thewrathchilde

I thought he already worked for Guild as Perdita’s totem....

on September 16th at the Thunder Mountain Gamers monthly game day I will be running Malifaux demos, have multiple table sets for open Malifaux play and will be running an Enforcer Brawl at 3:00. W: Me on behalf of Thunder Mountain Gamers W: Demos, Open Gaming (Henchman Hardcore & GG format games), and 3PM Enforcer Brawl W: 16 September 12:00-5:00PM W: Cochise College, Sierra Vista Campus, Student Union Building Community Room, 901 Colombo Ave, Sierra Vista, AZ, 85635 W: to provide demos for new players, encourage players to come out and play, and provide an opportunity for new players and interested gamers to try out the rules/mechanics in a low key, fun, group environment. I will bring a variety of Enforcers from several factions for interested gamers who may not have their own models yet. If you are in Southeast Arizona come on out and have a good time! We will be running Neerborn vs Ten Thunders in the demo but if you have other requests let me know.

sometimes that happens. A lot of times an opponent gets upset not because of something you did but because they are upset they made a mistake or didn't make a good decision. In cases like that there is really nothing you can do about it. In cases where they they feel like it was a "gotcha" moment (whether it was or not) the only way you can prevent this is to talk through things with them before they make a decision. You can't always do this and some players don't like it because they don't want your input but whenever it is a BAD mathematically unsound decision I try to politely point it out, talk through why it isn't a good decision, and alternate options they have. At that point if they do it anyway and it doesn't work out they are more likely to not get upset as they "knew" it was unlikely to work. In your example it seems like you couldn't have done this as you weren't tuned in to what they were doing until it is too late. The other thing I do (trade secrets revealed) is I always try to talk up what my opponent is doing when they do something good, sympathize with them when something bad happens, point out how close something could have been, etc to keep them feeling positive and that if something bad happened it was just poor luck and there was nothing that could be done....people tend to feel better about bad situations if they feel there is a light at the end of the tunnel or the situation is no fault of there own. Reinforcing that the bad situation is a result of their own poor decisions just tends to make them more upset. Some people would be down on taking this approach as it isn't how I genuinely feel about the situation and that I am trying to manipulate my opponent. However, I don't see it that way...I am just trying to ensure everyone is in a good mood and has a good game no matter what the result is. People are more likely to continue to play, participate, etc if they have fun and/or have a good time win or lose than they are if they are down on themselves and miserable about the game. always good in situations like this. sometimes I am guilty of this too. I can play a fast game when I have to but prefer to have time to analyze and make the best decisions. However if you want to see dup play there are a few recommendations I would make. Speed is based on in depth understanding of your models, their interactions, and how to use them in multiple circumstances. The few options and greater the familiarity you have with them the quicker your play will be. Though a lot of people don't like smaller games in my opinion the key is to play more games at smaller points levels using the some of the same models you use in a bigger game. In the smaller game there are fewer variables so it becomes easier for you to see interactions, patterns, and develops set of common approaches to dealing with certain situations. Then incrementally step up the size adding 1 more model, playing more games, 1 more model, playing more games, etc until you are up to your standard 50SS game. The more mileage you get with the same models the quicker you will get at assessing the situation and making decisions about how to employ them in a variety of games. This is hard for a lot of people to do as they get bored with the same thing game after game....fortunately in Malifaux even if you are playing the same thing the changes in strategies and schemes and opposing crews can keep things fun even if you are using the same crew over and over. When you do swap things out minimize how much you change (1-2 models tops) so you can still use your default TTPs with the majority of the crew utilizing your previous experiences and practice. I used to be the same way years ago in competitive warhammer and would tunnel vision on the game in order to focus, assess, make good decisions, and win. The down side was my soft scores suffered and I would often get middle of the road on sportsmanship..... I wasn't being rude or unfriendly, I just wasn't making the effort to be social and was focused on the game and winning. While maybe it shouldn't matter a lot of people tend to enjoy the game more if their opponent is friendly and social rather than all business. Once I realized this I started making the conscious effort to socialize throughout the game (easier in person than online) this tends to make people feel more engaged and enjoy the game more no matter how it goes. I generally try to focus a lot of the side bar discussion on the game, what I am doing, what they are doing, etc. It generally avoids a lot of confusion and issues with conditions, effects, measurements, etc when you talk through intent while you are playing and moving. This also allows the disagreements about anything (LOS, range, etc) to occur while you/they still have time to compensate and adjust rather than once it's too late to go back and then makes them feel "cheated" out of a chance to do what they wanted. there isn't anything wrong with this at all. Everything should be done exactly. However, it can lead to a negative experience when everything you do is questioned.....instead what I have started doing is just being exact myself and then clearly communicating with the to avoid issues or mistakes on their part. For example, instead of micromanaging their movement to ensure they can't range an important model of mine and making the argument about their movement, I just measure carefully between us when I move my pieces and clearly articulate the distance and the fact that their model will not be able to get within range. If you establish this up front it avoids the issue. Same with multiple models- I will measure between them and discuss which of theirs can/cannot get to me, range me, etc.... Just my .02, hopefully something of value in there somewhere.

