Regelridderen

3 hours ago, esqulax said:

I feel like it is not quite as bad as you make it out to be. It is more. 

Take a bunch of crap from Shelf A and put it to shelf B. Then after one whole round with less crap on your shelf, but half of the crap back. 
 

So you feel it makes a difference in your games? That’s nice, I don’t.

Do you go through your fate deck multiple times in a turn, so you get the effect of a thinned deck? I rarely do so, not with Nightmares.

10 hours ago, esqulax said:

To be fair, it was also way too strong before, and the cards go into your discard, so you still won't see them for the next round. 

I don't know, I still prefer this version of dreamer. 

Yea, it was absolute too strong before – at least until Malifaux got mad  – but no one says, it needs to be like it was.

You might eliminate the optional choice, so it was less optimised and still reliant on Stitched, or it could be a minion-wide arcane reservoir, it could even be something completely unrelated to card draw but with a crew synergy, like a 6" Stat5 Wp attack to give Distracted+X, or.. or.. or.. anything but "Take cards from shelf A to shelf B, then return cards from shelf B to shelf A, rinse and repeat.".

3 minutes ago, esqulax said:

I agree with those except Dreamer1. Summoning insidious madnesses is still rough for a lot of crews to handle and Nightmare as a whole is a very solid keyword. Not to mention Chompy

It’s less a balance issue with Dreamer and more that his entire crew is centered around having a useless mechanic. You’re basically wasting time doing LD for little effect.

I’m less concerned about the overtuned stuff and more about the weak keywords - although VS and Perdita could use a light tickle with a nerf bat. 

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Dreamer1 hasn’t recovered from his past nerf. The idea that LD now only works to set up Stitched with severes is just… less than satisfying. 

Seamus1 still couldn’t care less about his Keyword, I’m down to fielding Bete, the rest is out, and although his title makes better use of them, playing a bubble doesn’t feel like Seamus. 

Somer - where’d he go? It was the best place for Barbecue in the Bayou, and he’s just gone. Make the Bayou Greasy Again!

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Of course these new masters with their fancy chain effects is an abomination that should be dealt with, but some of the most iconic masters are not getting fielded, not because they’re bad Per se, but due to their mechanics simply not working. 

Choose the keyword that makes you want to paint the most.

Play the objectives. Outmaneuver him and kill everything around Dashel. 

Thanks @djmacbest my process is mostly starting doing a volume sketch - I have some early shots of the centaurion as well : 

From there, it just went downhill, as I started dousing it in colour with my paintbrush, while I was telling myself I tried to create ‘texture’.

I find, that I care less and less about fidgeting with tiny details, using light in this way kinda takes control of the viewers eyes, so you miss the little things. 

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I’m very much inspired by Marco Frisoni - here’s a link to the video that inspires my work with the Centaurion Marshall : 

So… I needed something else and came upon a Centauron Marshall. Awesome model and I’m in full swing.

I decided to try and work with three sources of light. A green top light, shining down on the back. A blue/teal reflection of a magical explosion off to his left. And a warm red/yellow glow from a lava stream below. 

Here’s my WIP.

Orange light on the front/stomach green across the back

Experimenting with working in a fur texture.

The colour of magic

Never worked that spear beyond the initial airbrush priming and an edge highlight.

Warm and glowy transition into cool tones.

Looking great

If, say two Coryphee or three Steam Spiders combine and two of them have Focused +1 each, what will be the Duet’s or Spider Swarm’s Focused condition be?

10 hours ago, Hot4Perdita said:

Thanks. I have the Discord for my local game store. I thought it was more for stuff like that than an actual forum. Doesn’t seem to be too user friendly for a forum, though I’ll admit I don’t use it much and am not well versed in its use.

Ditto on the having fun. I learned in the past that Malifaux is not a game I enjoy in a tournament setting. Casual is the only way I play it. 

Then don’t worry about a thing ☺️

I do find tournaments fun - you can either go to win, or casually to meet new players and face crews that you don’t see in your normal meta, it’s what you make of it I guess.

