Regelridderen

7 hours ago, hydranixx said:

*Obligatory "Get out of here you filthy Arcanist" comment *

*Riposte with snide and condescending remark on Explorer’s being Malifaux on easy mode 😏*

And thanks. I’ll look into it. I suspect my opponent will be bringing Maxine - he’s done so for the rest of the games.

Enter the Doppleganger. 

My next League game is into Explorers in this :

Flank // Symbols of Authority

Hidden Martyrs // Death Beds // Outflank // Research Mission // Spread them out

I’ve got Performers, M&SU (and Machina) at my disposal + all our Versatiles.

My initial though was to use Performers for Spread them out and Research Mission - with Carlos and the Soulstone miners ability to dump terrain markers.

My next League game is into Explorers in this :

Flank // Symbols of Authority

Hidden Martyrs // Death Beds // Outflank // Research Mission // Spread them out

I’m playing dirty Arcanists, but I have only had two encounters with Explorers, so I’m curious how you’d approach this?

Unfortunately the game got postponed as Hamlin paid my opponent a surprise visit.

I haven’t tried out Lucy2 yet, and a friend is itching to put his Cadmus on the table. 

This is the setup :

Any ideas and pointers are welcome 😊

11 hours ago, ooshawn said:

I can't be one of these yes men to wyrd. If I see something I don't agree with, i'm gonna speak up

Nothing wrong with ‘speaking up’, but…

Calling everyone else ‘yes-men’ for disagreeing with you only achieves for you to be taken as seriously as the average Trumpeteering Flatearth Anti-vaxxer 😏

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And don’t take this game too seriously. Who cares if a few models are sub-optimal for a time, there are a hundred alternatives. Wyrd isn’t afraid to do revisions - and even though we might not agree with these, it is in the end subjective, and if we otherwise like the game, these are the rules we’ll need to use.

NB : keeping your cards up to date really isn’t much of a problem, the errata’ed cards are published with the Gaining Grounds sets. 

1 hour ago, extremor said:

Oh but the lawyers don’t draw cards most of the time. And now theres no shifting AP around the crew to draw cards anymore 😭. I will surely be missing just like you a lot in future games. 

I wasn’t that impressed with the card manipulation. Mostly seemed like a lot of hassle for little gain - and the Lawyers came with some great Tools for the job 😏

But I’m a simple guy, my Lucy crews mostly relied on bossing two matures and Candy around 😉 I haven’t tried out Lucy2, but with the changes to changelings and the new starter pack the keyword seems more interesting to me.

1 hour ago, Brilliance Laced Whiskey said:

I guess.  I'm one of those weirdos that themes lists, even if it isn't always to my benefit.  If it doesn't fit the theme I'm going for, it's out.

 

When I was going to get Lucius I was hoping to go all in with either Mimic or Elite.  I didn't intend on mixing and matching between the two keywords even though the list is designed with that in mind.

 

But I guess that's my problem now isn't it?  😛

You do whatever you do.

Ultimately for ‘mimic’ to be effective, you’d have to have actions worth ‘mimic’ing 😉

1 hour ago, Brilliance Laced Whiskey said:

It's not that the changes to changlings are bad, they look very useful, but a small army of weird demonic children mimicing what they see was just way too interesting.  For a list called mimic, there seems to be very little mimicing going on.

You already have Lawyers to shift actions around - which was ultimately what Changelings did. The new changelings will have a more unique and active function in the crew. 

And now they’re cute and innocent looking and too much of an action sink to get rid of. 

Explorers got kicked in the jimmies and we got a little help for some of our weaker models. 

I'd say that it is more likely to see stagnation in your local player meta, rather than in the game itself.

If you're getting bored with the same matchups, you've got two options; expand your meta to include new players with new crews, or expand your own collection to try out new things/crews/factions. There is a third option which involves to re-think the way you set up tables and terrain.

Having the mindset in your meta of only wanting to play the 'optimum' keywords will inevitably leading into you playing 'chess', as you slowly distill your playstyle to exclude all that is sub-optimal.

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When it comes to Neverborn, I can promise you that neither Pandora nor Lucy is lacking in power, and I rather prefer these masters over your Nekima and Dreamer - although Dreamer does make my top-three.

On 2/8/2022 at 8:56 AM, Daniel Cruz said:

Even so, now it is quite difficult to keep many cards out, the little I have played I keep very few out and as soon as I start losing nightmares, I practically do not have cards out.

As long as Dreamer is in the crew your deck thinning options are gone - but try playing without the Vivid Nightmares ability, and you'll quickly see why change was needed. It's just a shame that most of the crew now have a fairly ineffectual bonus action – unless you bring stitched.