@Teluriel12 it would require some purchasing but a decent amount of that could be used with Dreamer..... you would need the Dreamer's box (Hide and Seek) but Doppleganger, Widow Weaver, the Stitched, and even the Bunraku and Beckoners could work well with him. Might not be the most optimal way to run Dreamer but he can buff/enable minions, Widow Weaver works well with him and so does Doppleganger for cheating initiative so you can activate Chompy, chain into Dreamer, and then pop Chompy back out before they can react. Down the road you would want to get Lilitu and Lelu, Serena Bowman, and maybe even a Teddy but just by getting the Dreamer box you play with a number of the other things you have. Maybe Dreamer w/Upgrades, Doppleganger, 2 x Beckoner, 2 x Stitched, 2 x Bunraku.....or drop 1 x Stitched and add Widow Weaver.

Lady J and Pals........if your friend hasn't played in a while then something more straight forward that probably uses a lot of Wave 3 and pre models would probably be better than them trying to put all the pieces back together plus playing against something that is trickier.

My son (Aaron) and I played in a Malifaux team tournament in Phoenix on Saturday (18AUG) at Games U ran by the Phoneix Henchman Richard. My son played Jacob Lynch using some combination of Lynch, Hungering Darkness, Shadow Emissary, Izamu the Armor, Low River Monk, and 2 x Beckoners. I played Toni Ironsides (and had a busy painting week getting all of it except Miss Step done in the 3 days prior to the event) using some combination of Ironsides, Union Steamfitter, Medical Automaton, Kandara, Cojo, and Miss Step (alternate Howard Langston) in each game. It was 60 SS crew, 30 SS each, 1 Master each, fixed faction/master- but not fixed list, each half of the team could be different factions. Shared cache, fate deck, separate hands, alternating activations. Strategies & Schemes: RD 1- Strategy: Extraction (Flank Deployment), Schemes: Surround Them, Eliminate the Leadership*, Covert Breakthrough, Hold Up Their Forces, Search the Ruins RD 2- Strategy: Public Executions (Close Deployment), Schemes: Eliminatethe Leadership*, Dig Their Graves, Undercover Entourage, Inescapable Trap, Show of Forces RD 3- Strategy: Supply Wagons (Standard Deployment), Schemes: Guarded Treasure, Eliminate the Leadership*, Covert Breakthrough, Hold Up Their Forces, Search the Ruins *Eliminate was “adjusted” so you score 1 x VP for each enemy leader reduced to 0 wounds, killed, or sacrificed and then 1 x VP if there are no enemy leaders in play at the end of the game for a max of 3 VP.  Battle Reports (abbreviated): Game 1 we took Covert Breakthrough and Search the Ruins. Our thought process was with 60 SS plus an extra master the games weren’t going to go full five turns so we wanted things we could prep immediately to score. I played Ironsides w/Union President, Veteran Fighter, Recharge Soulstone; Kandara w/Human Guise; Cojo w/Well Rehearsed; Union Steamfitter; and a Medical Automaton. Cojo was a defensive tech piece to push them away from the Extraction marker, etc. Aaron took Lynch w/Cheating Bastard & Woke Up With a Hand; Huggy w/Smoke Grenades; Shadow Emissary w/Conflux of Hunger; Izamu w/Hidden Agenda; and a Beckoner. They played semi-rat engine Hamelin and a sniper and Collodi changeling copy the sniper spam with the Emissary for more plus flips..... probably would have been really nasty had Ironsides not balled up with 3-4 of their models blocking the shooting lanes early before they could pick everything apart. Short version is Steamfitter gave Ironsides armor. Huggy pushed Kandara and made her fast, then pushed Ironsides with the (0). Ironsides triple walked to pin them in their deployment zone (corner) and put up her Challenge aura. Kandara went back to start dropping markers for Covert. Everything else advanced and positioned for turn two or dropped markers for Search. Rest of the game was Ironsides tanking (armor + 6 stones + using all my cards defensively since I didn’t need them for offense) to keep them pinned in and our other stuff positioning and dropping markers with Cojo pushing models out of the Extraction zone that got around Ironsides so we would control moving the marker. With the amount of models they had with making rats, re-activating rats, etc and all the Collodi tricks and leadership checks from the challenge aura + Ironsides tanking and hitting back we made two turns. We could have started a third but wouldn’t have made it more than maybe half way so stopped after two. End of game we won 7-1. We scored 1 for Extraction, 3 for Search, and 3 for Covert. They got 1 pt. Aside:I was really concerned about the amount of turns we got in and talked to a number of the other teams and it appeared that almost no one made it past turn 3 and the average was 2-3 turns. In a normal event I would be really disappointed and think something was wrong if I found out a game only went 2-3 turns but in this case with 60SS + a second master, 4 players, 2 hands, etc I just don’t think 2 hours was enough time. I didn’t feel like anyone was slow playing an although in our game the rat engine stuff on the other side obviously adds to the time but even then I don’t think that was the issue as much as the additional complexity of the team