cbtb11235813

I love soulstone cache on something like Howard or a Golem. They will be around things dying/causing them to die, and access to soulstone prevention is great to keep your big hitter on the table a little longer

32 minutes ago, Zebo said:

Cross faction hasn't gone anywhere. Keywords keep being spread (less than before, indeed). 

Not saying Anna should return, I mean, she should but it's not gonna happen, and her current profile probably doesn't fit at all with Freikorps. 

Cross faction hiring is down significantly from before though. Yes some masters can grab a couple of models across factions, but nothing that comes even close to 2e Marcus/Leveticus

Yes you "lost" a model. Most people lost at least one or two. Its a new edition, these things happen. But the game is better, and maybe you'll find another use for her. Cross faction hiring and bloat was killing the game, something needed to happen. 

 

On 1/17/2019 at 8:06 PM, Liched said:

The new hiring changes solved the problem of every crew basically being the same, by making every crew basically the same?

No, you're missing it entirely. Sure, one Von Schill crew may look more or less like the other, but a Vonshill crew will not look like a Jack Daw crew. 

At Gencon, between the four arcanist players I saw, there were:
3 different masters
9 Oxfordian Mages
4 Captains
3 Amina Naidus
2 or 3 Medical Automatons
Sprinkle in Slate Ridge Maulers to taste

Now that was with 3 different masters, and every crew looked more or less the same, and every one of them had multiple models in common. That is a problem, and as far as I can tell, it has been fixed with 3e hiring 

1 minute ago, Boomstick said:

Thanks so much @cbtb11235813! I look forward to your findings as well. I'm sending in mine on the batrep form shortly. Mostly I think Ramos' current issues are due to him not getting as much of a look in the closed beta. I know I only saw a handful of games listing him then.

Yea there weren't many... and I think I was responsible for nearly half of them. I hope now that we are in Open Beta more people will give him a look

5 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

So, had a Ramos game over the weekend, here are my thoughts.

For the rest of his summons (Mecharacnids in my case) Insignificant did not seem as huge an issue as I was concerned about, there there were a few points at the end of the game that would have changed the outcome significantly if one of them had been significant. BUT, for Steam Arachnids, they're in a perfect storm of not quite getting there.

First issue: if Steam Arachnids are insignificant, there are 2 reasons to summon them: to explode them or debuff an enemy's Df. If they are used as explosives, if's decently likely I'm giving my opponent a pass token for something that's not going to activate, or will activate, move into position, and probably die before I actually get to blow it up. If they're used for the Df debuff, they can hit a bit better, true, but really, you want that so Ramos can shoot better, and his gun does not ignore Friendly Fire.

Second issue: each Steam Arachnids needs its own scrap marker. For the Swarms and the Mecharacnids, I can see it, they're large and/or several different machines. But Swams are 3 Steam Arachnids, and also only need one Scrap Marker. I know logic doesn't always have a place in games, but it's definitely a heavy piece of cognitive dissonance. 

Long story short, at the end of the game I definitely would have taken Sandeep instead if I needed to play it again. I really felt like Ramos had 2 options for summoning: Mecharachnids and Swarms (The healbots don't do much for his crew). Ramos' summoning is so much more hindered in comparison, on top of summoning being reigned in in general in M3E.

So, to help alleviate all these issues, this is what occurred to me: 

1) Change the trigger on Ramos' summoning to say the summoned Steam Arachnids do not attach the summon upgrade. This will allow them the option of using a stone to summon them as scheme runners.

2) Add a clause to the summon upgrade to say Steam Arachnids with it attached come in mindless. That way without the trigger, Arachnids just summoned as bombs don't give pass tokens  unless they live to the following turn.

4) Add a bit to his summoning action that makes it so multiple Steam Arachnids can be summoned from the same Scrap marker.

3) Make Ramos' gun ignore friendly fire OR make it so the Steam Arachnids (and probably Swarms since they have the same debuff) are ignored by friendly models for Friendly Fire. The latter allows their Df debuff to be more useful throughout the faction as Versatile models while also completing a synergy with Ramos that isn't quite there but feels like it should be.

Anyway, my two scrip after testing. Thoughts?

