Ezuma

Wondering if anyone has any insight on how Cooper works into Zipp, the match-up is proving tricky New to Explorers Society, but not to Malifaux, I've played a lot of different masters, but my main opponent just plays Zipp almost every game. Lately I'm trying to get cooper to work, but have only played him against zipp to date (and I wonder if its a particularly bad match up) Given most of the crew has innate concealment (and even worse, the first mate has stealth) and on top of that zipp and Earl can drop 4 impassable blocking terrain markers reliably every turn, pretty much anywhere on the map... It feels a lot like I just play to draw the game, rather than actually win. In more general terms, are there any match-ups or scheme/strat pools you have avoided taking Cooper in? *Edit: for added context our latest game is Wedge Deployment, Symbols of Authority (pretty much auto full points for zipp in my experience) schemes: Death beds, Let them bleed, Outflank, Research Mission, Spread them out. Really hard to imagine zipp not scoring max points into that mix imo :p

Might give me a reason to play Titania sometimes Even if this thing is straight up bad I'll probably buy it for the model

I'm not convinced Neverborn is dead just yet from two changes, I didn't even use IR in many of my games, but then I also don't play in tournaments and mostly use Dreamer, Pandora and Euripides. Euripides will be a bit unhappy for sure but perhaps I just have to learn to play more cautiously with him. Unfortunately Nekima is boring, so with or without the upgrade I don't play her much, Marcus just seemed sub-par to begin with so I don't know that this change alone does him in. Maybe my optimism is just ignorance, but I am going to try to get a few games in before I panic too much.

At least you don't have to worry about Inhuman Reflexes anymore, although Nekima's crew is hard enough to beat that might not make a huge difference, but every now and then it'll mean you get the drop on her where before she could dart away

well said, Dreamer still stands above most Neverborn, and the stitched are probably still useful to boot, the more i think on it -though need to get some games in to really get a feel for it

we're dead

Good points all I, I've neglected Dreamer for a few weeks now and totally failed to notice the benefit of making it a WP attack. It was inevitable they would get altered and actually from thinking about it a bit, the changes aren't as harsh as I initially suspected -except for inhuman reflexes. I'm a bit choked there

I was surprised Bultungins got nothing, I haven't bought them yet because they just look so useless on paper, dying to anything rougher than a stiff breeze. Inhuman reflexes being gone will hurt Euripides a lot, but on the upside it will help keep Nekima in check. Good to see a lot of the more b.s. abilities toned down across the game though, probably for the best

So opponents may now cheat vs stitched, correct? And on top of that the TN is upped to 13 and its no longer a tactical. So it doesn't get around defensive tech anymore, and basically you must reserve a 12-13 to even want to attempt it... at least it encourages your opponents to hang onto their high cards I guess. Interesting to see how large the impact will be. Gonna miss inhuman reflexes big time, definitely the biggest hit.

Thoughts on the changes? Glad to see some of the other faction's changes (first mate being nerft made my day, it always bugged me that he does more damage than anything in Neverborn with his built in ram and a card or stone) I was surprised to see only Stitched and Zoraida altered at all, and boy were stitched hit (deservedly), and inhuman reflexes seems significantly less useful than before. The big question: are stitched even good now?

Thanks, it will be interesting to see results. I think the only master I've played 6+ games with is Dreamer, everybody else is still hovering in the 1-5 range except Marcus and Zoraida who I don't own. I expect Dreamer and Pandy to be the most played overall, rightfully so.

In M3E only or including the beta, or including previous editions? I'm assuming not including 2e or 1e?

Lots of moments involving changelings in M2E, the best was when my lucius crew faced Colette, and shoved killjoy deep into swamp terrain along with a single changeling killed him with his own weapon in two very lucky hits. Lately Thoon burying zipp for turns 2 and 3 was hilarious (for me) or anytime Euripides teleports into and annihilates a scheming skeeter (even better if its carrying earl burns)

Although the gender is allegedly wrong, I just use an alt pose katanaka sniper i had lying around. I might headswap or something at some point but nobody has minded thus far, as ive painted it black and purple. I think as long as you've got a rifle and a hood some leniency is ok...

I am also waiting to see if any marcus experts emerge, I was briefly interested in him but 1. the fact i would have to buy so many new models (arcanist beasts and swampfiend keyword stuff, since I've avoided playing zoraida) and 2. Neverborn already has a lot of murder potential with the models I already own. At the same time the flexibility of the upgrades system and having so many swift and nasty minions can't be all bad, so I am sure there's a way to make him competitive... right?

Lots of great replies here, I would second that you should try to build your lists based off of all the info you can (not just strats but schemes and board setup and the faction you are against). - I agree that Serena is pretty essential, amazing at claim jump and especially useful in corrupted idols and reckoning -although frankly I consider taking her in most Neverborn crews. - Widow weaver is much more situation dependent, and probably should be taken with Bandersnatch most games. - Carver seems better in Pandora to me but probably I just haven't cracked him yet. He is very reliable as a henchman with stat 7, but frankly I would prefer to take Hinimatsu (who is almost never a bad call) - Copelius is a top notch schemer and a capable fighter, though I do use Insidious Madness in a similar role and they are significantly cheaper (and surprisingly tanky). - Stitched are amazing and probably no one needs to tell you that. I hire them often but probably you can just summon them when needed. -When it comes to versatile models Hooded Rider and Hinimatsu are both strong pieces especially in Reckoning or Turf War. Dreamer is my favorite master and a great choice as he can do everything pretty well, even reckoning isn't too tough provided you don't feed your opponent kills and play cautiously (which is totally doable especially if you go henchman heavy). Between lucid dreaming stacking the odds in your favor, good anti Armour tech, high mobility pieces, summoning great minions and access to healing and very reliable damage output, there is a lot in Dreamer's favor and I have a way more consistent win rate with him than any other master (except Nekima but i find her a bit boring).