and multiple master dynamic. I players had a lot more experience playing this style of game it would probably go quicker but for most of us it was probably the first time we had ever played something in this format. My son and I had at least set down with our table at home prior with randomly generated terrain, put our models on the board, and talked through the strategies and schemes (though at that point I was planning on playing Ressers) so we at least had an idea about how we wanted to approach each game but it still isn’t the same as applying the plan against two other players. Game 2 we didn’t stick to the plan. All the schemes except Undercover and Public Demo were incremental so we should have taken those two schemes and with the Beckoners probably could have got the Public Demo easily but instead we took Undercover Entourage on Kandara (good choice) and Dig Their Graves (Bad Choice) but it didn’t end up hurting us too much in the end. I played Ironsides w/Union President, Veteran Fighter, and Recharge Soulstones; Kandara w/Human Guise and Imbued Energies; Miss Step w/Well Rehearsed; and Medical Automaton. Aaron played Lynch w/Cheating Bastard and Woke Up With a Hand; Huggy w/Smoke Grenades; Izamu w/Peaceful Waters; 2 x Beckoners, and A Monk of Low River. They played a blasty Rasputina list and an Asami list with Betty and a lot of Yokai.... I think their plan was Inescapable Trap and Public Demo tricks with the Yokai while Raspy blasted for the Public Executions but they never scored/revealed anything but Inescapable. They split forces so we played a variant of our game one approach. I blitzed in with Toni and tied up all the Raspy crew without attacking anything that could freeze her. Aaron drug in Asami with the Beckoners and knocked her down so she was an easy kill first activation round 2 for the Strategy and a point of Dig Their Graves. Kandara bypassed the Asami crew after they advanced forward and headed for a hidden position in the back. The Raspy player blocked LOS to Ironsides to get a Blessed free but overextended it and Miss Step killed it for another Shed Blood. Ironsides tanked some more and killed a Silent One for more stones to tank with. The LRM started removing Flicker on the Yokai and Lynch annihilated Betty with Final Debt and shooting. They wanted to call it at that point as we had pretty much decimated all their key models and they would be starting turn 3 with basically Raspy, Snow Storm, and a Yokai and we had all our crews full up. In normal circumstances we should have either forced the concession or another round to increase our differential but went ahead and ended it winning 5-3. We scored 3 for Undercover, 1 for Dig, 1 for Public Executions. They scored 3 for Inescapable. Game 3 we were going into the last round facing the only other undefeated team playing a combination of Zipp and Perdita. Back on track we chose Search and Covert for our schemes. I played the same Ironsides list I played in game 2 and Aaron played his Lynch list from game 1 substituting Yamaziko in place of the Beckoner. We had planned this out prior and with Yamaziko and Huggy (after Fast and the extra (0) push from the Emissary) he could push the wagon across the line just with them and everything else could start dropping markers, running interference to block them from our wagon, and keep theirs across the line while we controlled the center. As you could guess from the previous reports I played aggressively with Miss Step killing a Death Marshal and trading her for AP from multiple models. I probably should have held her longer until I could get the Automaton in position to use Bedside Manner to pull it her out of danger. Meanwhile Aaron pushed our wagon deep and then I launched Ironsides into the middle of their crew to prevent them from being able to do anything with about half the crews and stopping them from moving their wagon. The Automaton and Kandara had dropped markers and Izamu moved up to control the center keeping LOS blocking terrain between him and Perdita (plus the big Ironsides combat helped reduce firing lines too). The next turn played out about the same- Huggy almost killed Zipp who retreated, we dropped more markers, picked off a couple of more models, and Ironsides tanked all the way to the end of the turn finally dying on Perdita’s last attack.... she had done her job though and their wagon was still in their deployment zone. On turn 3 Kandara went in and took Ironsides place with a double walk after Perdita’s activation tying everything back up again with the (-) to attack her from Human Guise. Zipp got to the back corner and dropped one scheme marker. He had brought someone else with him but the Emissary killed it before it could drop any more markers. Game ended at the bottom of 3, we won 7-2. We scored 2 for Supply Wagons, 3 for Search, and 2 for Covert. They had 1 for Covert and 1 for Guarded Treasure. All in all it was a great game and felt much closer than the score would indicate. Chris and Joe were great guys to play against but just couldn’t get their wagon across the center or get in position to score more from Guarded. The way we played forced them to spend too much AP reacting to us and on things like trying to kill when it wasn’t scoring points for them.

