TheForce

An idea to improve firebranded:

I would like to have more consistent sources of pyre markers outside of kaeris. So perhaps firebranded could be that source. 

My idea is that their bonus action could either heal or create pyre markers by removing burning from models. That way it would still be a significant cost, both by removing burning and using up a bonus action that could otherwise be used to heal. 

One implementation of this idea could be to add a built-in trigger to their bonus action with the following text: "When resolving, if at least 3 burning is removed by this action, create a pyre marker within 1 of the target."

You can probably word that better and you could probably tweak the power of it (how much burning to remove, creating versus dropping the marker, etc), but hopefully this explains my idea. 

Så what do you guys think? 

I recently played in a tournament and played Sandeep 5 out of 6 games. 

Regarding my previous question about how many academics to run, I only ran banasuva and kandara and never really felt like I needed more. 

Most rounds of the tournament I based my crew on this list:

Sandeep, banasuva, kandara, wind gamin, fire gamin, carlos, soulstone miner (w. magical training) and arachnid swarm (w. diesel engine). 5ss cache

With that list I will summon 2 fire gamin turn 1 to create a fire golem. Do you guys also do this or do you start with a golem? I can see arguments for both. There is definitely a risk in trying to merge a golem instead of starting with one, 2 times this tournament my opponents managed to move or kill a gamin so that I couldn't merge them turn 1. But merging a golem does seem more efficient, you can spend more SS on other models, you can draw a few more cards from gamins focusing and the fire golem can start with more burning. 

How many golems do you run? I have tried running 1 and 2, but 1 has felt the best so far. 

Re. Firestarter, not sure you need too push them that much. I agree that at least banasuvas is a bit too squishy to have him in the front. Also we already have good movement with Sandeeps command and wind gamin focusing to trigger their demise.

Re. Sandeeps defense, yeah it seems like he will stay alive because he's behind a bunch of other models. 

But on that note Sandeep will then require some academics to arc through. How many academics are you guys playing with?  I haven't played that many games with Sandeep yet but it has sometimes been hard to have an academic in the right spot in later turns. Though I usually don't run more than 3 academics (banasuva, kandara, and oxfordian/shasta). 

And which academics are you running? Is anyone running kudra? She seems a bit lackluster, at least compared to the golems. 

Time & Rounds Played: 4h, 5 rounds
Total score: 3-4 in Pandoras favor

Strategy: Cursed idols

Schemes:
Detonate the charges
Dig their graves
Harness the leyline
Assasinate
Take prisoner

Forum Name    TheForce
Crew List  
Marcus
Jackalope
Myranda
Ferdinand Vogel
Slateridge mauler - magical training
Cojo
Hoarcat
Moleman

Strategy VP Scored    2
Scheme 1 & VP Scored    Harness the leyline 1
Scheme 2 & VP Scored    Assasinate 0

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
I would probably change assasinate to something else, Pandora was more backfield than I expected and I didn't really manage to get close to her. I also should have focused less on killing teddy, he proved to be tankier than I thought.

MVP model (and Why?)
Not sure. Cojo managed to occupy a large part of Pandoras crew, But he would have died rathher quickly without the support from Marcus and Myranda. Perhaps Marcus was the MVP, ha gave me a point on the strat, did some damage to baby kade and other supporty things. Though he did also give away 2 points on assasinate.

Forum Name  Moosterious
Crew List
Pandora
Poltergeist
The carver
Candy
Iggy
Baby Kade
Teddy
Sorrow

Strategy VP Scored    2
Scheme 1 & VP Scored    Harness the leyline 0
Scheme 2 & VP Scored    Assasinate 2

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
Don't spread out the crew as much

MVP model (and Why?)
The combo of Baby kade and teddy. They took a lot of attention from Marcus crew and both tanked a lot of damage and dealt a lot of damage.

Concerns and/or Confusions?
As I have written in other battle reports I think there are some models in Marcus crew that needs a bit of a boost.

Cojo seems too expensive for what he does. He has some nice utility but is not tanky or killy enough to be worth 10ss.

There doesn't seem to be enough incentive to change Ferdinand into the beast within. I think the beast within should be buffed somehow so that there are some circumstances where it's clearly worth changing into him. Perhaps boosting his damage or making the anti armor trigger built in.