It was one of those classic stories. Hopeful artist aim for the stars, when love struck crimeboss and casino owner enters, stage right, and promises him the world - only for a night of sweet, sweet love. And when the crime boss won’t take no for an answer it ends with the inevitable dance off.

STRATS : Covert Operations, Flank

SCHEMES : Breakthrough, In Your Face, Catch and Release, Vendetta, Spread Them Out.

HONEYPOT :

Lynch + Huggy + 8 Stones

Kitty Dumont

Gwyneth

Mr. Tannen

Lone Samurai

2x Beckoners

THOUGHTS : I ditched my usual Illuminated for Beckoners, as I wanted to be able to Catch the performers on their poor Wp and beat them up. Lynch2 is probably the better, but here was a chance to turn monkeys into junkies.

PERFORMERS :

Mr. Cooper + 3 Monkeys + 5 stones

Baritone Lola

Carlos Vasquez

Ferdinand Vogel

Gunsmith w. Magical Training

Gunsmith

THOUGHTS : Lynch hates getting shot, and I could get the best shooters in the biz and teleport them around while giving them +flips on the defense. Vogel is a great Circus act to complement the performers, both providing healing and Wp attacks. While scheming would be left for Lola and Carlos.

SETUP :

TURN ONE :

Both crews were reluctant to advance. Knowing very well it could spell Doom for the crew. Lynch passed, and Cooper sent a Flying Monkey up to survey and make way for his deadlier performers. Yet, the lecherous monkey fell for the siren’s call of two Beckoners and soon found itself in the midst of the Honeypot, a brilliant sheen now glowing from it’s wings. Seeing where it headed Cooper sent a Gunsmith to dispatch of the monkey, but the Hungering Darkness immediately called for it through the Beckoners.

Cooper worked his magic Presto-Change-o-ing himself and the second Gunsmith to center and Vogel off to the flank. But suddenly the Despicable Mr. Tannen got in the way. The Gunsmith rushed into help his buddy and bladres 4 health off of Tannen. Only to see Lynch come in block LoS between the two, while pumping his mate full of Brilliance - but sadly not managing to kill her.During the fighting Baritone Lola scuttled off on the flank, while Vogel dumped a scheme marker by the objective on the other, turning into a mighty werewolf to face the Lone Samurai and Kitty.

TURN TWO :

A fierce fight for initiative, each crew cheating twice ended with Lynch winning and turning both Gunsmiths into addicts, one Illuminated, one Depleted. Cooper did his best to block the Honeypot advance throwing himself and Carlos in the way, then stabbing Tannen to death with a neat Sword Trick. Carlos proceded to set the Honeypot on fire and blocking their way with a big Pyre, but died to the claws of the Illuminated Gunsmith as the Beckoners doused the flames.

Huggy set his sight on Lola who hid by the far objective dumping yet another scheme marker, while Cooper vanished in a puff of smoke.All alone Vogel/Beast made a boo-boo. He let out a mighty Roar turning both Sammie and Kitty into Adversaries, then charged deling out two impressive Severes and a Weak damage, before the Sammie hit him for seven, letting Kitty advance remove the scheme marker and claim the objective.

SCORE : Performers 1 (Strat) vs. Honeypot 3 (Strat, In Your Face, Vendetta (Sammie vs. Vogel).

AFTERMATH :

It was fun if quick, the Performers eff’ed up. Getting into a center scrum instead of leveraging their superior mobility, but I never considered how fast Mv7 will get you in Trouble, when used against you. On the positive side, I finally think I’ve got the hang of how to unpack via Presto-Changeo.

The basic game haven’t changed much. Some language has been made more precise in the rules, but that’s about it.

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As others have explained Titles have come out, and in your case you’ll want Perdita2, as she’s suddenly taken a subpar crew into broken territory - along with a versatile guild mage.

The latest expansion Madness of Malifaux introduces a new breed of hyper efficient masters, where one action easily escalates into three, mostly invalidating existing model collections, if you’re more into winning than having an even game. Hopefully designers realize that this is a wrong path to take, when you invalidate 90% of your product. Otherwise we’re hopefully seeing an M4E just beyond the horizon.

