Yore Huckleberry

yeah. Using TtH to defend your Mv 2 model vs a crew that attacks MV and has Execute on its master seems like an uphill battle.

Yeah, there's an interesting constellation of things here. Like, you don't want loud frustration to turn into a self fulfilling prophecy about NPE's, where the community just votes out something new. I think there was a lot of tech vs Nexus that wasn't ever tried before it was hit by the nerf bat, for example (although vengeance-armor may well have been a bit overtuned). We might be in a similar space vs Yan Lo 2, where a few players have already discovered that Raspy/Euri MV-duel spam is a powerful counter to the old ghost, despite him putting up pretty serious wins. I had good luck the other day with a plan for Armor Piercing minion guns vs the doggos. Stuff like that.

Honestly, Malifaux is unlikely to EVER escape from "law of small numbers" outcomes or other interpretive fallacies such as "fundamental attribution error" (in gaming, often the "when I play it, it has weaknesses; when I play against it, it's busted-good" experience). I beat YL2 with LJ2 yesterday, but I also drew 4 severes in a starting hand, flipped BJ on initiative and then controlled it with my Guild Lawyer all game, and was able to delete one Komainu before it activated with all the severes. Meanwhile, a DMR tanked Manos and Kenshiro because my opponent drew a garbage hand round 2. So that game was pretty ferociously defined by r1-2 draws and flips, and then later there were even more outlier events, like Kenshiro hitting Yan Lo for double severes on negative while ignoring incorporeal and adding 2 damage to kill him from 5 wounds. But if we have a data set of 3 games with LJ2 vs YL2 and Yan Lo wins the other two in spite of roughly even draws on both sides, someone would review that all and say "these masters seem roughly balanced," not "YL seems to have an edge here if we eliminate this outlier game." The trouble is, almost all our games have some sort of asterisk by them, whether it's experience mismatches or one player trying a janky build or a sudden black joker on an otherwise reliable maneuver round 5. Long story short, I think narrative descriptions are better than stats, and "man, be careful of Andre's Nekima doing a heavy alpha top of round 2" is way more likely to be useful info than "Nekima has a +.03 global VP margin for GG1 schemes and strats."

So, the MWS Committee ruled on this today as a single attack for Lucius's DtWP for MWS events. We agree that it's ambiguous enough that people can earnestly disagree and that there isn't a single clear foundation for ruling it a particular way, so in a given event outside the MWS, you'll want to ask the TO. Speaking simply for myself, I do think there are pretty clear differences between resolving an action (DtWP) and an Ability (Join Us, Reformed, Protection Money, Trump Cards, etc), or between resolving an Action that specifies multiple markers (Four Winds Punch's "any markers removed by this Action") and an Action that can be read as fully completed when a single if/then conditional has been satisfied. DtWP could certainly be written in a way that clarifies the effect one way or the other, though.

This is more or less the correct answer, but for a slightly incorrect reason: Carver's Opportunist takes place at step 2.d.I (Modify the Duel -- in this case, Opportunist is an "other game effect"). But it's simply "Attacking model first" per the timing rules for duels; you aren't actually in simultaneous effects here, so you don't have to reference the Active player. So, a model attacking Carver would have the choice to reduce Focus before Carver would have the choice to remove a Focused via Opportunist. Carver attacking a model would have the opportunity to remove a Focus via Opportunist before the defending model would have the opportunity to reduce Focused.

I feel like you'll be seeing a ton of Perdita 2 now. Dashel 1 has been my generalist for a while, since most people have thought through how to beat Armor 2 models, and with Hoffman they know they're getting one or more

I do think Frantic Search is super lackluster in a Faction that has Loot Their Corpse on good models. Building in the defensive trigger seems like it would make her very playable -- consider Candy, for example, as another manipulative hench with bubble effects (and Greed would still be far less survivable). And Greed's trigger still would not be as good as Candy's or a Gwisin's Vengeance, but it would pressure soulstones more. Guitar Bash really seems fine; melee 0" on a MV 6 model is playable, and Stunning Strike and Crit Strike are both good triggers. Maybe make it 2/3/4 at least? If you made Unchecked Avarice aura-3 instead of pulse-3, it would add a bit more utility to that ability ... though maybe it would need a cap at that point?

that sounds really awful. Sorry, Wyrd. You guys make a hell of a game, and it deserves to sit enticingly amongst better-known yet objectively-lesser products before hordes of RNG-cursed dice-rollers who don't know what they're missing.