played a kind of odd ball list yesterday- Strategy: Extraction, Schemes: Surround Them, Undercover Entourage, Take One for the Team, Public Demonstration, Inescapable Trap I took Surround Them and Undercover Entourage (Kandara). My list: Ironsides w/Union President, Veteran Fighter, Recharge Soulstone Kandara w/Mantle of Flames (prepped to attack then switch to Human Guise) Cassandra Howard Langston w/Imbued Energies Cojo w/Well Rehearsed Union Steamfitter Medical Automaton My opponent played: Jacob Lynch w/Endless Hunger & Woke Up With a Hand Hungering Darkness w/Peaceful Waters Yamaziko w/Smoke Grenades Shadow Emissary w/Conflux of Hunger Izamu w/Recalled Training Beckoner x 2 Monk of Low River I know I don't have Mages in the list.....that's ok. The intent was that first turn the Automaton and Cassandra could drop markers in each of my corners (yes, I know I can only score from one of mine, it's a defensive play because the opponent is not likely to be able to get to both), the Steamfitter armors up Ironsides, Howard only attacks if something gets too close, Cojo preps for the turn two push, and Ironsides goes in near the end of turn to prep for turn two when she will try to lock down as much of his crew as possible. Turn two and later Ironsides would lock up as much as possible, Howard would kill key select models, Kandara would pick easy targets and work towards the back field, and Cassandra would either work towards the opposing corner or reinforce in the center if needed. The Automaton would support and keep things out of trouble and Cojo would push his stuff away from the extraction marker..... The reality was after armoring up Ironsides the Steamfitter got lured all the way across the board where she was obeyed to Sheet Metal up Izamu and then killed by Huggy. Cassandra and the Automaton dropped markers in my corners and moved inwards to support the crew.....should have used Kandara for the second corner not the Automaton; using him left him far enough back he wasn't going to be able to support my models in the center until turn two. I was intending to play fairly conservatively first turn anyway so not that big a deal. We burned through activations with the only other notable action being that his Yamaziko dropped markers in his corner and he overextended the LRM where Howard could get it in safety. Ironsides blitzed in on him did damage to a Beckoner (down to 1 wound), got some adrenaline, and then used Rush 'Em to teleport on the back side of Huggy so Izamu couldn't counter charge and would have to walk attack reducing his potential attacks by one. He attacked twice with Izamu, did minor damage, I stoned once, gained adrenaline twice, and did a couple of points of damage back. Cojo double walked and used Rude Sign Language to push a couple of more of his models by Ironsides in preparation for next turn. He took Cojo down to hard to kill with Lynch. Turn two he activated first and went after Ironsides with Izamu instead of finishing off Cojo. Ironsides activated after gaining adrenaline was up to 10 adrenaline and went on a killing spree. She killed off a Beckoner and Huggy and ended up charging Lynch and putting him down to half wounds and put up her Challenge aura. He poured more into Ironsides with the other Beckoner and the Automaton came up to heal Cojo (walk, Code Red, Fix You Right Up) and position to be able to use Bedside Manner on Ironsides if needed. The Emissary made Yamaziko fast and pushed over to attack in support of his other models. Kandara moved up and threw a knife at the Beckoner and switched into Human Guise. Yamaziko walked, Nimbled, dropped a scheme marker. Cassandra pulled back to attack Yamaziko, Lynch went in on Ironsides, the Automaton yanked her back where Lynch couldn't see her and with his last attack Lynch dropped Cojo back to Hard to Kill. Cojo walked and pushed his shoving Izamu and the remaining Beckoner away from the extraction marker and Howard finished off Lynch. End of turn I score 1 pt for extraction and move the marker. Turn 3 he is pretty disheartened as he is down Lynch, Huggy, and a Beckoner and Izamu is out of position blocked by his Beckoner where he can't do anything until at least second activation. Automaton heals Cojo back up above Hard to Kill and casts Fix You Right Up on Cojo and on Ironsides. Izamu is out of range of the Emissary's fast and the Emissary comes back to reinforce and try to bail out Yamaziko but can't reach Cassandra with his cast (turns out Yamaziko was his Undercover Entourage target). The Beckoner goes down to Ironsides who moves back to block Izamu but be in position to be able to be pulled back by Bedside Manner. Cassandra lives through Yamaziko (he burned a lot of cards but I had stones left) and Cassandra finishes her off in return. Kandara moves up to make the sprint towards the other board edge. Howard drops markers in the corner. End of turn 3 I score 1 more point for extraction, move the marker and have markers down for 2 of 3 points for surround them. He has markers down for 2 of 3 points for surround them but if I win initiative I can Nimble, pick one up with Cassandra, and then run from the Emissary behind terrain. Turn 4 he is down to Izamu and the Emissary so after initiative when the writing is on the wall we call it. He had taken surround them which I would have been able to fully deny and he had taken Undercover on Yamaziko which I had killed. I had taken Undercover on Kandara which I was able to score 3 pts for as well as 3 pts for Extraction (turns 2-4) and we agreed that I would be able to score it again on turn 5 as well as get Kandara back to the last corner to place another marker and score 3 pts for Surround Them. Extrapolated out it was a 10-0 win.... I felt bad for him because it was so one sided. He underestimated how well Ironsides could tank with armor, stones, the ability to get more stones, and the trigger to heal on her attack from Veteran Fighter. The Medical Automaton was definitely an MVP in this game. Bedside Manner is amazing if you are able to position where you can take advantage of it. Code Red was incredibly good as well. This dude is so good for his points. Don't think I will play this opponent again without the Automaton being a higher priority target for him.