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Most discussion have migrated to Discord, for unknown reasons, so the forums are dying out.

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But just get back in the game. You’ll feel right at home and have loads of fun. Most of the broken stuff only get to reign tournaments for a year before nerfs (and the next wave), and most faux players just want some fun and a great game.

@The Neon Gnome I’m really looking forward to story - if only to paint it up. At first glane they don’t seem at Madness ridiculousness, which is only good, but they do seem to be able to do some really, really cool stuff. 

Not really true, I actually got out of the Dojo and faced a real live opponent - at least I believe they were, they all wore masks, so maybe…

STRAT : Cursed Objects, Corner Deployment. 
SCHEMES : Set the Trap, Breakthrough, In Your Face, Catch and Release, Public Demonstration. 
 

ANCESTORS - the usual suspects

Spiritwalker + Soul Porter + 6 Stones

Yin

Toshiro

2x Kabuki

Samurai

In Your Face, Catch & Release (Kabuki)

vs

ELITE/MIMICS 

Lucius + Scribe + 3 Stones

Agent 46

2x Geryon

2x Guild Lawyers

Investigator

Set the Trap, Catch & Release (Investigator)

TURN ONE :

Lots of shuffling. A central forest blocked the straight line between corners. The ancestors held back a bit, slowly advancing, weary to overextend and fall into a wave of out-of-activations. Yet first blood was drawn, when a Kabuki with Yin Reliquae met a  Geryon on the center line. 

TURN TWO :

The fight was on, the first Geryon was Pulled bloody out of the scrum, when the Scribe had his back, but Lucius isn’t the only one with out-activation pranks, and the Geryon fell apart to a charging greatsword - bringing my Yin/Kabuki far away from the Agent 46 coming round the forest stapping the Samurai in the weak bits. 

Yet the sneaky Mimics sent an investigator up to question the Spiritwalker about his immigration status - luckily they were in order and Yan was let go.

SCORE : Ancestors 1 (Strat) vs Elite 1 (Catch and Release)

TURN THREE :

Another Geryon fell, while the Agent saw his chance to kill the samurai. Fearing more surprises from 46 the ancestors focused on taking him out, but it took a lot of shuffling as Yan Lo wanted to see it happen up close, giving Lucius’s Hidden Sniper time to appear and put some wounds on a Kabuki, who’d just turned his sword against Yan Lo on a lawyer’s orders - the agent went down though, and since Yan suddenly realised he had to move to win, he executed the investigator as well. While the Yin/Kabuki and Yin teamed up against a poor lawyer.  

SCORE : Ancestors 3 (Strat + In Your Face) vs Elite 2 (Strat)
 

TURN FOUR :

To no surprise the first lawyer died quickly, then Lucius’s Hidden Sniper took out the Kabuki. Feeling the pressure Toshiro ran towards the opposing corner, but an impudent lawyer threw up some red tape and sent him back across the center line. Yin engaged the Lawyer, but also got caught in the red tape of bureacracy, but the Yin/Kabuki managed to reach Lucius, stabbing him once just for funsies.

SCORE : Ancestors 5 (Strat + Catch and Release) vs Elite 2 (Strat) 

TURN FIVE :

The Elite put up a brave fight, trying to Set a Trap and Lucius engaging the Kabuki to deny points, but the ancestors would have none of it. Reserving a couple of high masks for Obeys allowed Toshiro to reach the corner deployment from 14” away, and freeing Yin from being engaged to the Lawyer, so the Vampire could charge in and tear Lucius away from the Kabuki and dump him in pool of lava.

SCORE : Ancestors 8 vs. Elite 3

AFTERMATH :

Lucius is a tough crew to play. He can juggle a lot of actions, but quickly loses his punch, when you hit his beaters. It didn’t help that he held Lucius back and wasn’t able to channel actions into the Geryon.  The Geryon was an interesting choice, the Extended Reach was a challenge that wasted a lot of actions, while HtK demanded some thought.

