Mycellanious

With regards to Sparks, I just like to point out that since Bomb in Yer Belly requires 2 models their costs should be added together. Sparks costs 8 plus 6 from the Katashiro (ook) for 14 stones total. Sparks also needs a 6 to attach the upgrade and deploy within 1" of the Katashiro. Furthermore, while the flicker bomb is powerful it has its downsides. TFW talks about it, but in short you are killing your own model when it can often be better to leave that model engaging an enemy to make them kill it. Which of course leads to the next point which is that you kill your own model. And because its an AoE effect you can play around it by spreading your crew apart and keeping your minions up front so it ends up being a 6ss trade on both sides.

For the Moleman, the only thing I would change is to allow Network of Tunnels and Tunneling to place the Moleman into base with Friendly OR Enemy scheme markers. In fact I'd probably have it say "place this model in base contact with target Marker" (I think Strategy Markers cannot be targetted by default. If I am incorrect, I'd word it "target non-Strategy Marker") It gives them a purpose "counter scheming" but is limited by the 10" range unless your enemy attacks them. A good opponent wont do this unless they are planning on one shotting them (which is easy to do unless Marcus invests resources into them like ss cache or armored plating) but it would give them a cool synergy because you could use Marcus' Protected to force enemies to target Moleman and trigger Burrow.

idk, we have 4 arcanist players in my meta (including me) and I have yet to see or use the SS miner or Swarm for that matter. The one time i saw them was at NOVA, so its possible that our meta is a fluke (I dont think any of us own the models lol) but I think its perfectly acceptable to build a competitive crew w/o the Miner. I know our shop has some in stock, or at least did before the edition change, but no one has felt the need to grab them up.

That's from second edition, where the ability specifically said it could not be cheated. The M3E core rules instead state that any flip is cheatable unless specifically stated. So since the damage flip has no accuracy modifier it becomes a straight flip which is by default cheatable

Ok, but if we are seriously discussing the power level of the Stiched in the same context of the Swarm and ARCHIE surely that is indicative of an issue? The Swarm (cost 8-10) and Archie (9) should be terrifying beaters, more so than the Stiched because they are MUCH more expensive, are NOT Rare 3, and cant be summoned by 3 models in the game. Furthermore, both Archie and the Swarm are strong contenders for nerfing, so saying that Stiched are in a good spot because they are around the power level of higher cost models who are looking at nerfs is strange. Not to mention you then compared the Stitched to the fricken PALE RIDER. The 11ss unique Horsemen model which Guide Players universally call OP, but noting else in their Faction is worthwhile so he's in every list. I should hope the Stiched are far from on par with a model nearly twice their cost. I was also wondering how often you play / play against Stiched because you know a lot about them.

Well yea but I mean why do you think it is too good for 5 stones?

whats the logic behind the guilty cost increase out of curiosity?

It comes from the Serrated Teeth and Claws upgrade, so in general whoever has that upgrade wants to go early and it works well on the Jackalope because its a great piece to activate early and potentially leave in danger.

Marcus as a master tends to prefer elite (low model count) crews anyway because the less models you have the easier it is to put upgrades on them. To get started, you should try out the Wings upgrade on a Cerberus, Armored plating on Rattler, Formidable Horns on Cojo, and Serrated Teeth and Claws on the Jackalope. Those are my go to upgrades Turn 1. Try to hit people with the Jackalope to put Adversary on them early in the turn but beware: it is only Advetsary Beast so Myranda and Marcus do not benefit from it. This leads to my second big point: some crew abilities affect "Beasts and Chimera" while some only affect "Beasts." Knowing which is which is important for the crew. Everything else you should figure out on your own, in part cuz its fun but also because no two people play the same crew, much less the same Keyword, the same way

If money's an issue, it may make sense to grab the M2E Marcus box. It has the old sculpts and no Order Initiates, but comes with Cojo, the Rattler, and the Cerberus. Idk what box Vogel is being packaged into for M3E, so someone else is probably better suited to answer that. As for learning the game, I'd recommend starting with 2 minions vs 2 minions just trying to kill each other. Then I'd do modified Henchman Hardcore. 20 stones, Henchman Leader, and I'd play Turf War and flip 3 random schemes as well as deployment to get used to how that works. Then I'd try a Master game with just one Core box vs another Core box or 1-2 games or until you feel comfortable. (If you go with the M2E box for Marcus beware that his models are expensive so you may need to knock one off or play 40ss) Then 50ss, no holds barred bby!

A lot of people seem not to like the Medibot being Augmented because Hoff's crew is mostly constructs. To me, that was kind of the point. Because its worse in his crew he gets it cheaper, its only worth 4 stones in his crew. For everyone else its better, its worth 5 stones. This opinion is based on me hearing that in the beta the Medbot was cost 5 versitile, then changed to cost 4 Augmented so that its the same cost for everyone else but cheaper for Hoff cuz its less useful.

Thats an awesome board

The Rattler is a very good scheme model. Probably weak stat wise w/o Marcus, but very fast and able to put down 2 scheme markers per turn with ambush then deadly pursuit to drop 2 more next turn.