The hoarcat seems a bit lackluster for 5 ss. Right now it feels like there are 3 relevant things on his card, it's fast with mv 6, it has manipulative and it has 6 wounds. Then there are some things that suggests that it should be able to kill things (like eat your fill and swallow you whole), but in my experience and from looking at the card it isn't really able to kill stuff (at least not in chimera where tundra hunter is mostly irrelevant). So I would like to either buff its offence or, preferably, make it a better scheme runner (perhaps by dropping some of the offence and lowering it to 4 ss or make it more durable/slippery,. Give it agile?).

The slateridge mauler still feels slightly below the curve. With the armor mutation he is rather tanky but not quite as good as I would like.

Additional Feedback?
This was the first time both of us saw Pandoras crew on the table and they seemed nice. A lot of control with all the stunned, pushes, and other things.

I recently played a game versus Liched.

Strategy Turf war

Schemes
Deliever a message
Outflank
Take prisoner
Dig their Graves
Harness the ley lines

Total score: 4-3 in favor of Marcus
We played 5 turns and it took about 4 hours.

TheForce:

Marcus
Jackalope
Myranda
Ferdinand Vogel
Slateridge mauler - Magical training
Razorspine rattler
Hoarcat
Moleman
Moleman

Score
Strategy 1
Deliver the message 2
Harness the ley line 1

MVP
Myranda was probably my mvp. She scored some points, killed a tanuki and turned into a cerberus that killed the lone swordsman.

What I could have done better?
The point of this game was to try some models that I thought was a bit underpowered. But if I wanted to play with some better models I at least would have changed some models into a cerberus and blessed of december. During the game I probably should have tried to score more points on turf war. Perhaps Marcus could have done some more scheming.

Liched:

Misaki
Shang
Ototo
The Lone Swordsman
Katanaka Sniper
Torakage
Tunder Archer
Tanuki

Score
Strategy 1
Deliver the message 1
Harness the ley lines 1

MVP
Based on performance? It's a toss up between Misaki and Ototo, since both did do a lot to make this match as even as it became.
But my pick will go to Misaki for the work she did, the absolute joy of playing her and offering a lot of forethough and tactical options.
As a person who was almost burned out on playing Tara, Misaki has revived my interest in M3e.

What I could have done better?
Not been so damn greedy with the Tanuki, Torakage and sniper. Having them live can be better in turf with a killy crew when your opponent is 
not gonna score anyways. Maybe also scheme running with Misaki a little bit could have been smarter - also activating her later some turns might
have been the correct choce.

Overall thoughts, written by Liched

As usual playing with @TheForce has been fun and very giving. This was my first match playing Misaki in M3e (typically an outcast player) 
so that's why I chose a very basic crew with a lot of varied models, but playing the crew was very enjoyable.

Misaki herself was very fun and was intuituve. I liked her mobility, her ability to choose a model and knowing that you can
kill it by comitting - whilst still having the option to move around your own model, AoE 
and have a fantastic bonus action that allows you spend recources and still make them back
 - on top of adding a layer of decision making and strategy to her. But the best part about her is that every activation feels important, every
action feels like you can do something with - the agency you have makes me very happy.

Shang is a very good totem. He has good synergy with Misaki, supports the theme and is just crazy valuable. (He's also pretty much just 
a better Karina). He's very good. 

Ototo was such a powerhouse. A simple beater with some slight utility, but really scary. 
His defense and wp is low enough to the point where it feels a bit annoying and would be awful to play into a condition crew, but with some 
recourses spent he can live a whole game whilst tanking a master as proven here and still kill a couple of model on his own. 
After all the best defense is a good offense.

The Lone Swordsman ended up in an endless battle against the mauler, where he probably should have stayed for the entire game instead of 
foolishly going after Myranda. He's a very versatile model with some interesting tricks 
(Like pushing towards Ototo to avoid having to walk into the Slateridge Mauler).
I think that maybe Minako rei would have been a better hire in this case, but I'm not displeased with his service and abilitys.

The sniper did sniper things and blocked a Mauler for a while. So he's fine, the Archer however. Oh boy did he feel underwhelming, he has
a very good ability to remove scheme markers, but he doesn't do anything in melee, even though his ranged attack is pretty good.
Shadow pin I feel should be built in probably. I'm not sure, it didn't do a whole lot, but also has the potential to be very good. 
The triggers are bit weird in how they are used though.