Buy Now, Buy Now, Buy Now........even if you end up wanting to get the new ones down the road you still get the Guild Guard and Lawyers and you can use the current Dashel and Lucius for the next year (speculation) till the other stuff is out. Even if the new rules drop sooner what is the likely hood that the models will actually be released any sooner that a year.

I don’t know...... don’t mean to be the voice of dissension but it seams like a lot of effort to make sub par choices work with resource intensive masters instead of just taking more self sufficient better models. in this case I know a lot of people love the Jury but I almost never take her. For the points I can get Phiona who comes stock with hard to kill, unimpeded, and plus flips against models that have already activated. The “main” thing she is giving you is the Masks for your other models to get their triggers. Getting the masks requires discarding when pretty much all the masters and good models in Guild already want your good cards and rapid fires, flurries, and passing activations with Nellie are usually better candidates for your bad cards. Unless you are going family heavy for Ply I generally think there are better choices than Santiago too. In this list you have Jury, Santiago, Domador, and a Doxy plus possible upgrades where usually I think you could just get more mileage with Phiona, Monster Hunters, and whatever. Now at the end the discussion is getting the Doxy killed to make Perdita fast....when the Domador cost 7 and the Doxy cost 6 for a total of 13 SS. At this point just buy the Student (which most people always argue is a terrible and overcosted choice) and the Judge or Phiona and just call it a day. No offense intended, just seems like much ado about nothing.

I edited my post.... I meant if you lose her you will be at a big disadvantage not use.... this type of list relies a lot on her to crank out the damage. If she dies the things that are there to buff her aren’t as effective. The part about bout your opponents is- Malifaux is an interactive game that usually relies on you accomplishing objectives (strategy/schemes) to score and win. While kill first, scheme later can be a viable approach to certain strategy/scheme pools it is not as common an approach as in some other miniature games where the alpha strike is king and the game is usually decided first turn. Playing this type of list where (when it goes well) your opponent pretty much doesn’t get to do anything but take their toys off the table can leave a bad taste...... no one had a lot of fun if they are just owned, never get to do anything with their stuff, and basically wasted their time setting up, getting their stuff out, etc. This doesn’t always happen with Sonnia but there are games that can go that way if your opponent doesn’t know how to play against her or if there isn’t enough terrain.