that would be my preference too, as I would probably rank a lot of masters on the same tier rather than distinctly better or worse. Especially after my first 3 picks it gets hazy

Interested to see the results, although of course just judging on strats alone doesn't tell you that much. I found it very hard to rank them all in a way that felt meaningful especially for Marcus who I know almost nothing about. I expect Nekima and Dreamer to take top spots, although I also find Euripides pretty strong. While I love Lucius I'm not entirely sure what if any strats he would be the best pick for, while Nekima can really do them all. Hopefully I'm wrong and just need to work him out more, because Nekima -while strong- isn't that interesting to play, and in my experience has lead to a lot of 2 or 3 turn games where my opponent just concedes, which is never that satisfying for either of us.

In that case you may well have a point, I tend to get a lot of work done with Rougarous (shooting Candy or Titania up the bored and then backing them up as a second line rather than rushing the wolf in usually) but I do think the chance of them getting taken out quickly is very real if you don't position carefully, or if your opponent is really hell-bent on it. For my money though the other keyword minions aren't all that great, with Bultungins dying to a stiff breeze, waldgeists having some limited uses but generally being slow, not that tanky and not putting out much damage. Autumn knights aren't bad but then they're also only 1ss less than a Rougarou and don't hit as hard or help you shoot key pieces around the board when needed, so definitely a different roll. I think you have a point about hiring Killjoy or Hinamatsu first and foremost, and I can't disagree with that: Hinamatsu in particular never lets me down, and if you are looking at a henchman vs a minion for similar cost, usually I would go with the Henchman (unless its Thoon).

Welcome to the game! I have yet to play the Victorias so I won't offer anything on them in particular, but I very much recommend you purchase rougarous as soon as possible as they are one of the best models in keyword, and I field 1-2 every time I play Titania. As for your main question on the terrain markers, you should get one free per fae-keyword model, and definitely use all of those at the start to give yourself options down the road as well as hampering your opponent's movement. There are a lot of finer points to managing your resources that are hard to learn without playing a ton of games first, as for the underbrush markers I would say it will take you some time to know when to go out of your way to put one down vs when to get scheming or attacking. Expect to lose a lot, but try to learn from each loss and with each action always think 'how does this help me score?'

Euripides is really entertaining me lately, and i tend to play Dreamer and Pandora alongside him, however i also own Nekima, Titania and Lucius. Lucius is great (depending on crew) at both corrupted idols and plant explosives in my view, while Titania is pretty good at idols also. Dreamer is good at both. Really pick whichever grabs you the most out of Zoraida, Lucius, Titania and Dreamer, all are fun in slightly different ways. Lucius will love to hire Euripides minions anyway often, commanding a Geryon about is never a bad time. As for corrupted idols, I've found Euripides to perform pretty well at corrupted idols, so far. The ability to teleport around, heal frequently and block off charging lanes/access to idol markers is all very helpful and I would even say Plant Explosives is the hardest strat for Euripides, and even that he can pull off with his keyword models and the better among the versatile pieces. I have found him to be surprisingly flexible, From the sounds of it you wouldn't go wrong with Lucius (who I also love). You however probably should (if you don't already have them) acquire the more useful versatile models in order to give you access to more play styles (Serena Bowman is a must have imo)

I'm not sure how people use so few stones with any Neverborn master tbh, maybe its a crutch of mine but I don't feel comfortable with less than 7 stones and sometimes I will take 8 or 9 even. If I am using Candy (who I like to bring in sometimes with Nekima as well as pretty much everybody else) then I need 3-4 stones just for her most games. It's really necessary for me to keep my masters and henchmen alive (to date I don't think I've lost my master in 3e, though I've come very close in most games).

I got mine from an online shop about two weeks ago. I didn't pre-order it though

I certainly hope they make him available, he's 26 usd (plus expensive shipping) on gadzooks and currently the reason i haven't been playing Lucius much.

I think that is spot on, definitely it seems to be a mistake to engage early (or maybe at all) with many Neverborn crews. My opponent and I are both learning our masters and have about equal numbers of games in this new edition, but I played a lot more in 2e and probably have a better idea of what to prioritize/avoid. When playing Wong my opponent has bunched his crew initially to get fast and a lot of glowy on everything, and from that starting point I think he has been overconfident and not sufficiently afraid of the hurt Neverborn can put out. I was even a little concerned about the amount of fast and damage prevention in the first turn, but it didn't end up making much difference. Last game was corrupted idols, and we basically both rushed for the center where his bubble essentially melted against Pandora's in a horrible perfect storm. He has performed a lot better with Zipp (at least scoring some points but ultimately losing most games) so it may be partly just that Wong is difficult to handle. Keeping some distance definitely seems important especially vs Woes and Nephillim as you noted, so perhaps relying on ranged more would be a good call, although it still seems my crews would have an advantage when it comes to getting to or crossing the centre and scoring. The suggestion about swapping crews is interesting, we may have to try that.