Maniacal_cackle

Haha, I'll be playing on Saturday (American Friday) 😜

And I'm against Colette!! BATTLE STATIONS 😱😱😱😱 EDIT: Now do I go for the Rogue Necro combo so I can kill Colette if he doesn't realise what the combo is? Or do I be sensible and take good models for the scenario?

I can't decide between Dead Rider, Yin, or a tech piece. Rider is obviously miles better than Yin, BUT Yin can rip models off leylines which can be very strong. Of course if I was smart like Dannydb, I could declare Yan Lo and take both. The combo is better with Molly's activation control, though. Although it doesn't work on corner deployment regardless xD EDIT: Although against Neverborn, they'll use planted roots and sorta negate the whole idea anyway xD For me against Arcanists, I think it still works?

'Target' is pretty well defined in Malifaux. Basically the ability needs to either say the word target, or be an attack action. There may be another case I missed, but that pretty much sums it up. So for auras, they will almost never say 'target' and so Challenge won't apply. Interact is also fine. Interestingly, targeting markers or terrain is also fine (like the Lost Knowledge ability). The only restriction is on targeting models (it will say target or be an attack).

Incidentally, EVERY model with the Toss in the Mud action is considered average at best, I believe? It'd be a good candidate for a tweak (make it melee 2 or even melee 1 so everyone can charge with it?). I know cards make bulk erratas hard, but the common names for these things mean that sometimes you have to errata lots of things at once. It feels like an oversight that they never printed the melee symbol on it in the first place (like Pride with the 0" attack that had to be errata-ed). It would be frustrating if this whole issue is a typo like Pride was!

Lol, without this change, it'd be so broken. "My charge generates a charge!" "What do you do with this second charge?" "I charge!!"

Just thinking about McCabe in ES some more, and I'm getting Reva vibes. A master that can be a heavy hitter or one of the best scheme runners in the faction, backed up by a crew with lots of tricks/mobility. A crew with a rough rider or two, McCabe, and B&C basically can be wherever the heck they want.

I'm not fully sure, but McCabe, Basse, and EVS should have no trouble on corner deployment I think? Though most people don't seem to rate McCabe or Basse in ES. It may also be solved with versatiles and OOK. Vernon and Welles fits into most crews and can do tons of scoring all by itself. Beebe and Calypso may be viable in many crews and are very potent at mobility. Overall unless you're planning on playing super competitively, it is best to pick crews you like. You will score better with a crew you like that you've played 30+ times than the perfect crew. Also I guess I'll throw it out there that there is current debate about Cadmus - they may be good at everything xD Some might claim the same of English Ivan.

I only have looked briefly at the two crews, but I would worry about really scheme-y pools. Like corner symbols or leylines may be tricky? I could be wrong, though.

Of course, even if Zoraida/Dreamer can win, not sure that means much, since they're S+ tier IMO xD If Zoraida can do it solo, that would be a good sign!

Bit of a side note, but I also notice the Dreamer player didn't take Bandersnatch? Any reason for that? I struggle to imagine taking Widow Weaver without its seven stone upgrade, unless you're running Zoraida. Speaking of which, Dreamer & Zoraida sounds brutal against Cadmus: summon two stitched a turn, command archivist to attack twice (siphon life + we are legion is two damage, plus 3 for the attack means 4-10 damage off of one ensorcel trigger, obey Husks to swarm of mites their friends. Terrorize seems super good in this matchup. Could just keep shoving Cadmus' front line backwards with terrorize and obeys, summoning stitched after Stitched. Then after summoning, WW can scheme. Would love to see a good player try this against Plaag. Or I'm happy to try it next week.

I assume you mean Fiendish Gamble - and no, the March errata for Stitched says you do it in place of cheating. This means if you can't cheat, you can't Fiendish Gamble. Red Joker flips stop the cheats, so you can't. Hope that makes sense

Colette feels much better to face on corner than all the other deployment types, so small blessings there, I suppose! I'm in for a super rough match I'm guessing, but at least this time I'll know how to use my crew! I'm going for the win 😜 I'm guessing they'll bring Zoraida. She is just far and away the best Neverborn master for the strat is my understanding.

Hahaha, omg, what a terrible weakness to have! I love the Rex, that is so disappointing but hilarious.

Oh right, so if it was a thing in 2E, I guess continuing it here makes sense. Bizarre though.

I mean, the sensible way to play this would be just to have all schemes be voluntary to reveal, right? Is that how most people play?

Pairings are up! See Shinchan's links above. Question - we have a week to get our results in, is that right?

Round two I'm against Arcanists - the same player who beat my first Kirai! Looking forward to a rematch! Wonder who he will take into Leylines.

Interesting Dreamer vs. Cadmus game! Two thoughts spring to mind: Dreamer plays quite aggressively. On turn one Dreamer voluntarily walks within 8 inches of unactivated Cadmus models, which seems far too aggressive to play against Cadmus as Dreamer. As a result Dreamer gets a parasite token turn 1, a potential game-losing prospect right there I would imagine? Dreamer especially does not cope with parasite tokens well. The Dreamer player says Your Nightmare is a garbage ability, which I found quite surprising. I'd rate it as his best attack (specifically because it can teleport Lord Chompy Bits with a mask trigger). That's not the attack I'd have used in this situation because flinging Chompy to his death would have been bad here. But still, surprised to hear a great Dreamer player dismissing what I would say is one of the best things on the card. One thought that springs to mind is that Cadmus likely takes quite a few plays against to get the hang of playing against the crew (to avoid possible mistakes like my first point above). I'd be interested if there are any top tier players that have lost 5 games to Cadmus? I believe Kharnage has (or 4 games, close enough), anyone else? More examples like that would be helpful.

I've just been looking into bluffing schemes (for example, can you choose to not score Spread Them Out if you want to continue bluffing Runic Binding), and I noticed something odd: the optional part of revealing a scheme is embedded in the scheme text, and it isn't always there. For example, all the rulebook schemes say "you may reveal this scheme" to score. Spread Them Out says "you may remove three such Scheme Markers to gain 1 VP." However, Research Mission does not mention the word 'may'. If you qualify for Research Mission, you score it. Does this mean you can voluntarily choose to not score some schemes, but for stuff like Research Mission it is mandatory to score? Is there anything in the rulebook about choosing to score schemes? It seems like a silly technical mistake, so wondering if there is a method to the madness at all. EDIT: Oh, and there's another common time this comes up - being against Qi And Gong where they penalize you for revealing schemes, delaying scheme reveals can be a tactical option there.

Oh dang transmutation is another good point. So that's another seeming weakness that actually isn't 😧

While I'm not sure that pyre markers will be enough, it IS cool that burning ignores We Are Legion. Poison and burning in general get a slight edge against this crew.

Super excited! EDIT: Nevermind, fixed now!

I think it is ambiguous, as there is not necessarily a clear rule to guide on this. However, for consistency, I would assume that it is 'target friendly scheme or friendly shadow marker'. Most abilities like this require the marker to be friendly, so I assume 'friendly' applies to both types of markers. I'm pretty sure that's how the vassal series is playing it as well, but that's nothing official.

That's neat, but just as an aside - shame it doesn't work on Cadmus, the current hot topic 😧 I got excited until I went and read We Are Legion (which can reduce to 0).