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jovialevil

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Everything posted by jovialevil

  1. P.S. Maybe I should have looked at the scale before posting those -- at 35 mm tall, they'd probably be comically large. Have you considered using the alternate Stitched Together?
  2. Out of curiosity, would you be willing to sell your stat cards from the second copy of Unstitched? I have been working on assembling a metal set of Puppet Wars, and I've managed to assemble and paint 3x all the pawns from the base game, which I believe means I have everything except Hooded Rider from Unstitched. I know a lot of people like the complex rules from the first edition stat cards, but I think the Unstitched rules would be enough easier that I'd get to play more often (especially since my kids are 4 & 6 yrs old, which means I'm stuck waiting a while to have gaming buddies at home to learn all the ins & outs of a complex game). * * * P.S. -- I put magnets on the bottom of all my Puppet Wars minis so that I could store them in a cookie tin that I bought from Goodwill, then also wound up buying a set of metal washers at the hardware store & painting a dozen in each of four bright, solid colors. I'm quite happy with this, because it makes it easy to glance at the board and see which minis are on which team.
  3. These aren't the minis you're looking for ... but I just stumbled across this (from another company) and thought you might like to see them in case you need a stand-in while you continue your search. https://puppetswar.eu/plaguebears.html I am also (slowly) putting together a set of Puppet Wars -- I've currently painted 3 copies of each of the pawns in the base game, plus the masters & henchmen from it, the multiplayer expansion, and Viktoria. Soon I hope to work up the gumption to move on to sorrows, mature nephilim, etc. Good luck with your search!
  4. I played my first game with Captain Zipp. I wanted to use his whole crew box (I like to max out on minions for my first game so that I have fewer stat cards to read) and decided to take Arik with my remaining soulstones. Arik seems like an excellent companion for Zipp. Gravity Well prevents the sort of shenanigans that would let enemies ignore pianos, Arik is small enough to be carried by mosquitoes, he punches things very hard if you give him focus, and he gets to fly once per turn (with diving charge), so your pianos won't box him in.
  5. I am a big fan of the Viktorias, especially for players who are learning the game. You can play a solid 35 SS crew with just three stat cards -- the Viks, your three ronin, and then either Vanessa, Taylor, or Bishop. I think that, whichever second crew you choose, you want to make sure you're taking a full set of at least one minion. I felt like Viks versus Zoraida (3 Silurids and Bad Juju, with Zoraida not using Threads of Fate, her hand redraw ability) was a good match. To get something in faction, I feel like Captain Zipp, Earl Burns, 3 Iron Skeeters, 3 Flying Piglets might be a reasonable crew to face the Viktorias. Whatever you choose, though, I'd aim for something with a bunch of minions. The basic mechanics of Malifaux seem really easy to understand, resolving duels through the cards that you can occasionally cheat is an *excellent* design, and the biggest drawback to teaching the game is that each character is ridiculously complicated. Whatever you can do to mitigate that, like setting down only three stat cards that somebody has to look over, seems like a big boon. Also, I've found it very helpful to print all the stat cards in long columns -- that way, people can see both the front and back at the same time. p.s. @Azahul -- Zoraida seemed fine against a new player (without using her tricky action). Mah with bushwackers and Tricksibelle would probably be good. Wong with a bunch of lightningbugs and a taxidermist was fine. Rasputina with a bunch of ice gamin was fine. But, again, I'd aim for a 35 SS minion-heavy game.