The Torakage looks to be a fantastic scheme runner, sadly he was killed by the mauler very quickly so he didn't really do anythung.
As far as the Tanuki goes he's pretty good. Has nice actions, a funny and fitting attack/defense combo. Spreading focus around and having the 
options to end conditions makes this a pretty good support model. 

Marcus looked a lot smoother since last time I faced him. His upgrades gives great versatility and most of his crew can take advantage of them
in more ways then just having them on ther body. As a support master I think that Marcus is in a pretty good spot. 

The Jackalope is super annoying, as it should be. Requiring you to kill it multiple times per turn and also having scaling stats makes
it a scaling, synergestic totem who can tie up whoever needs to be engaged.

Myranda I'm torn about. On one hand having stat 6 on everything with built-in +flips on all of it for her and chimera models within 3" is very
good. On the other hand she herself wasn't that impactful, very scary. But the cerberus was far scarier when it appeared. 

Slateridge mauler did what it set out to do and tanked. Getting shieldied 3 every turn if he activated early and didn't move with built in
healing and armor +1 was scary in a tank way. Luckily my swordsman kept him slow, but between armor, shielding, healing and hard to wound 
he wasn't ever in danger of dying. Is he a bit under the curve for 8ss? Probably. Do I know what to buff on him? Nope.

Razorspine rattler... Ehm, it did something, I think. It actually did so little I can't say anything about it beyond that it seems bad. 

Same with Ferdinand - he seems very weird. Maybe give him a built in anti-armor when he runs around as the lycanthrophe, but as I said, he 
didn't do anything.

The (surviving) Moleman had basically a perfect game where he could scheme and threaten a turf marker all by himself in his own corner, but
he still feel weird. We both though adding an action that allows him to place within an area and touching terrain (with a TN)
would make him better and a more reliable schemer.

Hi I was also part of the single master tournament that Valkirswrath, Paradigm, Erorior, among others were part of.

I chose to play Marcus and at the end of this post I have som overall thoughts on his crew.

Game 1

Version 2.7

Strategy Turf war

Scheme List

Breakthrough
Hold up their forces
Harness the leyline
Vendetta
Dig their graves

Played 2.5 hours, 4 rounds

Final Score 7-4

TheForce
Marcus 3ss cache
Jackalope
Myranda
Cojo
Sabertooth cerberus
Ferdinand vogel
Blessed of december
Hoarcat

Strategy VP Scored 3

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Breakthrough 2

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Dig their graves 2

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
I'm not sure I like the hoarcats so I would probably change that to Paul Crockett.
Dig their graves also felt a bit hard into such a mobile crew so I could have change that to probably hold up their forces (stand close to Colette and the duet) or vendetta (preferably with Paul).

MVP model (and Why?)
Cerberus. It killed a showgirl, ice dancer, scored 1 vp on breakthrough and did some more damage.

Walkirswrath
Colette - 3 doves
Coryphee Duet 12ss
Carlos 8ss
Cassandra 8ss
Ice Dancer 6ss
Showgirl 5ss w/Magical Training 2ss
Mannequin 4ss

Strategy VP Scored 1

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Breakthrough 2

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Harness the leyline 1

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
(suggestions from me, see walkirswraths report for his view). Colette didn't do much, so put her in a better position. The ice dancer got stuck between a building, a table edge and the beast within, which maybe could have been avoided.

MVP model (and Why?)
Coryphee Duet. It scored 2 vp on breakthrough and killed the hoarcats

Concerns and/or Confusions?
My main concern is that it's a bit weird to play against Colette and the duet and know that my best option is to just ignore and avoid them since both are near impossible to kill (without specific counters that I didn't bring) and Colette benefits from being attacked.
I do have one change that might make Colette better to play against. If you change her so that when she becomes buried by her triggers she must immediately unbury instead of at the start of her next activation. As the opponent you then know where she could reappear and if you can attack her again she needs multiple cards to save herself and you can get in more damage each turn. Though I think that the distracted from showstopper might need to be changed to once per turn.

Game 2

Strategy Plant explosives

Scheme List

Outflank
Assassinate
Power Ritual
Take Prisoner
Claim jump

Played 2.5 hours, 3 rounds

Final Score 4-2

TheForce
Marcus - 2 ss cache
Jackalope
Myranda
Cojo
Sabertooth cerberus
Blessed of december
Order initiate - magical training
Hoarcat

Strategy VP Scored 2

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Outflank 1

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Power ritual 1

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
Perhaps played the order initiate a little bit safer (it died at the start of turn 2)

MVP model (and Why?)
Cerberus or blessed of december.
The cerberus held a flank against ototo and an effigy, letting my hoarcat drop an explosive and then do power ritual and outflank.
The blessed also managed to kill a model, drop an explosive and help score outflank.