On 2/3/2022 at 2:19 AM, Mr Oogie Boogie said:

i lost my first game as so'mer, but it was hard to remember every little rule, and remembering bonus actions, then remembering what can do what. lol and figuring out summoning lol.  and when to turn two cards and pick the lowest etc 

Try playing some Henchman Hardcore for a few games. It’s a really good way to understanding the mechanics and getting the principles under your skin.

When the first store around here got Malifaux, I put in some requests, but three times I had to cancel, when they were unable to get anything from the distributor, while I found it elsewhere.

I’d much prefer being able to support the local shops and help them get the ball rolling, but …

10 hours ago, Azahul said:

Hazardous schmazardous. I'll play on a table trying to kill me any day of the week. The real terrain everyone is too cowardly about is markers. If I've got a graveyard on my table you'd better believe there are some corpse markers before the game even begins. A fight near a train station or foundry? Probably some scrap. Heck, not unheard of for me to grab some spare Underbrush markers for a forest game, though that one probably is getting a tad niche. Yes I know it gives an advantage to some Keywords. That's why Malifaux lets you pick your crew after seeing the table. Lean into it 😁

That is such a great idea. The best tournaments are often defined by their tables and the stories they convey. 😊

GAME OVER

Ironsides ended up going for Catch and Release (a spider swarm) and Vendetta (Envy vs Rafkin). 

McMurder decided on Bait and Switch and Vendetta (Kentauroi vs Gunslinger).

TURN 1 I chose deployment zone and dumped the undead behind a large forest and a Lake of lava that caused them endless problems after their T1 poison huddle. 

Meanwhile Toni and her gang went for the center and piled up Focus for the impending onslaught. While sending my spider swarms up my right flank to grab Strat markers.

TURN 2 Was unusually uneventful. The undead chose to avoid the centre and went for the most distant marker on my right. Yet Toni foiled them, taunted a ball carrying Flesh Construct off the objective and making room for my own ball carrying Spider Swarm. This angered McMurder to make a dash across the table to suddenly dump Poison +11 on the poor spider swarm. 

He didn’t like the egg on his face, when the Swarm revealed it’s Catch and Release scheme though. 

Score Arcanist 2 Ressurs 1

“Toni tells the drooling heap of bodyparts to Bring it!”

TURN 3 It was time to get aggressive. I had to choose whether the Swarm should run away to potentially score the second C&R point, but with 10 poison I reckoned it would be better spent wasting some of McM’s AP and so it attacked and ripped him of 5 health before getting torn apart in return. Envy pelted poor Sebastian with his Gatling and goaded the ugly runt into charging back - locking Mouse, Envy and the Effigy in combat. While the Kentauroi charged Toni trying to poison her. 

Toni though saw an opportunity for Sheananigans. While kicking some equine ass, she moved into position on the centre objective marker. So when McM murdered the spider swarm, the ball would instantly transfer to her. 

Arcanist 3, Ressurs 2

TURN 4 Poor Sebastian stripped from his poison saw himself trampled to death by thousands of little metal legs. While Mouse and Envy gave Rafkin a good scare and 5 health of damage to score Vendetta. 

McMurder, the murder puppy and a flesh construct then decided to cover Toni in gore and block her from moving towards the final Strat marker. In return she ripped the pooch in half, which was hardly impressive. 

Arcanist 5, Ressurs 3

“Poor Sebastian, about to get trampled by tiny feet.”

TURN 5 This was it, this was my moment to shine - and I completely blew it. Envy only had to blast Rafkin off the map, but I forgot to activate her and instead McMurder tore him to shreds. 

Before that. I wasted Ironsides activation. Rather than disengaging and just run off to hit the fourth Strat marker, she wasted a ton of activations killing a flesh construct and McMurder - only succeeding in getting the flesh construct, that really had no chance at making points. So the deadites got a point for Bait and Switch ending the game with :

Arcanists 5, Ressurs 4

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A great game. I never faced McMurder before, but he performed as expected and so did my counters. Envy was great for stripping Sebastian and Rafkin of their poison and getting a little extra damage. The swarms worked like a charm with their speed, but the +flips to damage came into play more than once and was good for breaking the hard to wound of the undead. 

A model that underperformed was the Effigy. It took a hit from Sebastian, but that was it. I would have been better spent getting a gunslinger or one of the Henchmen that could have put a little pressure on the other side. 

Our current league has a new fight.

‘Corrupted Ley Lines with Corner deployment.

Not considering deployment, I chose Ironsides - because I felt like it, and because I have very few games with her.

