theamazingmrg

So we have "Anya", and very probably Meredith Stanley (although admittedly she could be a Henchman or Enforcer). That would leave one Master still to be revealed... Luckily its not long until the book is out and the Society spill all their secrets (and the Internet complains about how OP they are!))

Nexus can also summon "Eyes and Ears." Assuming these are little Insignificant models, there's the potential for a high Minion count there, which helps with the Cadmus spam, so the Parasite may not be 100% necessary, just the icing on the cake, so to speak. I am really looking forward to the reveal of the rest of the Keyword!

This model, probably not (based purely on whats on the card). A Henchman with Cadmus and Nightmare Keywords though... That I could totally see. God help us all! The Eyes and Ears sound Insignificant. My money is on little non-entity models that exist primarily for Nexus to draw LoS from and shunt damage to when the need arises. Otherwise useless, but great for other models to bounce off (literally in the case of the exoskeleton!

"First up is All Hallow’s Eve, a special story encounter that pits the nefarious Carver against some of Malifaux’s best schemers. They must try and escape before they’re hacked and slashed to bits. Check it out here: " And you can choose Newsies? Very odd. Not very fast and no way of getting free Scheme Markers makes it a strange choice for "best Schemer." "Bloody nuisance", on the other hand...

One of the points in favour of the Explorer's Society is that Wyrd previewed a series of Starter boxes for Factions containing Versatile models to get people started. The Outcast Starter contained models with the Syndicate Keyword, which we know will be one of the Keywords used by some Explorer's Society models. So that will be a nice way to link the two Factions while collecting. when they eventually get released, of course!

I find the Mechanical Attendant (not Toolkit as stated in the first post!) and the magnet helps with the guardians movement. 3" from the Magnet and 2" from Transfer power, plus 4" Mv as standard and the Guardian can cover a fair bit of ground when you need it to. Of course, I've never won with Hoffman so take it with a pinch of salt!

It's the Black Friday model and its called Fat Cap. https://www.wyrd-games.net/news/2020/8/5/waldos-weekly-gen-con-wrap-up

Now I'm the first person to admit that I'm not a good player but I've played several games with Guild Hoffman where I stayed entirely in Keyword and I have to agree with this, even though I haven't actually tried Phiona (next game I think I need to!) Despite the Armor, most Augmented are low health and have no other defensive tech. They die far too easily in my experience! It's better in Arcanist where you have the Soulstoen Miner and the Upgrades so you can keep key models alive with SS reduction, but for Guild... Yeah, nerfing Phiona will hurt.

This is supported by the fact they don't seem to have particularly high Wp either. Revealed Wp 4 or lower models: Sandworm Rough Riders Nocturnes Malisaurus Rex Runaway Ullr Surveyors. We've got English Ivan, Gibson DeWalt, Winston Finnigan, and the Spelleaters at Wp 6 and I think everything else revealed so far is Wp 5. Wp duels are probably going to be brutal outside of the DUA crew (this assessment will no doubt change when more models are revealed!)

The Sandworm does boost Dust Clouds a little bit, so any changes would have to accommodate that too. Basically any change would mean every model in the Keyword would need rebalancing and thats not really necessary. The Keyword is mostly fine, it just has a few gaps. Fix those gaps and you've got a solid contender.

To be fair, we've also got Raptors, but yeah, this is one of the big reasons I've always thought Guild Hounds should be Versatile. Cheap bodies that would plug gaps in a lot of Guild crews, but not be particularly good, so they wouldn't be an auto-pick. I'd pay 3 stones for something that could get some use out of other models in crews, like Crocket. They probably wouldn't be taken anywhere else really, but Frontier could do with them.

Tbf, by your own admission you play lots of 10T or Bayou. Almost everything Guild look so underwhelming compared to them! I never said they were resilient. Just that they were good. And they are. You need to be careful with them, but thats a weakness of the entire crew (except for the Sand Worm!). I imagine its the tradeoff for the potentially ridiculous board advantage turn 1.