The kabuki did their usual amazing stuff - Yan did not like the few times they turned around to hit him. Nor did the Kabuki enjoy the Hidden Sniper. They’re great at doing their job, but they are brutale glass cannons, when out of their element. The samurai might not have accomplished much, but he did manage to hold back Agent 46, and adding staying power was what he was there for.

This ancestor crew isn’t easy to play. You get a lot of synergies, but need to be ever mindful of positioning and cards to make it work. Especially Yan’s activation is hard, he wants his suits, and he isn’t getting the freebies he’s designed to get. The big advantage is it’s ability to shift focus and gears with most of it’s models being Mv6.

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Thumbs up to my opponent. I think, I have more games with Lucius, than he have Malifaux, but he had a better eye on schemes/strats than I’ve ever had. He’ll be a force to be reckoned with, once he cracks his take on Lucius - or switches crews. Till then, he’ll take some hard beatings.

@regleantwhen it comes to Honeypot, I prefer the old casino master. It just has a certain charm turning opposing models into junkies and prostitutes. Although, number two offer great mobility and versatility - and I think, probably is the better choice most times - and I just love to Rig The Deck.

With my Ancestors I’ve found a fast hard-hitting style based around Kabuki Warriors and mostly Spiritwalker that’s just loads of fun. Basically min3 beaters with constant ++flips to hit and damage and multiple activations.

I’m still finding my way around McCabe (Rollins), I like the Tomb Delver, but I’ve no real preference. 

I’ve decided to throw my attention to my Thunders for the moment - I’ve collected and painted Last Blossom, Ancestor/Retainer, Honeypot and Wastrel + most versatiles - and will likely add Story to the collection as well. So I thought it about time, I started playing with them too. 

I think my ‘tournament pack’ will end up with Ancestor/Retainer for the more fighty focused, Wastrel for the most scheme-y and corner deployment and Honeypot for what’s in between. These, to me, are the most fun/rewarding and I love themes more than the rest.

But what are your preferences? 

So as I’m starting to get the hang of Honeypot and Ancestors, I thought it was time to branch out and get a feel of the Wastrel keyword in a face off vs Ancestors.

STRATS :

Carve a path // Corner

Spread them Out, Vendetta, Breakthrough, Load ‘Em Up Sabotage

One flank was heavily forested, while the rest was littered with mountains and stone pillars.

ANCESTORS

Spiritwalker + Soulporter + 5 Stones

Yin

Toshiro

2x Kabuki

Samurai

Plan was to attach Yin to the Spiritwalker and have a flying scheme/guntower, while the took a hard center. Trying to avoid the forested area. Going for STO and Bre.

WASTREL

Tomb Delver + Luna + 3 Stones

2x Rough Riders

Sidir

Desper

Wanyudo

Dawn Serpent

Plan was to win through speed. Sending Wanyudo and Dawn Serpent through the forest, while letting the rest engage the Ancestors. Going for Bre. and Sab.

TURN ONE

Lots of stumbling, the Wastrels wanted to capitalize on their looted cards, let Luna uncover a scap marker and tripped over their feet, as they tried getting out of their own bubble. The fiery duo regretted their initial plan and took a turn playing the ball more towards the centre, where they teamed up with Sidir. While the rest got divided by a mountaing as they advanced fast, pushing their marker across the centerline.

The ancestors also blundered, where Yan / Yin should take the flank a samurai and a Kabuki went to kick ball. While Toshiro and the other Kabuki went center. Yet the old guy still held the aces, the soul porter kicked the Yan Reliquae to Yin and the Yin reliquae to the Kabuki walking down the center. Then Yin flew out and suddenly ol’ Yan was in the center with 4 actions + a charge from Yin ending in one dead Rough Rider and Desper badly wounded.

It looked like a bad day to be robbing old guys’ tombs.

TURN TWO

By freakish luck and poor Yin flips, Desper managed to survive and punt his ball further up field. He was up to 2 health thanks to a mirror, but didn’t get far himself due to slow. An overconfident Toshiro decided to ignore him, instead to move into position to benefit the minions, and the Soul Porter went for the kill - but a lucky soulstone kept Desper alive.

