Regelridderen

He’s got 9 wounds and HTW to boot. And he’s equally effective, whether he’s at 9 or 1 wound. Not to mention, that he doesn’t operate in a vacuum, you can heal him, hit attackers from other vectors, give him IH to Butterfly away from threats etc. Aside from this, I don’t really care, if he does go down. If he does, an opponent will have to sink a ton of actions/cards/stones into killing him, and this is equally valuable, as it allows the rest of my crew to succeed in their endeavours.

I’d say, having a DF 6 and a WP 7 is pretty significant, as you’ll rarely be at a disadvantage in a duel, and in most instances, you’ll be at an advantage. In that way, he is good at draining your opponents hand - which is overall the best defensive ability. Add to this a 2” engagement range, a high MV and a built-in push, makes the rider really hard to pin/put down.

With all the whinging about the lack of guild power before, this can only be half as much a blow to guild players as to others, as @Starrius and @Myyrä points out.

I've now had the chance to try out the rider w. pandora. I liked having a DF6WP7 model in a crew, that are mostly 5's. Along with the reliability of ruthless and the power of a 2" claw attack. He is a powerful beater in a crew, that mostly pings the opposition away. To me it's always a choice between Teddy/Rider/Hinamatsu/Carver. Carver and Teddy has the card draining synergy of Terror, while Hinamatsu and Rider are faster and more defensive, meaning you won't need to chuck as many cards/stones to protect them.

How about 'dora. You ignore his armor by tearing him apart by a thousand paper cuts. You neuter his triggers by handing out Stunned. You trim his offence, by handing out Slow. And constructs aren't exactly known for their high WP, so are quite likely to succumb to depression and Self Loathing. A model like Iggy can hit any high armour target for minimum 3 damage in one action 1(reduced damage) + 1 aura + 1 burning condition. And if you want a quick kill, send out a fast murder baby with built-in crows to execute his models after you've depleted his hand. Then maybe, just maybe, he'll end up like this :

I’d much prefer to see player attitude change/adapt, rather than see less variance in objectives and playstyle.

I don’t. Obey is such a signature Malifaux action, invalidating it for certain strategies is tantamount to not allowing the Viks to strike things with their katanas in Reckoning. And if they come up with alternate strategies, then its a rather moot point, discussing tactics based on the old strategies. Right?

I’d go for Lucius and his Lawyers for Plant Explosives. Just Obey the opposing models to dump their bombs. Then disrupt massively with slow/staggered.

Is it really worth it, trying to chain activate via Lawyers, considering they need at least a 9, and even a Doppleganger Obey needs a 7? I mean, you need to substitute for something better, without needing to cheat the duel for it to work.

Be as afraid as you want, but p. 22 of the rules is pretty specific, in defining suits and bonus flips as something separate from the Stat.

This in direct contradiction of the rulebook, it quite specifically separates suits and bonus flips to be something different from the "Stat", which is only the numeral. The only thing indicating "Stat" to be more is the layout of the cards?

I’d love to play around with Lucius at some point, as I love the idea of stopping a bunch of rotting zombies with a lawsuit. But I’m not entire sure, what to do... I’m looking at mimic/elite tricks : Mimic there are lots of unique abilities/attacks, that can be great to reproduce/abuse in multiples, and with doppelganger, agent 46 and changelings, you’ve got lots of opportunities. Obey Zoraida has gotten a bad reputation from this, and with lawyers, mimics, you get plenty of chances to turn the opponents crew against him - or throw idols around, And obeying your own is of course a great way to direct damage and focus your efforts towards a particular target. Card Draw Activating models out of turn, can give you cards, however only if the activation came from a more expensive model... Within keyword this mean Lucius can draw cards from everybody, while lawyers can obey investigators to draw cards... I feel, I’m overlooking some clever tricks here. Staggering Garrotes this seems inefficient, but interesting. Hitting opponents with staggered for extra damage with stat7 attacks. But 0’ reach makes these dependent on good planning. - How do you play him? What models do you hire for him? What strats does he excel at? How do you approach him as a Neverborn player?

Stat only refers to the numerical, so suits and bonus flips are copied with a Stat7/6. The rule book is pretty clear on this, even though the card layout may suggest otherwise.

I’m a sucker for a good theme as well - and love how keywords impact crew selection in M3E - but you could say have an out-of-keyword courtroom drama theme of judge, jury and executioners etc. ‘And I just realized that the lawyer draw is from the discard pile, which makes it so much better. E.g. discarding low masks and reclaim high cards, or just ditch a random useless card for a high mask, whatever is available.

How do think you about lawyers vs The Jury. Lawyers seem great, but dependent on you getting a low mask (per lawyer), while the Jury is more reliable in every sense (although at at 3 stones more).