I kinda wish swarms werent autosuited for Onslaught but were autosuited for the movement trigger (I get that right now they are both masks). This could give it a unique role in the faction as a tech piece against positional schemes without resorting to "well it cant score outflank if its dead." I also think its super cool thematically for a super fast swarm to leap out of cover (nimble), Latch On to a target and drag it away helplessly

I feel like Foundry could use a little card draw. Its got several moderate tn's to hit and a lot of discards and no card draw in Keyword. I'd like some ability somewhere (action, trigger, at the end of this models activation etc), "This model may remove up to X Scrap Markers within Y" to draw cards up to the amount of removed markers"

There's been a significant amount of complaint about both the SS miner and the Arachnid Swarm. Do you guys think they should errata'd? If so, how would you change them?

Eh, Ashigaru are REALLY hard to kill. Armor 1, Extended Reach, HtK, and bonus action that heals them is really strong. You need to hit them once for 5 damage to proc HtK, then hit them a second time which is tought to do with Extended Reach and their 2" mele range.

One thing I noticed, Turn 1, the Rider could not have picked up the Gamin's Bomb after it was killed, since when a model is killed ENEMY models get a chance to grab the bomb, or it is discarded from the game. I dont think it changed much tho.

If a model with Demise Flaming dies to a condition, it pulses out burning to nearby models

I cant imagine a use for them. They never get to use their def trigger because they die in a hit, and its not worth it to put upgrades on them because you cant get them off. Furthermore Chimera crews tend to prefer to be elite because of the rarity of upgrades and because Marcus doesnt have the AP to put upgrades on every model. The trigger is cool, but w/o adaptive evolution they cant guarantee the suit and its a stat 4 attack so im not gonna cheat for it... Rn I honestly prefer 4 stones over a moleman.

I actually really like Fiendish Gamble, its cool and thematic and plays an important role in the crew that also make the Stitched unique as a hire and summon. I just think that GYL should be based around FG instead of the other way round (my opinion). I also really like the theme of the Stitched as cheating natards and like the idea of "one set of rules for you, and a better set of rules for me" I'd probably increase the range to 8" so just outside of charge range but within walk-charge range. I think GYL should have the following restrictions: "This Action ignores the Armor abilities of other models (but not its own). This model may cheat the damage of this Action lower, but not higher." My reasoning being allowing the Stitches to avoid most most the damage if they fail, while also forcing them to choose between using FG to make the attack hit or to secure severe dmg. The idea being to make it so the Stitched can either gamble on the attack hitting, but secure high damage, or secure a successful attack but gamble on its damage output. I also think the damage track should probably be lowered to like 2/3/5 or 2/3/4. It may also be fun to give them a damage track of like 5/4/3 to make him choose between adding a Weak back into the deck for an immediate damage gain or a Severe for lower damage but keeping the deck rigged, but thats probably way too much of a nerf. I also think id be cool if on ties BOTH models were damaged, but Im unsure if thats too big a nerf.

Tbh I only noticed last month myself lmao. I gotta try reading the cards more XD

Nah I havent tried him NvB. But if Cojo hits he can push the attacker out of his engagement to charge again. And with his stat 6, stoning for cards, AR, and Marcus' card draw its very likely for me to succeed on my first attack. Also dont forget that Cojo can push models out of his engagement on his activation with a 4M

I was wrong about FGling the tn to guarantee a hit, its a holdover from when we thought stiched flipped one card for tn, attack, and damage. But I'm sorry, I dont consider hoping for the red or black joker to be a consistent, reasonable game plan. If the deck is thin and you havent seen a joker you should consider it. But you cant go into a game planing, "Model X will do this, then his Stiched will Black Joker, which will allow model Y to do this..." its just not a consistent plan in Malifaux. Not to mention for every time a model hero flips a red joker against stitched, theres a time when a model red jokers its tn 6 action. If you are relying on the jokers to consistently suceed, then that action is all but guaranteed. I also dont consider FGling in a 13 to be worth nearly as much as cheating a card from hand. This is firstly because theres pressure on your hand from all models for various things, but there is only pressure from fiendish gamble from the stitched and only for its 1 thing. Furthermore, Dreamer gets to see a LOT of his deck from Lucid Dreaming (assuming a crew with 3 Daydreams because thats all I see) so its really not hard to find a 12 or 13 if he wants it for a Stitched, whereas only 6-10 cards are seen in hand for a normal crew after stoning and if you have card draw. This also ignores that there are ways to pressure your opponents hand, but not ways to pressure cards he removed from his deck. After thinking, Agent 46 probably has a better chance to suceed on his attack, but is a 9ss Henchman with a worse damage track and no range by default. People's perception of FG seems to flip between "a way to guarantee a good attack at cost to your other models" and "a way to rescue high cards you were forced to remove, thereby bettering your other models in the long run" and I get that it can be both, but I think the claim that removing a 13 temporarily significantly hurts the deck of the Dreamer is false because in all likelihood it will be back in the deck by the end of the turn. I do think its a cool ability that I'd like to see stay, but I think currently it makes GYL way too powerful. This is also ignoring the fact that your opponent is probably glad you red jokered your defense against his 6ss model ranged harass, and not attacking one of his models, and if he black jokers his tn, he didnt waste his 13 or his Fiendish Gamble so hes free to just, take the action again. So yea, GYL can fail, but the odds of it failing are so small its hardly worth considering, the opportunity cost of the action is also negligable, and even the backfire penalty is hardly noticable. I've literally only seen GYL fail twice, once a backfire, which was healed by end of turn, and once when I Obeyed an enemy Stitched and didnt want to cheat a high card to hit the tn.

Well, no because for normal attacks things like negative flips exist. It would take significantly more resources to hit severe damage twice for another model because very rarely can the damage flip be cheated