I think you're massively undervaluing a ranged action that can target at 14" ignoring LoS, Cover, and Concealment, with a Trigger to repeat itself. and that's before factoring in the Demise Ability. The Austringer by itself looks underwhelming for 7ss, but you need to factor in the free Upgrade it gets, which changes things dramatically. Especially given it can be discarded to negate all damage, then reattached with a Trigger on the melee attack.

What @whitters said. Plus, I think you're undervaluing Stoic Nod on Basse, especially given the previewed Rough Riders. Both them and the Frontiersman have Survivalist, so Stoic Nod becomes a 2/3/4 heal, which makes it much more potent for keeping the Minions alive. Its a situational Action, but I'd much rather have it than not. I also disagree that he has a poor Minion pool. Austringers and Pathfinders are good, and Rough Riders look like they will be great. That's 50% of the Minion pool that is good or better, before accounting for the situational use of Traps and Raptors. I do agree that Frontiersmen are a little underwhelming though.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha What a time to be alive, when Wayland is considered one of the reliable stores (to be fair they have been much, much better in the last 12 months or so, but they used to be particularly awful!)!

I'm close to having full Augmented (I've only got 2 Riotbreakers and Melissa isn't out yet) and Wildfire (just missing Iggy and Carlos), so Foundry is my only complete Keyword in Arcanist. Ask the same question in Guild and I'd have a completely different answer!

Of them all, I think the last option is probably the best one: Any of the others risk unintended consequences (like Guild Riflemen are good at the moment because they can stack focus and use it to extend range and then get the positive flip on the attack, which is why they would normally spend turn 1 stacking focus. If you limit it to a single focus, or lose focus at the end of the turn, then you have a model that drops in effectiveness massively, and I'm not sure they'd be particularly good anymore (better players than me may well disagree!) But forcing the choice of positive on hit or damage weakens them slightly, but not excessively. Whether its a change that actually needs to be made, I don't know. Focus is a Condition, after all, so condition removal can deal with it.

Also, I wasn't too sure about how much variety there would be in The Explorer's Society when they were first announced, but my concerns were clearly misplaced. Wyrd are absolutely killing it.

No, because the pulse is an instant effect that effectively tags the Dust Clouds that will remain. Those "tags" will still be in play even if the Sandworm submerges itself. It should be noted that if the Worm drops a Dust Cloud from its trigger on Drill Into The Earth, then that one will not remain at the end of the turn.

The best way to look at it is to compare Obey to Lure. Obey: Target model takes a non- Action that does not Attach Upgrades or list a model by name, chosen and controlled by this model. Lure: Move the target its Mv towards this model. So in the case of Obey, the target model takes an Action that is controlled by the Obey-ing player. But with Lure, the target model doesn't take any Action, but is instead forced to move. So while Obey-ing a model to make a Walk Action is moving a model during an enemies Activation, that move is controlled by the Obey-ing player, as are all decisions made during that move. So technically, the model could choose to use Laugh Off to not move, but that decision is made by the Obey-ing player, not the owner, and it makes no sense for someone who has Obey-ed a model to move to use that models Ability to stop that move. Laugh Off works against Lure, but not Obey.

The big thing these guys have over Mounted Guard (other than the lack of Keyword tax in Frontier) is the built-in positive flip on the gun.

That's how you can tell they can be taken in Guild.

Because the number of people asking for more gets lower each time they do a print run and nobody wants stock hanging around. Its not like the cards aren't available in boxes, the app, the Faction books, or Wargames Vault. They did say right back at the launch of M3E that the Faction packs would be a limited product. It's been well over a year since then. And they've been in print longer than the Wave 1 Arsenal packs from M2E.

Because its Auca-MAN - not Auca-WOMAN, maybe? But the woman is clearly a Master and has Native trappings, so it would maker sense for her to be Aucaman.

That doesn't look like a healer to me. I think that the healer Master could be something else, possibly Asylum-related as suspected. That relies on Wayland's dates being accurate and they have their notoriety for not fulfilling deliveries in a timely manner for a reason, so it could well be wrong (in Wayland's defence they have been much better in the last couple of years, so it could well be teh correct date.) Idle speculation: So, if the "healing" Master is Asylum-related, what would teh chances of the Spelleater Master being Half-Blood? Half-Blood to now has been assumed to be Nephilim-related, but could it be even wider than that?