  6. I also think Marcus is quite weak. My gaming group has tried Marcus with a wide variety of crew compositions, in a wide variety of matchups, with different people playing as Marcus each time. And he struggles, always. I think the biggest problem is his movement. He is very inefficient with his use of AP -- maybe he'll spend AP to give out upgrades, maybe he'll be close enough to an un-engaged friendly beast to make it charge ... but he's not doing much on his own. Which is fine! I think it's cool that he's a researcher who plays a support role. But a lot of his best abilities require him to be close to the action, and he doesn't have any good way to get there without walking a bunch, which means he's not doling out upgrades or commanding beasts or whatnot on that turn. I think the best way to make him more powerful and more fun would be to give him a good movement trick. (I don't think having a 9-SS Cojo use an AP to fling him counts.) Honestly, I think he's weak enough that he could be given a ridiculously powerful movement trick and he still would be weaker than many other masters. So I would add the following to the front of the card: The Experiment Failed? (once per turn). When a friendly beast fails an attack action, you may place Marcus in base contact with that beast. As far as movement tricks go, this is absurdly powerful. It lets the stat-4 jackalope teleport Marcus. It would let any beast cheat in a low card to teleport Marcus. But I think Marcus is weak enough that it wouldn't be too strong for him, and I think this would actually feel good for both players. The opponent has some control over where attacks against them fail, the opponent gets to feel relieved that a model isn't taking damage from an attack, the Marcus player gets to feel happy about bringing him close enough to the action that he'll be able to do his great card-drawing, beast commanding shenanigans. And having our studious researcher pop up to investigate and iteratively improve his experiments seems to fit the fluff.
  7. We are (unintentionally!) home schooling right now, so our art class yesterday was spent in Malifaux. Our artists are 3, 5, and 36 years old. During nap time, I've been painting a 1st edition set of Puppet Wars. These five are excited at the prospect of a new friend to rip the stuffing out of. Thank you, Wyrd.
  8. Did you happen to track how many turns people were able to finish in these games? Or did every round play out the full five turns?
  9. I've played about a dozen games of Malifaux and have brought The Dreamer to the table twice. I've also played Mah, Wong, McCabe, Pandora, Von Schill, Viktorias. This report is from a game that I played in about a month ago, but I took notes at the time. I decided to post it because it seems there's still a fair bit of discussion on the Neverborn forum as to whether Lucid Dreams or Stitched Together are too powerful. Personally, I thought Lucid Dreams was extremely strong. My crew: Dreamer (6 stones) LCB (IR) Coppelius 3x Daydream 2x Stitched 1x Alp 1x Insidious Madness Opposing crew had Yan Lo, Porter, Izamu, Chiaki, Toshiro, 2x Ashigaru, 2x Gokudo. Strategy was Corrupted Idols, scheme pool had Outflank, Search the Ruins, and others (it seems we both picked these two, as they seem relatively easy to score). The board had a pretty typical amount of blocking terrain, some high-vantage hills with caves beneath, but no concealing or severe terrain. First turn the idol appeared at the west side of the board. A daydream and insidious madness approached it, with the daydream perching safely on a mountaintop. An alp moved to the center of the board and was liquified by Izamu -- 5 SS to remove a card from my deck & distract Izamu for one turn. A stitched charged in to engage Izamu, mostly hoping to keep him from moving off to wreck the rest of my crew. Everybody else on my team moved up the east side of the board. Dreamer focused, summoned an Insidious Madness, then gave Chiaki adversary, stoning for the trigger in order to teleport LCB (& the new Madness) to the Ancestors' backline. LCB was engaging Chiaki (who'd already activated) and Toshiro (who hadn't). All told, this was a foolish decision -- it's a horrible idea to attack Yan Lo's ancestors before killing the minions, and The Dreamer could've targeted a Gokudo for all of that instead. And wouldn't have needed to use focus, even. Coppelius dropped a scheme marker for Search the Ruins. LCB focused and hit Chiaki. Again, foolish. Worse, I then cheated the RJ for damage, killing her. Her soul landed on a Gokudo. Yan Lo resummoned her, trading one of his AP for 2 from LCB, and teleporting the Gokudo to a much better position (right next to the west idol). By the end of the turn, Ancestors have control of the west, Nightmares have control of the east. Yan Lo has grown a little stronger. Dreamer has removed 9 cards from the deck, and still has 8 models with Lucid Dreaming in play. ** Turn two, the idol dropped in the center. A stitched abandons the Dreamer to stab himself in the chest for 3. Sensing an opening, a double-focused Gokudo charges the unprotected Dreamer, using a focus on each attack to punch through Serene Countenance. Dreamer had no Nightmares to slough attacks onto ... but the Gokudo flipped poorly and did no damage. Two daydreams moved in to protect the Dreamer, then Coppelius