I don't think Pale Rider needs a nerf. People have lots of means of dealing with Riders (stun in particular just become hugely more prevalent in the game). Lone Marshal I expect to see a cost increase to 10. It will be disappointing if they Yasunori it, especially compared to other 10 stone models. It's pretty important countertech for dealing with summons, and it's already limited by not being a hench or ignoring friendly fire or cover. So currently, ook you can get it to ignore Friendly Fire if you pay 11 stones for it (12 if they bump the cost) with expert marksman, and you're still having to bring either steward or a lawyer to load it with focus, or its efficiency comes back down a fair amount. The only way to get it to ignore cover is to bring a blow it to hell model, which means you're ook on one side or the other. There's lot of complaining about the stat 7 gun, but the antidote to that is cover -- essentially its stat advantage gives it a half-positive to damage flips, and I don't think that needs the hard tap others do, especially with the Df stat creep in both Explorers and Malifaux Burns that we've been seeing. I'm not really sure what else DOES need tuning down in Guild. Our most powerful things are probably all in the new wave. People hate the Pale Rider, so maybe its irreducible will get dropped to 2 or they'll just make it give burning 3 or something (upgrade in Sonnia). I already use Pale a lot less because we've picked up better movement in Augmented, Marshals, and Family, though Ride With Me remains very good tech. I also think Burns is going to make the Brutal Em very buildable with Marshals as an alternative centerpiece beater. Lawyers or Steward could see a price increase, though I think there, too, we've become spoiled for choice on support models between the Guild Mage and things like Pearl, so we may not have the "ubiquitous model" problem with them, either. Or if the Steward loses the Galvanize trigger we'd see it more as counter-tech to conditions, say. I feel like the models I've heard light grumbling about {Pale Rider, Lawyer, Steward, Lone Marshal} have all been through multiple rounds of review at this point -- that is to say, people were complaining about them in the last two sets of "what needs a nerf?" and they hit Pale and ignored the others, so it's sort of hard to expect much coming in a more powerful meta around them. The other model would be Thirty Three, which could use something like "this model may not be placed by the effects or Abilities of friendly models" to shut off the really awful Tara interaction. That would also slow some efficiency with the Pale Rider, since Thirty Three is a decent taxi'ing candidate to get early alphas in for Death-Touched.

I think Ivan is a much worse issue than Nexus/Cadmus. Cadmus is a slog to play against, but I really do think it's solvable and disruptable, especially with some of the new titles tools. Ivan is simply overtuned across master, totem, summons, and keyword. Honestly, Eva is a huge piece of that. I think Lock Away needs to be modified to allow for a high TN duel (WP 15?). At present, it can stop scoring actions a little too potently. Though I'll admit that part of it might be that I haven't fully explored the tech involved in stopping her.

I also think it's helpful to recognize that Wyrd seems to evolve on this, over time. A number of the female masters have less sexualized sculpts as the editions advance (2e Lady J > 3e Lady J), or as they gain Titles (Youko from slipped-kimono to fully dressed ninja). I also think there are places where they seem to have always trod carefully -- e.g., First Nations peoples have minimal early representation, despite being a common component of "Wierd West" gaming, and Wyrd managed to include the sense of "dangerous peoples beyond the frontier" with (mostly white) Neverborn and then later the Bayou gremlins (which, if they are an offensive caricature, are of white subcultures). That is to say: the usual euro-centric view of First Nations peoples seems to have never been included, and Wyrd found a different way to include a genre-staple of border tension between cultures. Similarly, the balance of female protagonists is much stronger here than anything else I can think of. Same with non-white protagonists -- acknowledging all the problematic baggage that can come from that, particularly if the lore is written by white creators. It's worth naming that any kind of wargaming is going to glorify certain elements of machismo or culture stereotypes, and doing so in a game that has comedy elements (Fuhatsu's sculpt) makes for a really unusual set of needles to thread. I don't think they'll ever manage to take up the dance without stepping on anyone's toes. ALL of that said, I think these conversations are helpful. They help Wyrd think through these things, and they give voice to shifting expectations in the fandom, which helps us create opportunities for growth and learning and representation in gaming. Glad for your question, @ConcernedNewbie!