Tomb Delver tried to circumvent shooting at Yin by shooting Yan with his Pepperbox and blasting, but forgetting about Lunas Hunting Partner, allowed Yin to live - only to go down to a very focused Rough Rider.

While on the other side, Sidir managed to pepper the Kabuki, before it closed in, taking the ball with it across the line, and Sidir then got cut down under the orders of Toshiro. Then got charged by Wanyudo - to get in and punt the second ball over the centreline

A Stunned Yan never really made a dent in this round, although he did Obey the sammie to punt the ball across the centreline

By the end of the turn, all 4 balls was across the centre, yet no schemes were revealed.

SCORE : Wastrel 1 vs Ancestors 1

TURN THREE

The fight was on, dead bodies piled up everywhere, and the Kabuki quickly dispatched the Wanyudo. Luna and the The Rough Rider took out the other Kabuki, scaring Yan Lo to flee and attach himself to the Porter, while stripping health off the Tomb Delver, letting Tomb Delver pick up a Time Worn Bull Whip and start ripping the samurai’s armor apart. Unfortunately, just missing one fatal hit.

The Dawn Serpent burned the Yin/Kabuki to a crisp then took up position one inch between the two balls.

And no one seemed to care that Desper punted his ball into the end zone and dropped a scheme marker.

SCORE : Wastrel 3 (Strat + Bre.) vs Ancestors 2 (Strat)

TURN FOUR :

Both masters went down this turn, Yan from the fiery Breath of the Dawn Serpent, that not only would claim his life, but also the Porter and set Toshiro on fire. Tomb Delver from getting skewered by the samurai, then shot to pieces by a desperate Yan Lo. Toshiro charged in to engage the dawn serpent, but no effect.

Meanwhile Desper was happily leaping about, setting up a bomb.

SCORE : Wastrel 5 (Strat + Sab.) vs Ancestors 2

TURN FIVE :

The scum was inconsequental at this point, only thing left was for Desper to score a final Sabotage point.

SCORE : Wastrel 6 (Sab.) vs Ancestors 2

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AFTERMATH

I didn’t expect this.

The ancestors lost to hubris, as they in their bloodlust ignored Desper - who singlehandedly scored 4 points. Their big failure was to allow Yan to engage and getting bogged down. While he should have been off scoring points.

Meanwhile I have a lot to learn about unpacking and moving the Wastrels around. It might have been smarter to send riders off through the forest, and getting the Wanyudo and Dawn serpent into the fight, or maybe have looked into a huckster or two for dedicated scheming.

The Yin / Yan combo showed lots of potential. Yin can do great in a fight, but her strength is speed/scheming. While I’m sure if Toshiro had had all the minions with him, the center would have been much harder to deal with.

Good game and lots of learning from the dojo.

1 minute ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Another neat trick for Yan Lo 2 is to have Sun Quiang give him two focus on turn 1.  There's a shocking number of models in the game he can just shred with two focus and ignoring armor & incorp xD

I’m also musing on a list with double kabuki, double samurai and Toshiro.

A 12” death bubble with 12” reach. And the armored samurai will bring something good to an otherwise squishy list.

7 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Could try focusing on attacking enemies to benefit from the distraction aura?

His attacks are pretty solid. And so are Yan 1s xD

Indeed, I’ve found he does more shooting than I imagined, but of course the shooting is very good - especially vs armor/incorporeal.

So in the end it’ll be a choice between the two, dependent on style, opponent and schemes. Which is just good game design.

So ol’ Lo was messing with his hoodoo dolls, when Collette stopped by for a less than friendly visit.

STRAT : Cursed Object - Flank Deployment

ANCESTORS

Spirit Walker + Soul Porter + 8 stones

Toshiro

Yin

2 x Kabuki Warriors

Sun Quiang

SCHEMES : Leave Your Mark, Set the Trap

vs

PERFORMERS

Colette + 3 doves + 1 stone

Dorian Crowe

Showgirl (HM) w. Magical Training

Angelica Durand (HM)

Carlos Vasquez

Cassandra Felton

SCHEMES : Hidden Martyr, Breakthrough

TURN ONE 

The performers chose a denied flank, while the ancestors congregated in the center. Yin met the duet, while Carlos took a bloody nose from a Kabuki.