I’d love to play around with Lucius at some point, as I love the idea of stopping a bunch of cheeky demons with a lawsuit. But I’m not entire sure, what to do... I’m looking at mimic/elite tricks : Mimic there are lots of unique abilities/attacks, that can be great to reproduce/abuse in multiples, and with doppelganger, agent 46 and changelings, you’ve got lots of opportunities. Obey Zoraida has gotten a bad reputation from this, and with lawyers, mimics and possibly the jury, you get plenty of chances to turn the opponents crew against him - or throw idols around, And obeying your own is of course a great way to direct damage towards a particular target. Card Draw Activating models out of turn, can give you cards, however only if the activation came from a more expensive model... Within keyword this mean Lucius can draw cards from everybody, while lawyers can obey investigators to draw cards... I feel, I’m overlooking some clever tricks here. Staggering Garrotes this seems inefficient, but interesting. Hitting opponents with staggered for extra damage with stat7 attacks. But 0’ reach makes these dependent on good planning. Out of keyword, I’m looking for hard hitting minions - such as Executioners, or good unique attacks such as the pale rider (to copy), and make the most of Lucius. - But how do you play him? What models do you hire for him? What strats does he excel at? Do you prefer him Neverborn or Guild.

I had the pleasure of meeting Collodi today in a game of Reckoning (both players took Outflank and Search the Ruins) : Pandora w. Eldritch Magic Poltergeist Candy Iggy Carver Hooded Rider 2 x Sorrow 3 Stones I wanted to try out Iggy, Carver and Hooded Rider for the first time. Iggy got decapitated by Hinamatsu before even activating on T1, and I sent Carver to deal with her (or at least hold her up, while the main brawl took place on the other flank), which he did better, than I’d anticipated - they were still getting at it at the end of T3, where we called the game. Although I’d have preferred seeing Carver in a bigger brawl, rather than goe toe-to-tow with Hinamatsu. I was really pleased with Hooded Rider as well. He is fast, reliable and brings hardhitting attacks to a crew, that otherwise just pings away. I’d usually go for Kade/Teddy, but this time I went for Rider and a Sorrow, and it was nice having more freedom of movement, and they feel better defensively (Df6 and Incorporeal), at least as everything else in the crew is fairly easy to hit. The rest of the game was a big brawl, where Pandy, Candy, and a Sorrow slowly whittled the puppets away, while the Poltergeist removed the scrap markers. Pandora really proved her mettle, controlling activations via Mood Swings, as I was handed a lot of pass tokens - one of her greatest moments was to Self Loathe Vasilisa, so Vasilisa was unable to use her own actions. Candy is of course a beast - as long, as you can keep her from activating. - It is amazing, how the crew can drain your opponents hand, while being fairly immune to this themselves, as so many effects come from passive abilities.

I’m more a guild collector myself - I found that Neverborn is more my style - but meeting Guild on the field, doesn’t feel like easy mode. But as Guild generally have a very straightforward playstyle, its fairly simple to wrap your head around how to approach them. While I imagine a Guild player needs a little more practice to understand the more convoluted synergies, you’ll face in other crews. Secondly, at least in my meta, there are a lot of Guild players, meaning, that you get more practice facing the Guild.

How about a crooligan or changeling?

That page is “fake news” defined.

Exactly, but there is nothing wrong with having to stuff a good card up your sleeve and spending a stone in return for getting an extra model on the table. And no-one likes the idea of placing a scheme marker and see it turn into a rampaging executioner.

You do realise, that someone has to take 3rd and 12th place, and that a couple of guild players ending up on those, is anecdotal evidence at best. I highly doubt, that changing LJ stat 6 to 7 would make much of a difference. There are few instances, where you wouldn't be able to cheat a winning result with a stat 6. 'faux is less about having 'super' stats and more about managing your resources. Both Nephilim and Granny allows you to capitalise more on more efficient models – giving you access to Stat8 attacks. Whereas summoning isn't really straightforward in M3E. Most summoners need to keep a handy cache of stones at the ready in order to secure getting their suits. You should stop thinking of 'summoning' as a primary strategy. Instead, think of it as just another ability among others – one that allows Dashel to ruin enemy scheming and give you a handy executioner in return.

So a neat party trick...

Pine Box seems like a neat ability, but is it worth it? You spend an action on giving an enemy Distracted and possibly cheating away a moderate card, when it reactivates. On the positive side, the duel will rarely be at a disadvantage, as it is against Sz., so it is an equalizer vs. High df models, and it can work to momentarily shut down an engagement for scheming etc. But is there a point in using Death Marshall Recruiters and Jury to gang up on the buried. Or even hiring Agent 46(+ doppelganger) to Box on a Stat 6-7? Can you build an aggressive strategy on it?

Yeah, I definitely need to be better at using Despairs Influence.