Maniacal_cackle

Well, you're also using 23 stones (25 with upgrades) of models to pull it off. That's half your allotment!

Now that I think about it, I think the change should just be to stunned entirely. I think it just is a problem with stunned, not with the individual profiles. The anti-trigger condition should shut down triggers. Mechanical Rider seems fine to me. If you're doing its reactivations, it has no suits for defense and is surprisingly squishy. That said, the soulstone cache upgrade does put it over the top a bit, but I don't like nerfing a model for an upgrade. But the upgrade was just nerfed, so seems fine to leave it. Certainly nothing I've encountered has suggested to me that it is unbeatable or unreasonably format warping. Colette on the other hand... She warps everything around her. You need to take so many things into account when facing Arcanists just because Colette might be declared. That said, I don't know if I have lost a game against Colette yet (and have even beaten Plaag's Colette once). But I used Molly and Kirai to beat his Colette, which is also in my top five things to nerf in the game 😜 So do take my opinion with a few grains of salt.

Note Coryphee duet can only do three activations with Rider, not four. Rider doesn't set the model back to unactivated, it just gives another activation. So you can't do the split for another activation trick.

Love the idea of a dog carrying an ice pillar xD But seems a bit off. I think keeping versatile off low cost models is an effective way to ensure you don't have packages that end up everywhere (for example, Archie + 1-2 crooligans would have been everywhere in GG0 if crooligans had no tax). But definitely makes sense for models like hounds. I quite like your direction of making pack mentality relevant. In general, pack mentality needs that to be viable (you see the same problem on Bultungin).

Sorry, I was making a joke that the box would release in 2026 (five years late).

26 March 2026 sounds about right to me?

The (errata) rules specifically cover this: You still unbury normally, even with an effect like Laugh Off. The owner can't use Laugh Off to stop the unbury/alter the placement.

Haha, I almost suggested nerfing soulstone cache as it does feel a bit strong, but the overall consequences for the faction would be pretty big. Overall, I've not seen anything that convinces me Arcanists are completely over the top or anything (and if anything, in the NZ meta I struggle with TT way more). EDIT: And as far as I know under the official rules (multi-master), Arcanists don't even have the strongest double master combos?

I think metas and people's opinions evolve too fast to keep a document like that updated.

On the flip side, things I imagine could see buffs: Kaeris' crew (ideally without buffing Sandeep) Rasputina's crew or Raspy herself (without buffing Sandeep) Colette's crew (as long as Colette herself was scaled down) EDIT: Colette's crew just got a new model added to it, so I guess it is too soon for changes to the crew. I think those keywords in particular are considered weak? It is tricky, of course, as Sandeep is considered quite strong and so there's a tension with accidentally bluffing him. Buffing fire golem enough to make it consistently playable with Kaeris could mean it is wayyy overpowered as a summon. In general, things get overpowered faster as summons than hires.

Wasn't Riot the biggest video game company in the world for a period? They're insanely successful, they have plenty of money to throw around at things like that xD I personally quite like these threads. They're fun brainstorms, and they sometimes uncover ways to beat powerful models, and Wyrd apparently does pay some attention to the forums.

To clarify, Colette can teleport OTHER models 16 inches with presto chango. You have to spend the entire game working around having your models kidnapped and killed. She is a very kill-y crew for that reason. I think it is a bit over the top (16 inches is almost deployment to deployment on standard). Leave her defenses intact, that's fine (except stunned on her defensive trigger IMO). But that's a broader issue with defensive issues now that I think about it, since all the triggers get one free 'ignore stunned.' It is just most obvious with Colette, since she will always bury on the first stun and you never get to hit her again.

I don't play the crew, but some thoughts on first viewing of the card of Kitty. Incorporeal is incredibly strong. Damage reduction and ignores terrain all in one. Extra movement for models is one of the most powerful things in the game, and she can do it on a bonus for herself, or use an action to reposition an enemy at stat six, or an ally with 6 or higher. And then she can drop a scheme as a bonus!! That was a bit stronger last season, and I imagine will be important next season. She seems like a fantastic utility model.

Another errata idea: Stunned should prevent triggers from being declared OR RESOLVED. It is pretty wonky that you can use defensive triggers against stunning attacks (particularly the Fade Away trigger, but even like Basse's trigger).

The problem is you declare triggers before the effect is applied. Thus, the order is: You attack with the stun attack. You both declare triggers The effects of the action are applied (possibly giving stunned, or you stun during trigger) Colette's trigger resolves. Since stunned prevents DECLARING (and not resolving) a trigger, she still gets the bury. Could also errata it so that stunned prevents triggers from being declared or resolved, which may be a wiser fix.

For Colette, there's two issues that stand out: Her presto chango range is insane (16" swap, not counting bases?) Nerf the range. Stun should work to counter her trigger (after all, stun is meant to be the counter to strong triggers). So maybe reduce the range of presto chango by a few inches (even at 4 it'd be a strong ability, but I'm not sure it should go that far), and change fadeaway to 'reduce damage by 2, bury unless stunned.' Those two tweaks would go a long way I reckon. I don't really know what I'm talking about, though.

Markers have a special rule that markers of the same type count as only one piece of hazardous terrain for the purposes of taking hazardous (no matter the distance). So if you push through two pyre markers, you take the effect once. If you push through a pyre marker and a pit trap, you take the effects of each once. If you push through two pyre markers and two pit traps, you only take one pit trap and one pyre marker effect. If you push through two bits of separate hazardous terrain that aren't markers, you take the effects of each.

She is a Henchman, so the trigger is built in when she wants it to be.

Unfortunately, shielded isn't optional. Also makes it really difficult to transmute shielded if that ever comes up

Yeah, and is a bit weird that they have damage tracks that are so compatible with focus, but you don't want to use the focus on them if they have that upgrade. I guess it gives a variety of options!

I think a major issue our local player faced with mega stacking focus on a rat king is that they're still easy to kill. So it is potentially quite a bit of effort for a model that just dies in a single activation anyway.

I just noticed cryptologists can be 4-ap models (one from fast, one from obeying themselves). Requires a relic and a high mask, but any 4-ap model is noteworthy at least. I'm not a fan of the card, but I guess I'm going to have to at least test them.

Anyone have any videos of playing these games with Nexus? Keen to see these tricks in action! Otherwise I'll have to wait to see if I run into them in the series.

Yeah, if the hounds were versatile they'd see a lot more play. I would have tried them with Reva. In general, the marker a model leaves behind is a big factor for a 3 stone model, so this seems like a big deal. Same way dolls in Neverborn leaving scrap makes a difference, or even corpses from Draugr at 7 stones. So great tip!

Or those of us who bought the Wild Ones box xD But I'm pretty sure I'll be able to box split with a Guild Frontier player, so should balance out xD