I like everything you have posted. I plan on testing Ramos tonight so I can have a fresh game to reference later

I really like how Rafkin opened up a poison heavy Sandeep list, without upgrades/title cards/other complicated mechanics. 

On top of that, I miss Sandeep's position as teacher of all, regardless of faction ties. In the story he recruits an ex-freikorp librarian and borrows one of Von Schtook's students for a mission. Its a shame to see that aspect of his character go

20 hours ago, cktAvatar said:

I have played a couple of games with Sandeep in the CB and after that and I must say Banasuva was always very useful. His toss ability is very good to bring your models up the board. Breath of fire was also very good in my games. I don't think he needs to be able to be summoned back. That might be too strong. I really like the flexibility of the Sandeep crew with summoning, controlling and buffing gamins. And Banasuva (with his bonus action) nicely adds to this. He might not be the scary beater that he was before but with toss, the useage of the mantras and the control of gamins he got more variability. You just need to play a bit more defensively with him now.

I think you are totally right, he can be great when played defensively. The only problem I have with that is, Banasuva is a fiery demon of rage. His fury is so powerful it takes a very exceptional human to be able to even hold the Gada without murdering friends and family around them. From a gameplay/balance standpoint its fine, but from a fluff standpoint sort of misses the mark. 

In the same way that traditionally Joss has been a brutish beater who solves problems with his fist and axe, but now seems more focused on shielding obeying constructs? 

Then again, maybe the story is moving in ways we are unaware of. Maybe Bana took one hell of a chill pill, and Joss has been spending ALOT of time with Hoffman now that Ramos is gone. 

I'm am not a fan of "this isn't too strong, but it does require reading the rules" as a reason to nerf something. I agree the game should be new player friendly, but not everything needs to be in big bold letters on the card

16 hours ago, WWHSD said:

I haven’t had a chance to play Ramos in the beta but at a glance it has always appeared that he one of the worst summoners in the game.

He started great, was fine, got WAY worse, got slightly better, and now looks horrible. He needs some love. 
 

17 hours ago, retnab said:

I had an armchair thought on Ramos: what if he traded out Survival of the Fittest with "Bleeding Edge Tech: Friendly Construct Minions which start their activation within 6 of this model Heal 1"?  Bring him back a bit more to one of his classics, and help somewhat reduce the number of card-draw based summoner out there (*glares at Som'er*)

I really don't mind survival of the fittest on him, it fits his character great (similar to 2e Opportunist). But this works better than opportunist because in my head he is taking spare parts from destroyed constructs and using them to make new ones (by using the cards he gets). 

 

Quote

Also, I never noticed this before but it costs a Scrap Marker per model he summons?  Between that and the summon upgrade penalties, he is WAY worse at summoning than Sandeep.  I mean, he has a bigger pool of models, but still 😕

This. I was *ok* with his summoning before. But this is sort of a death knell for him. Half health, slow, insignificant, and now a scrap per summon? Why?! What is he summoning that is so spectacular to put that much punishment on it. His summoning pool is not that much bigger if you only count things he is actually likely to summon.

I agree that we should rearrange Mechana and say he can summon Mechana (minion) constructs. That way we never run into the "Kentauroi reallyyy should have been an Enforcer" problem in 2e

As for the Langston thing I'd frankly rather see him lose another keyword to gain Ramos' (since he, you know, built him). But that's probably just bias, as having the Machina/Visionary keyword actually doesn't effect anything except hiring currently (which Ramos already gets him tax free)

Why is it weird? Calling a master a mercenary? Many of the Outcast masters are literal mercenaries. The Viks even have that as their keyword

Though at some point I need to see what the hell @retnab keeps squealing about with Mei

21 minutes ago, WWHSD said:

The change to  "Good Shot, My Turn" is a huge change from the last open beta files. It seems like a huge nerf to Ironsides but should result in enemies attacking her more frequently than they did previously which might be good for the crew overall. 

The change now makes "Bring It" much worse of an action than it was. Previously, "Bring It" would result in damage and Adrenaline gain if the target was close enough.   