Schemes are :

Breakthrough

Vendetta

Assassinate

Catch and Release

Bait and Switch.

My opponent announced :

Dr. McMurder + pooch + stones

Sebastian

Rafkin

2 Flesh Constructs

Nurse

And kentauroi.

I suspect the kentauroi and flesh constructs to do the brunt of the work, when it comes to scoring points.

I made a crew of :

Ironsides + Mouse + 9 stones

Envy

Gunsmith w. Magical Training

Arcane Effigy

2 X Arachnid Swarms with Diesel Engine

I hope to use envy to strip key opponents of Poison, while the Effigy does the same for mine.

The plan is to set Toni up for a fight in the middle and draw all the attention. Supported by my guns to put in the final blows.
Mouse and the Effigy will in turn try to keep every body on their feet.

Meanwhile my little spiders will be doing most of the scoring. I gave them Diesel Engines mainly for the 3” move to ensure they wouldn’t get bogged down. I expect them to be able to handle the Strat + allow me to do Catch and Release and maybe Breakthrough. With the imminent danger of Projectile Vomit, I should probably consider shielding the bubble under a cloud of diesel.

Envy is a fine choice for Vendetta, and both Rafkin and the Kentauroi present themselves as good and soft targets.

As McMurder likes to kill, I’d be surprised if we didn’t end up with a skull saw vs brass knuckles duel between him and Ironsides, so Assassinate seems like a fine choice as well. Staggered will disrupt any nurse shenanigans, so even if Toni won’t have shielded, I believe she’s in a good place vs Doc Death.

Bait and Switch is a dead scheme. If I’d chosen Collette then maybe, but not in corner deployment.

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Cross your fingers 😊

On 1/19/2022 at 11:50 PM, ShinChan said:

• Mysterious Emissary: Give him a  for each piece of different Severe Terrain the target is in, instead of giving the enemy a  . Also change "Aura of Deception" to something that is actually useful.

That is a gargantuan nerf. 

A +flip is merely ‘nice’, but at best you’re still leaving things to chance. At worst you end up flipping both jokers.

A -flip on the other hand, not only ups the chance of an opponent flipping weak cards, but also denies them their shot at cheating, meaning you’re in a good position to cheat for suits and/or damage. The few models that hand out -flips on Df or Wp are ultra rare, and are all dependent on other models to make use of it - except for Ol’ Treeface. 

I stopped using Daydreams after the nerf to Dreamer1 Lucid Dreaming. But before that they were perfect for support, re-arranging your models and thinning your deck. By turn 3+, when you'd weeded out the weak cards from your deck, they started to punch way above their weight, and if your opponent cheated against them, it meant he had no cards for the heavy hitters.

Now my Ancient Pact goes to my Insidious Madnesses. 

My lynchpin is the Insidious Madness.

They’re fast, so they’re great for running schemes.

They have a Stat6 vs WP, meaning they are great healers for the rest of your crew.

But more importantly. They’re able to pacify even the toughest opponents by handing out Distracted - and from across the board. So even if they end up away from everything in order to grab a symbol or something, they will still have an effect on the fighting.

You’ll often hear players lament on how Dreamer, Serena and Stitched got nerfed, but Insidious Madness became some if the most powerful models in the game with the changes to Focus/Distracted.

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I like to bring in Candy OOK, although she’s lacking the keyword Candy is a true nightmare. 

That’s what Pinterest is for.

Doing all those spiders, convinced me that I might as well jailbreak Ramos while I was at it. Luckily I could locate a box in Germany and with a bit of luck, a bloke in England will send me the M3E cards to match 🤗

And I had a spare Yin lying around, so I decided to make one in line with the rest of the Lo gang (the other was based in line with my M2e Redchapel Crew). 

Hazardous is definitely an aspect that should be in the game, whether it’s healing fountains, toxic puddles or lava streams. Of course, it can get to be too impactful - I doubt any non-arcanist would have fun facing Kaeris on a table full of bonfires and lava pools 😉

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My input is that not every table need hazardous terrain. The best mini tournaments is often defined by having very different tables, so players are presented with more than just different objectives, but also circumstances. One of my best tournament experiences was an Infinity tournament; one table was a desert environment with extreme fire corridors allowing snipers to rule the day, another was a CQB shanty town, where shotguns and flamethrowers made all the difference, a jungle and harbour table allowed models that could exploit difficult/water terrain to have an advantage. 

7 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

I wouldn't call him a one-trick pony - his kit isn't all that complex but there's quite a few decision points and he has quite a few options in building his crew.

Would you care to elaborate? 😊