Here is a version of how I like to run Sonnia- there are others who run similar lists and one of the more well known tournament players named Duncan (I have never met him and don't know him) runs something similar that he "made famous" with good tournament performances. I don't know specifically what he runs but I am sure you can find it on here with a discussion of tactics. My preference is: Sonnia w/Cherufe's Imprint, Counterspell Aura, No More Masks (or Reincarnation), Malifaux Child, Frank w/Hermanos & Wade In, Queeg w/Promises, Papa Loco, Investigator, Queller, and Brutal Effigy. Sonnia w/Cherufe's Imprint and then some combination of Counterspell Aura, No More Masks, and Reincarnation depending on what I am facing, the strat/scheme pool, and how I intend to play. Imprint gives her (and the Child) Flame Wall so you can isolate sections of the opponents crew, key areas of the board, etc in order to focus on accomplishing the objectives or killing their stuff while preventing other sections of their crew from being able to support. Counterspell is my next mandatory choice unless the opponent isn't likely to have any offensive spells I am worried about. Reincarnation is an option to enable you to summon Stalkers. In some games I have used this successfully and summoned multiple Stalkers in other games I felt my stones/cards were more important for other things. No More Masks is the option if you want to go more Melee aggressive rather than just "nuking from orbit". The Malifaux Child is the only totem I play with Sonnia if I take a totem with her. He is able to copy one of her casts per turn (at a (-) value but with a (+) flip) and he is usually my go to Fame Wall caster so she can focus on just torching everyone on the other side of the board. Occasionally he will blast as well if they have a low defense target that he has a good chance of hitting. Likewise he brings a possible heal into the list as well but is primarily there for a cheap activation and Flame Wall caster. Frank is there to buff Sonnia and make her more survivable as well as give you another good melee threat after the first turn. There are multiple ways you can outfit him, Wade In and Lead Lined Coat (LLC) make him more survivable but sometimes I take Hermanos De Arms for the extra push (pull) to help Sonnia move around the board so she is blasting with her AP instead of walking. I sometimes will rotate the Judge in for the same thing as he can use "Stand For Justice" to help her move as well. Queeg is there to also help push her up the board by whipping her to push her. He also can enable close by models who may not have a (0) action of value to interact as a (0) and drop scheme markers that can trigger the Investigator to allow you to push models around to key places. A lot of times I will put Promises on him to amp up the survivability of Frank and Sonnia even further. You can also put LLC on him as well for additional survivability but I often just save the stones to take Sonnia in with a bigger cache. Papa Loco is the next standard choice in this type of list (for me and others) he is there primarily to give Sonnia the (+) flip for damage so she can flip or cheat severe to blast over everything. With all the tricks in the list for movement you can push him around so he can give her the bonus and then keep him away so he doesn't detonate on your own crew if he dies. You can also use him to buff Sonnia and then as a suicide bomber to go in, do damage, and explode....hsi thrown dynamite is no slouch either. After that I like the Guild Investigator for anti scheme marker tech, the ability to push your models around and up the board (or theirs out of key places), and an extra card drawn per turn. Sonnia is a card hungry master so anything that gives her more cards or lets her use her AP for attacking instead of walking is a great enabler. His other abilities can be good as well but primarily I take him for the pushes and card. A more controversial pick is the Thalarian Queller but I think he is essential to a lot of good Guild lists. He is also another card per turn (when someone uses a stone), can enable your other models to more easily deal with armor while Sonnia is blasting everything else, and is more options either offensive or defensive against spells, armor, melee threats etc. In another thread (about the Guild wiki) I wrote a whole page about him exclusively so won't repeat here. My last standard pick is the Brutal Effigy- his purpose in life is to buff Sonnia (with his (0) action) to enable her to heal when she inflicts damage and draw more cards when she kills models. He is also a good quality cheap model that can scheme run, drop markers, etc. Occasionally I will drop one of the other models to swap in a couple of Guild Guard for additional activations. In the configuration above you have 8 activations which is pretty standard and can spend the first half of the turn buffing Sonnia and prepping to push her forward to nuke everything on the other side of the board. With a ninth activation if you don't need the extra stones (the list above has a cache of 6- her base 3 + 3 left over) or if you make the model which is further allows you to see their maneuver and positioning before you push her forward to blast. Most crews can't handle more than a turn or two of her blasts before there isn't much left for them to use to accomplish the strategies and schemes. If you add Reincarnation instead of No More Masks then if you stone early to set things on fire then you can also dump cards/stones to get Stalkers when you kill for additional activations, damage, etc. The two warnings I will give is 1. Sonnia and this type of crew often isn't very fun for your opponent, and 2. if you lose her then you are at a serious disadvantage and will struggle. Almost like an alpha strike list Sonnia is often a case of putting a lot of your eggs in one basket and if it gets turned over and cracked it can be hard to recover.