Agreed, I think this is very bad for Ironsides. She is first on my testing list

So some changes happened for Ramos. His keyword changed from Visionary (which I personally prefer) to Machina. He also picked up saboteurs, which is interesting. It is the first non-construct model he can take (though with the changes to DMH I'm not sure that is true anymore). Did I miss anything else?

3 hours ago, katadder said:

The problem with multiple teddies is then they become minions which means you have to balance the 2nd part of upgrades against teddies 

Not necessarily, if we can have the Viks (Master 2), why not an enforcer 2?

I've never lost against them, playing Hordes and Cult. KE definitely has a shallower learning curve than some of the others, but all factions are viable. Like Retnab said, with GH use cover/pools to your advantage, and bring Whelks if you have them. Storm Siren has an amazing Lure, which you can use to bring the food closer to your fishes. 

For non faction specific advice, remember that you win games by scoring points. Excluding Pitched Assault, it tends to be very difficult to score points if you don't leave your deployment zone. Casualties are acceptable (especially if you play Hordes) if it means you are scoring

3 minutes ago, SoylentRobot said:

It's been four pages and nobody made the "Lord Chunky Bits" joke so I'm taking it.

Look, it's Lord Chunky Bits

I did beat you to it unfortunately

 

On 1/9/2019 at 1:18 PM, cbtb11235813 said:

I mean its not really an alt (it is but it isn't). Unless you consider the 2e model an alt for his 1e model. 

I propose Teenage Dream(er) and Lord Chunky Bits

1 minute ago, Gnomezilla said:

Oh yeah, nicknames for days! But if many crew boxes are getting new sculpts then standardized terms will have to happen eventually.

Probably just "3e Dreamer" and "3e Chompy". Calling them alts would get confusing because some masters already have alts (looking at you Rasputina...)

4 minutes ago, Gnomezilla said:

What do we call this for short? Alt-Dreamer and alt-LCB and so on?

I mean its not really an alt (it is but it isn't). Unless you consider the 2e model an alt for his 1e model. 

I propose Teenage Dream(er) and Lord Chunky Bits

2 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Click on the Dreamer image and it'll shuffle through to the others. 

Thanks! Also, no daydreams? Or is that thing behind Dreamer a daydream....

When I click on the gallery link, it takes me to the website post, with just a render of Dreamer. Is that all there is?

1 hour ago, Ghoul said:

Sadly models that are summoned are unable to claim objectives that turn just like @cbtb11235813 said.

I know it’s not tactics persay but something else for newer players to remember:

Summoned models come back flipped from glory (much to my dismay)per summoning rules. Just thought I’d throw this out there as it was something I overlooked at first. 

Summoned units also come in with a single full fireteam instead of the full unit

Thanks for everything Mason!

Wyrd, I sincerely hope you guys can stop hemorrhaging people soon. In the last year Aaron, Kai, and Kyle have left. All 3 very well known and well liked in the community. Two of whom were also lead designers for your flagship games. Between this, a very rough TOS kickstarter/release, along with your inability to release Malifaux models on any sort of schedule (also where is Bayou Bash? and the Iconic Fate Deck?), I am very worried. 

I love your games, and really really want you to do well. So please, get it together

15 minutes ago, Thisendup said:

Claiming objectives with Endless numbered eggs: An egg clutch can be placed anywhere on the table including your opponents deployment zone. There is no reason that you cannot put them right next to an objective and claim it on their activation. Sure they die easy, but whatever is killing the egg is leaving the rest of your army alone. If you have enough eggs and Tactics tokens this can be a real pain to your opponent. If you have initiative and a card to discard, two eggs on a chain activation can claim or destroy two objectives.

I would not do this all the time, but it is a good tactic to remember and at a critical point can score a lot of victory points.

This doesn't quite work. I don't have the exact reference handy but there is a rule in the summoning section that states a fireteam that was summoned that turn may not interact with Objectives in any way. So you could summon an egg, and if it survives the turn, grab it the following turn, but not the turn it is summoned. This is still useful for sitting on objectives on the outer edge of the board, either denying someone else claiming them, or making your opponent waste actions to chase them down before the next turn

Personally I'm guessing they are holding off on that until TOS is comfortably stocked and 3E launches