of tomes), attacks Electrical Creation with Electrical Fire (needs a 7), Electrical Creation cheats a low card if needed to get a straight damage flip, Ramos cheats a card if needed to deal moderate damage. Electrical Creation drops scrap. Ramos summons spiders. Ramos has one AP left unless he got a Black Joker on the attack that prevented him from killing the Electrical Creation. - Besides spider summoning, there is one additional required suit and several required cards. Additionally, a low card and a moderate card may be needed to get to moderate damage - A Black Joker on Electrical Creation or spider summons stops Ramos from getting spiders. A Black Joker during the attack and less than moderate damage on a second attack can also stop spiders from being summoned. - Requires filling an upgrade card slot on Ramos. - Uses 2AP and a single activation. - Gives Ramos the option of doing this in any round that high tomes are easier to come by then usable scrap markers. - Points invested in engine: 1 6. Minimum Activations, Minimum Resources Ramos activates, attacks Mobile Toolkit with Electrical Fire (needs a 7), Mobile Toolkit will cheat in a low card if needed to get a straight damage flip, Ramos cheats a card if needed to deal moderate damage, Mobile Toolkit drops scrap, Ramos summons spiders. Ramos has one AP left unless he got a Black Joker on the attack which prevented him from killing the Mobile Toolkit. Notes: - Electrical Fire and Spider Summoning both require cards, only spider summoning requires a specific suit. Additionally, a low card and a moderate card may be needed to get to moderate damage. - Only a Black Joker on the summons stops Ramos from getting spiders if he has cards and stones for cheating. - Use 2 AP and a single activation. - Points invested in engine: 3 Option 5 seems like it is the cheapest (in soul stones) option but requires the most resources to pull off and has the most potential for failure. Options 1 & 2 get Ramos the most movement and leaves his crew member with all of their AP to do something other than help him get spiders. Options 3 & 4 set Ramos up to summon in round 2. The options that include an Electrical Creation (1 & 3) in the crew cost a bit more but is slightly easier to kill than the ones that bring a mobile toolkit (2 & 3). Based on feedback, I added option 6 for when Ramos wants spiders as quickly as possible without burning a lot of resources. Is there anything that I'm missing? I was thinking that Kudra could use her upgrade to kill a Gamin (everything but Wind is a construct) for scrap but I don't see any real benefit from doing that. Unless there's some reason you want to kill a Gamin there's no advantage over the 5 options I listed.

In the last play test doc I have, they're a Guardsman minion with some marker shenanigans (scheme, corpse, and scrap) and they've got a damageless attack that prevents a model from taking the same action twice during an activation.