Paradigm
Misaki 10ss cache
Ototo
Yasunori
Lone Swordsman
Minako Rei
Effigy

Strategy VP Scored 1

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Outflank 0

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Power ritual 1

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
(Copied from his battle report) First of all make room for two Torakage to better be able to score the strategy. I had a hard time actually getting beyond the centerline with Explosives in Corner deployment, especially with the threat of a Cerberus threatening to strike back if I advanced too far early. Also focusing more on scoring early rather than building long term advantage by trying to kill.

MVP model (and Why?)
(Copied from his battle report, though i agree)
Misaki. She was the only model in my crew fast enough to be able to drop an Explosive, and she also did a good job at threatening enemy models trying to score the strategy. I believe she only killed a single model, but instead managed to tie up quite a few models that otherwise would've scored more points.

Concerns and/or Confusions?
Not really.

Game 3

Strategy Corrupted idols

Scheme List

Search the ruins
Dig their graves
Detonate the charges
Deliver a message
Vendetta

Played 2.5 hours, 3 rounds

Final Score 5-1

TheForce
Marcus
Jackalope
Arcane emissary
Myranda
Cerberus
Order Initiate
-Magical Training
Blessed of December
Hoarcat Pride

Strategy VP Scored 2

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Deliver the message 2

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Search the ruins 1

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
Focused on getting the first point on search the ruins, I failed that turn 2. Though I think I could have gotten that point if we had time to play another turn.
There was a lot of terrifying in my opponents crew so something with ruthless would have been nice.

MVP model (and Why?)
Blessed of december. Damaged two models, held up the hanged, and scored a point on idols.

Verdeloth
Jack daw
Lady ligeia
Guilty
Hanged
Montressor
Crooked man
Crooked man
Jaakuna ubume

Strategy VP Scored 0

Scheme 1 & VP Scored Vendetta 1

Scheme 2 & VP Scored Detonate the charges 0

If you could play this same Encounter again, what would you do differently?
(From my perspective) perhaps have something a bit faster that could get into the corners where our two idols were placed.

MVP model (and Why?)
Probably Jack Daw, he killed the cerberus before it got a chance to really do anything and threatened other models.

Concerns and/or Confusions?
Not really.

I ended up winning the tournament and it seemed like everyone had a lot of fun!

Overall thoughts on the Chimera crew:

In general the crew was fun to play and the customization available from the upgrades feels nice. 

The addition of primal domain together with the improved upgrade cycling on Myranda and order initiate felt really good. It gave some needed resources in a very thematic way.

The upgrades overall were really good. The only one I'm unsure about is the serrated teeth. It was easily the least used upgrade for me. It might need some tweaks, though I don't have any good suggestions.

Blessed might be a bit too good at too many things right now. It's really mobile, decently survivable and good at attacking. I suggest lowering its offense slightly by lowering the severe damage by one.

The cerberus is also really good but I'm not sure if it needs any nerf, at least I'm not sure how it should be nerfed. Though with the current version I'm probably always going to include at least one.

Cojo feels slightly expensive at 10 ss. He has some good utility with scheme marker removal and pushes. But he's not quite good enough at being a beater or tank to justify the cost. I would like him to become slightly more tanky, perhaps adding hard to kill and/or regeneration. Otherwise he could maybe go down a stone to 9 ss.

The beast within feels a bit lackluster. It feels like he should be the beater and Ferdinand should be more utility. But right now they have the same stat and damage track on their attacks, so there's no need to transform into the beast. I would therefore like to buff the beast in some way. The easiest would just be to give him 3/4/5 damage spread or even 3/4/4. I've seen other suggestions such as giving him a good trigger on crows or making the anti armor trigger built in, those could also be fine.

Hoarcats also feel like they lack something. With a 1/2/4 damage track I'm not expecting them to actually kill anything and then it's weird with eat your fill and swallow you whole. Armor piercing also doesn't really fit with min 1. If they are supposed to be able to kill stuff then tundra hunter should also work in a chimera crew (perhaps when within 2 of another beast). Otherwise I think it needs some other buff or a decrease in cost.