if you have not yet bought what you described above the first thing I would recommend is......slow down. Look around and find a local group of players or a Henchman that can run a demo game for you. Also read through the rulebook- there are some things that are pretty unique to Malifaux (Fate Deck/card mechanics, +/- flips, cheating) but if you have played other miniature games then a lot of the stuff (models, stats, engagements) should be familiar. Perservere and wade through it; reading the rules will put you miles ahead and make any demo that much easier. Once you get a demo in I still caution you to slow down. Look through the different crew boxes and find one that appeals to you and start there. The partial list you have above includes portions from 2 x different crew boxes plus a separate small box as well. Take one crew box and play a few games at the points level you can play with that box. Each box is different and most are not going to provide a full crew's soulstones worth of models but they will let you explore the different aspects of the game and decide what you want to focus on before you select additional models. I would recommend either Lady Justice's box or Perdita's box as a start. Both are masters which can be played in a pretty straightforward manner that is friendly to a new player but also have the depth to play a much more complex game as your experience expands. Perdita's box also provides multiple models that you will use in a variety of crews and strategies and scheme pools as well. If you don't want to start that small scale then buy both of these boxes as your start. With the two of them you can play pull 50 SS games and have a lot of flexibility in how you construct a crew and can allow you to experiment with a wide range of approaches and crew focuses. Once you have gotten a lot of mileage out of these then look at expanding to Nellie and Sonnia to fill things out.

what was the pool? I understand you were wanting to test out the Doxy idea but looking at the list there are just some really odd choices there I almost never see with Lady J. It almost looks like a hybrid Perdita Ply list but then I would rather have a Rotten Belle than a Doxy if I was using the Domador and bringing in a Resser minion.

Awesome! Good report.

This was my first game with him. The couple of people I normally play with don’t play/use proxies so I had never tried him out till now. I had pre-ordered them back in January but...... i can definitely see the benefit. In that game a Queller would have served me better though.

Hmmm.... I played that wrong and neither one of us caught it. Don’t think it would have changed the outcome- I used it once on the bottom of turn 4 and didn’t even read it- one of those occasions where you think you know how something works.... without it he could have duplicated his attacks instead of doing different ones but I had cheated high enough to stop him with Perdita anyway..... had he charged something else or got the kill on her or someone else it would have made it closer if I was unable to get Shed Blood as well but it still would have been a 6-3 in my favor. That was first time out for me with the Investigator- just got the model right before vacation when it released. As I get more play with him I won’t be making mistakes that way.