used his ranged attack to kill the Gokudo. The western Insidious Madness stabbed itself for 2, leaving itself at 1 health remaining. But then Yan Lo killed it and commanded an Ashigaru to stab itself for 3, putting the marker cleanly onto the Ancestors' scoring side. Dreamer summoned a Madness and the western Daydream, still perched safely atop a hill, tried to unbury it on a Gokudo, but the Gokudo had cover and the attacks narrowly missed (well, they missed by a mile, but I had an 11 in hand and the Gokudo flipped cards that were too high for me to cheat past, which unfortunately also allowed the focused Gokudo to cycle cards, since he was cheating second). A freshly summoned Ashigaru (really, the Dreamer's turn one play was terrible -- I forgot to mention that killing Chiaki also created a corpse for Toshiro to summon aid with. The Nightmares would have been in a better position if LCB had simply passed his first turn) tried to get away from LCB to stab itself and deny the Dreamer a strategy point, but it had its Mv reduced to zero by LCB's disengaging strike. A few activations later, when I realized what the Ashigaru's plan had been, I mentioned that it would've have been able to interact after disengaging. Yan Lo and Chiaki both dropped scheme markers for Search the Ruins. I believe Izamu was pulled away from the southern Stitched by the Soul Porter, then charged the center Stitched but missed a few times. One of the misses was due to a high card that had previously been exiled by Lucid Dreaming. At the end of turn two, Yan Lo was even stronger than before ... but the Nightmare deck had removed 17 cards, with a new average flip of 8.8. Dreamer had 2 points (strategy & search), Yan Lo 3 (strategy, outflank, & search). We drew for the next turn and planned to reconvene in a week for the second half of the game (for which my notes are sketchier). Dreamer drew BJ, which he will never, ever let go of -- with the black joker in hand, Nightmares will be able to cycle through their deck repeatedly each turn and hit RJ over and over. ** Turn three, things soured for the Ancestors. The idol appeared at the middle west, which was good for them, because Yan Lo and a Gokudo were in range. The Gokudo stabbed itself to shift the idol onto its scoring side, angled slightly into a cave because there was blocking terrain close to the spawn point. Then the Dreamer used RJ to summon a pair of alps. The western Daydream had been holding that side of the board alone for the Nightmares, but two good flips later the Alps had joined it. They wouldn't be able to stop the Ancestors from scoring the strategy this turn, but one moved into position to interact with the far west idol next turn. The first turn's summoned Insidious Madness (who'd spent turn 2 dropping a scheme marker for Search the Ruins) also charged over to win control of this side of the board. Izamu again failed to kill the center Stitched. LCB stabbed himself near the center idol, moving it impossibly far into the Nightmare's scoring side. All Ashigaru on the east died, some scheme markers were placed, and Coppelius moved in to engage Toshiro. Turn three ended with Yan Lo at full power, but with 28 cards removed from the Nightmare's deck. After being used to summon alps, RJ appeared on two damage flips that turn. Nightmares 3 VP (scored Outflank), Ancestors 4 (scored strategy). ** Dreamer summoned aid then marked Izamu as an adversary, teleporting LCB. Yet again that western Daydream (clearly the Nightmare's MVP) unburied aid in the west. Chiaki falls with no minion nearby to slurp up her soul. Stitched kills the Soul Porter (I believe this is the only time Fiendish Gamble was used all game. On the forums, people say that this ability is too strong. It didn't feel overly powerful ... cards weren't being subbed in from the exile zone, so it seemed fair that it was such a high damage tactical action because it could've backfired and caused the Stitched to kill itself. But the Stitched was very unlikely to fail, because the average flip from the Nightmare deck was probably 10+ at this point, and the average flip from the Ancestors was still 7). Then LCB kills Izamu. Nightmares 4, Ancestors 4. Ancestors have only Yan Lo & Toshiro in play. Nightmares deck is down to 13 cards, one of which is the RJ. Black Joker still in hand, obviously. ** Turn five, the Nightmares squirrel around for a while. Yan Lo attacks but can't hurt anyone without cheating, and this turn drew a high 10. Average flip from Nightmares is 11.4. They would like to be on negative flips for damage, though, because then they could hit RJ almost every attack. Nightmares 7, Ancestors 4. Apparently the game felt very demoralizing on day two (turns 3, 4, & 5). Ancestors couldn't win duels without cheating. I'd thought it was close after turn 2, with only a single Daydream holding the western flank, but being able to unbury minions where you need them is extremely powerful. Lucid Dreaming felt absurdly strong. Maybe things would have been different against a crew that was better at obliterating models on turn one, but I played quite foolishly and, because my flips were soon so high, was not punished for my folly. I also think that if someone were playing the Dreamer well, they'd want more card draw. It seems really, really important to get the black joker into your hand.