TURN TWO

Things got serious, Carlos quickly lost his life, while both Cassandra and the Showgirl got bloodied, in return one of the Kabukis went down, as Dorian flicked a cigarette in his eye and his wig caught fire. Yin kept the duet busy, while Sun scrambled to keep her alive.

SCORE : Ancestors 2 (Strat + Leave Your Mark) vs Performers 1 (Strat)

TURN THREE

The remaining Kabuki opened the ball by lopping off the head of Dorian, while the duet turned it’s attention toward Sun Quiang. Leaving Yin free to join the center scrum, so soon the Showgirl joined the dead, and Toshiro could turn her corpse into an ashigaru and kill off Angelica…

SCORE : Ancestors 3 (Strat) vs Performers 1

TURN FOUR

With the performers decimated, we decided to call it quits. Cassandra would surely die, while there was little chance that the performers would get more than one point from Breakthrough and Strat, while theancestors would likely score the 2nd point of LYM and the strat likely ending in a 5-3 result at best.

AFTERMATH

It was the performers first outing since first, so unsurprisingly they took a beating - although they also took the coolest kill with Dorian.

Meanwhile the Kabukis once again proved themselves deadly with abundant +flips. Sun is likely a waste, and going forward will see himself replaced with Manos or a Samurai.

With more practice I’m starting to reconsider whether Spiritwalker is the right choice. The Obey chain is just immensely resource draining.

Those ‘nerfs’ were well deserved, making those models playable. E.g. I loved Pandora Tyrant-Torn, as she made Pandora and not just the Woe crew fun to play, and now that she’s brought more in line with the rest of the game, It doesn’t need to be a bad experience  

Sadly, some went scott-free, like Perdita, and sadder still, the madness have hit, which skews the whole balance issue once again. 

I’ve no idea, why Wyrd bother with these nerfs, as it seems they’ve adopted a GW sales strategy of pumping out vastly overpowered stuff to let it reign the tabletops for a year before being put in line to get beaten by the next wave. 

We’ve seen it with Explorers, Burns and Madness now, so chucking it up to too little testing is naive at best. 

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The worst part is that it is a poor tactic. Wyrd can’t get stock on shelves, let alone the new stuff. Then launching these wildly imbalanced crews only leads to poor game experiences, which does make it ring false, when you try to sell it, as the best and most balanced mini game out there.

They might as well spare players like you the negative experience of seeing your models nerfed. Then bring back original masters, like Dreamer to the game to open the playing field to this new meta - simply just give a rat’s arse about the balance issues and devote their energy to developing new, cool stuff. 

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I really like Malifaux and our local meta. I’ve got 21 crews of lovely models to prove it, but I’m seriously considering jumping back into Infinity until M4e drops. 

11 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Are you doing Yan lo 1 or 2?

I think, Yan2 holds the advantage, not needing Chiaki for the Reliquaries. And having Obeys to Channel his action in their hypercharged Greatswords. 

Yet, Yan1 has the advantage of even more healing, and the Kabuki are nothing if not squishy.  

The problem with Yan2 is being dependent on masks, that he won’t get with the Kabukis. If you can put a Reliquary on Toshiro, you can chain Obeys through the Daimyo’s gift - but then you need not one but two 7+ - and preferably a third ancestor, as both Yina and Yan is wasted on Toshiro. 

Just now, Maniacal_cackle said:

Also puts opponent on a minus for resisting Yan los attacks!

Or sun or chiaki, who have some brutal triggers.

Or Yin for that matter - along with protecting Yin and Toshiro, when they advance. 

My core is the 2 Kabukis with Yin and Toshiro. Then everything is interchangeable. 

Need even more mobility - throw in Manos. 
Need a little extra security give the Kabukis HtK - and a nice bonus action - via Silent Protector. Or how about throwing in a Samurai to provide cover fire?

Etc.