yes.....after being away from vacation and then traveling for work I finally got my first game in a couple of weeks while out in the DC area for work. We played the pool for the upcoming NOVA GG2018 event Round 5: Public Execution (Corner); w/Guarded Treasure, Show of Force, Search the Ruins, Vendetta, and Covert Breakthrough. I played: Perdita w/Trick Shooting & Fastest Draw in Malifaux; Frank w/Wade In & Lead Lined Coat; Phiona w/Lead Lined Coat & Debt to the Guild; Captain Dashel w/Arrest Him, Executioner w/Ready to Work; Guild Investigator, and Brutal Effigy He played: Von Schill w/Nythera Aftermath, The Shirt Comes Off, and Oath of the Freikorps; Steam Trunk; Hannah w/I Pay Better and The Bigger They Are; Lazarus w/Scramble; Greed, Freikorps Engineer; and an Obedient Wretch Was a really good game....this was my first game with Perdita (I know....I know....I usually just stick to Lucius, Lady J, Sonnia, or Nellie...and don't worry about the other masters) but there were a lot of carry overs between how I would play this with Sonnia and Perdita so I wasn't going in completely cold. I really missed not having the Queller in my list which would have allowed Frank and Phiona to open up the Friekorps stuff like tin cans but persevered through it anyway. I took Show of Force and Search the Ruins; he took Vendetta (Greed vs. Frank) and Show. Final score was: 6-2, win for me. I scored 3 points for Search, 2 points for Show, and 1 pt for Public. He scored 2 points for Show. We went into turn 5 with me up 3-2 and then called it after the second activation- he activated Von Schill (who was under Just Act Casual) and I was able to shut him down, then I activated the Effigy to buff Perdita and drop the last scheme marker I needed for 3 pts for Search and we called it as there was no way for him to win at that point. At this point I had Perdita, the Effigy, Dashel, Frank, the Investigator, and a Guild Guard (thanks Dashel) left with everyone except the Effigy still to activate. He had Von Schill (already activated), the Obedient Wretch, Steam Trunk, and 3 x Malifaux Rats. In a tournament we would have played it out and I should have been able to get to and kill the Wretch for another point of Public Executions and got Frank back into the middle for the last point of Show; however, in this case it didn't matter so we didn't bother. Overall I took a fairly reserved approach and the first turn was very positional with the Guild Investigator pushing some things around, Phiona dropping the Stone to block some LOS, Frank and the Effigy buffing Perdita, and me positioning to on the last activation push to Frank where I could go after 1 x key target- either Hannah, Greed, or Lazarus....Laz was at Armor +3 and in the Woods so even if I used the (0) to ignore armor I was going to be at (-) to hit, same with Hannah (armor and cover), so I chose to blast away at Greed using the (0) to ignore cover. Killing Greed 1st turn turned out to be huge for me in the long run since he had taken Vendetta with Greed vs. Frank. The whole game was really tactical and on turn 2 and 3 we ended up tied on the number of models killed so neither of us scored Public on those turns. Turn 2 I took some risk by slamming the Executioner into the middle of Lazarus, Hannah, and the Engineer......I had the cards where I thought I could take Hannah down- there was also one of his scheme markers nearby so I was counting on the extra attack from the (0)- but he flipped such that I couldn't cheat in for damage and with Von Schill giving her hard to Kill I couldn't get it done so didn't cheat the one time I could have. It was a calculated risk as I knew if I pulled it off it was going to significantly disadvantage him (this was early turn 2) plus have him down both Greed and Hannah at that point and pin most of his other stuff back where I could start easily scoring Show but even if I didn't kill her I was potentially holding him up and and forcing him to dedicate multiple models to deal with the Executioner. Turn 3 Phiona put damage on Lazarus and Wide Swung into the Engineer almost killing her. Von Schill killed Phiona and Perdita finished off Hannah; . Turn 4 Frank flurried on Lazarus and finished him off, Perdita killed the Engineer. Turn 5 I briefly summarized above. Generally I still think I would prefer Lucius, Nellie, or Sonnia for this type of pool and although I got a lot out of the Investigator I really missed the Queller going up against all that armor....and the Hard to Kill on almost everything was pretty tough too. It was a really good game and a lot of fun though- there were definitely moments where things could have gone either direction but losing Greed and being capped on turn 1 with the loss of a scheme definitely put him on the back foot. However, the played through it well and it was a really awesome game. Games with Owen are always great and it is always a good time whenever I am in town and he or one of the other guys are available to play.

I agree completely. However, I don't just run him with Lucius....I have several builds where I use him with Nellie and have some templated ideas I want to try out using him with Sonnia and Perdita.

I think a lot of people are just missing out and got so used to disregarding him they don't see how much value he has. I am not going to rehash everyone I already said but talk aboutt value- 8SS, 9 WD, HtK, Armour +1, MI that hands out slow or is Min 3 damage...... that without even getting into summoning or buffing other guardsmen.

I already like Dashel in M2E. I may be in the minority who actually assembled, painted, and uses him but contrary to the popular view I find him to be a bargain 8SS for Armor, HtK, 9 WD....let's your other Guardsmen w/n 6" focus as a (0), gives (+) flips to Sh attack actions w/n 6", built in MI trigger that hands out slow or built in Critical Strike, CA vs WK to summon a Guild Guard, and a Reactivate (and Sacrifice at the end of turn) action for that critical turn where you need that minion to double activate to drop that scheme marker, finish off a key target, etc.

on August 12th at the Thunder Mountain Gamers monthly game day I will be running Malifaux demos, have multiple table sets for open Malifaux play and will be running an Enforcer Brawl at 2:00. W: Me on behalf of Thunder Mountain Gamers W: Demos, Open Gaming (Henchman Hardcore & GG format games), and 2PM Enforcer Brawl W: 12 August 12:00-5:00PM W: Cochise College, Sierra Vista Campus, Student Union Building Community Room, 901 Colombo Ave, Sierra Vista, AZ, 85635 W: to provide demos for new players, encourage players to come out and play, and provide an opportunity for new players and interested gamers to try out the rules/mechanics in a low key, fun, group environment. I will bring a variety of Enforcers from several factions for interested gamers who may not have their own models yet. If you are in Southeast Arizona come on out and have a good time!

Nellie and Lucius....all the cards and all the activations.....or Lucius and Dashel- I already like them together now!

what I hate about a preview like M3E is it seems to take the wind right out of the sails of people playing the current edition.....

Cool- I dig me some CPT Dashel. Owen’s a good dude- I play with them occasionally when I am out there on trips for work and they are a bunch of great guys. I hadn’t seen him run Parker though- think generally I see him run Levi, Hamelin, or the occassional Jack.

Did you Sonnia the whole way through?