  10. Pandora was by far my favorite master in the last edition of the game -- I always used her summoning upgrade, and she combined high damage, good defenses, and a mobile crew that was able to finish most schemes easily. I always felt as though she was one of the most powerful choices. In this edition, she seems decidedly weaker relative to other choices. Not bad, but not a wrecking ball like she was before. And, with her crew's reliance on mood swings and stuns, you are forced to play a control game, limiting the other player's choices. I realize that killing enemies limits your opponent's choices even more, but in my limited experience, players can get more frustrated if they activate a unit and you have to keep reminding them, "Well, you can't declare that trigger, because that dude is stunned," or "Nope, your free action would cost an AP." I don't know why people would feel more frustrated by having a crippled unit than having it be totally removed from the board and replaced by a corpse, but so it goes. One weird thing about her kit, that I didn't realize until my most recent game with her, is that models blocking her line of sight and thereby shutting off her pulses really hurts her. We were playing reckoning, so I brought Pandora (9 stones), Poltergeist, Candy, Carver, Iggy, Teddy w/ Inhuman Reflexes, & Baby Kade. I was playing against Mei Feng, (Mei w/ counterspell & 5 stones, Emberling, Kang, Rail Golem, Mechanical Porkchop, 3 Railworkers, one of whom had the counterspell + hand size upgrade) who brought over half the crew up in a bubble for Kang to pulse focus to at the beginning of turn 2, so naturally I had Candy stroll right next to the crowd to force discards and stun from Corrupted Innocence (9 stones would surely keep her alive even if she was attacked). Carver, Poltergeist, and Pandora were there too, although there was a choke point between two bluffs that held Pandora back a bit (since it felt more important to get the Poltergeist close and sap enemies with the 2" willpower aura). At the start of the second turn, there were five enemies within 6" of Pandora, with four of them on a negative flip for willpower duels because of the Poltergeist, but the 50 mm bases of the Poltergeist, Carver, and an enemy Rail Golem meant that Pandora could only actually see two enemies. It felt sad to realize that her pulse would always be at its best if she was standing behind the Poltergeist (to use the aura), but that the Poltergeist's chunky 50 mm base would often block enough sight lines that she wouldn't be able to hit big groups of enemies with "The Box Opens." Of course, maybe this is a foolish strategy to pursue anyway. The Poltergeist makes everyone else in the crew so much more powerful -- putting enemies on a negative Wp flip is brutal on both offense and defense -- but the Poltergeist is pretty easy to kill. Someone more cautious than me might have better luck by keeping the Poltergeist safely behind Pandora. But her lack of engagement range means Pandora is pretty bad at shielding anybody. I have to say, though -- Candy is an incredibly powerful model. If you can ensnare people in her aura, she's effectively Armor +2 (since stunned enemies are forced to play into her Disarming trigger), and she can sit wherever she wants while still harassing high-value enemies with her 10" range. I've learned that I need to scout the table for a centrally-placed high vantage point and then do what I can to get her there. That way I won't have to curse her for being too short.
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