Happy New Year, Guild! What's something you're looking forward to trying this year? Do you have a goal? Which master are you hoping to unlock? I'll set a goal of winning a local tournament, and hitting podium with Guild in a Vassal event. I'd also like to try to field all 8 of our masters in tournament games. How about you?

Yeah, I try to hit the "teachable moments" on this. I had it happen TO me in a tournament once, and I've used Trail of Gore to counter-scheme from on top of a box before (the guy thankfully knew the rule already, but he sort of grudgingly accepted that I had made a good play that he had forgotten was possible). I definitely prefer to play in a meta of player agency and not "gotcha!" moments, so it's helpful to rehearse odd rules now and then.

Honestly, I might talk to a 3D printing friend about getting a fencing Gomez sculpt to just proxy, regardless ...

I'd also be glad to just lean full in on the Sand Worm in Basse and have either a Beetlejuice or a Dune based crew.

Family seems like it would have strong capacity for Nightmare'ing, but Perdita, Francisco, and Santiago already have alt-sculpts, and there are multiple versions over the editions. Still, I'd love to see them done up any number of ways. Addams Family: Perdita as Morticia (let's stay lady-led!) Thing as the Nephilim Francisco as (fencing) Gomez Fester Loco Santiago is your Lurch Abuela as Grandma (with baby Gomez Jr?) Wednesday and Pugsley as Monster Hunters Cousin It and the Twins as Pistoleros?

I'm not wholly convinced, here. You resolve an Action left to right, so if the Lucky Emissary's push is interrupted by an Ice Pillar (assuming it has chosen a distance greater than the distance to the pillar), you would first resolve the "interrupted by destructible" element, at the end of which, the pillar is removed and there's a case to be made that there is no object to reference as "interrupting impassable terrain." The Action itself tells you to override the general (FAQ) description of "interrupted" by continuing the push.

There are some esoteric interactions with LoS -- e.g.: So, for example, a Sz 3 Peacekeeper can draw LoS to a Ht 0 Scheme Marker that is fully underneath even a 50mm Sz 2 model to remove it for the Trail of Gore ability, or Perdita Ortega can stand on a Ht 2 box to target such a scheme marker with Target Practice and remove it from the table. Those interactions tend to surprise people, but are perfectly legal.

I would also agree with this. It's odd to have the trigger operate outside of the attack's usual timing structure for resolving triggers, but the damage is clearly referencing Sparks's action. There are examples of damage coming from multiple sources at once even when it is using a "sourceless" condition (e.g., Scorch the Soul FAQ), but here, it is very clear that the only thing controlling the assignation of damage is Sparks' trigger.

We DO already have a nightmare Marshal crew in Undead Justice, though. Hoffman seems full of possibilities, especially with the new title enthusiasm, plus it doubles for Arcanists.

Thanks for getting the post up, @Maniacal_cackle! Last year's series was a lot of fun, and I'm planning to stick it out for this one, even though we've got decent in-person gaming options back as well. See you all at the gaming tables!

This is why I like "target friendly experimental or non-master model." It allows McMourning to target himself, it allows him to play around for fun and profit in the whole faction, and it precludes other masters. I think janky combos or tech picking should be open to him, but not game-breaking combos.

My suggestion for fixing the Plastic Surgery/Cremation/Seamus ignores italics interaction would be to change McMourning 2's Plastic Surgery to target a "target friendly experimental or non-master model." That would allow him to self-target, but not work on other masters. That, or make Vincent's Cremation a action and his Protective Spirits a straight tactical. But we're definitely in errata territory; there's no RAW or RAI fix for the interaction, apart from Wheaton's Law.

It doesn't get around shielded, soulstones, or a number of tech abilities (We are Legion, Marlena's Soul Tether, etc). It's strong, but not unbeatable. It's also a Master AP with a TN that does 1 damage unless you've set up a 2 hp model exactly. It's powerfully reliable in unreliably present situations that require you to have done a good amount of work already and be within 2" of your target.