Alcathous

All this. You lose this matchup by overextending with your key pieces (Dreamer, Serena) and letting Misaki have her way in turns 1-2. If you go into T3 relatively unmolested, your model count and hot deck will take over. Taking the center is important, but it's not a race. You can easily take back ground later in the game when you're not playing fair Malifaux anymore. And a lone Widow is dead to Misaki.

You're definitely right. He brings something unique to the archaist lineup by providing these hypermobile beaters, and that's just not a hot commodity for us. I think every pool he'd be good in, T or Z can do with a more reliable kit. At some point I'll pick him up so I can achieve my 15 games across the whole faction, but he's not a priority for my competitive lineup.

I don't think he's *bad* but he's much less unique in Neverborn than he is in Arcanists. And SSC is just great with the monsters he brings. I think he's got a place in our lineup as a relatively assassinate resistant master though.

Then... why not Marcus? 😅

No one can "dibs" a master. I understand that there's an impulse to play something unique, but my best advice is to play what you like, regardless of what others in the community is doing.

Aeslin is great for controlling the center of the board because of her built-in crow and her ability to drop markers from range. I take her when that is relevant (denying claim jump, scoring/denying leave your mark). Pairing her with the emissary can make her effectively a min 4 beater and the duo can project threat 8" off a well defended position. If I don't take her, it's because I don't think holding center matters and I'm usually bringing more mobil pieces in her place. Bultungin are usually not rated, and I tend not to bring them, but they bring condition removal and scheme marker removal on a fast, 5-pt body. If you treat them like fast support model instead of true runners, you'll get value out of them. Still, I bring only hire one in maybe 1 out of 20 games. I don't think that's a slot that really need replacing. Most of my Titania crews tend to be fairly elite with 6-7 models and it's that 5-point runner slot that gets cut more often than not. Some people like wicked dolls, but I'd usually rather have 3 stones.

Rankings should be up to date now!

The fact that Aeslin can sit 8" off center on effect the conflict is huge. Aside from min 3, you're setting up for big plays for another model with the injured. Aeslin isn't and solo champion, but she is an aggresive support model that wins games for those who learn how to use her. Bonus points for secret scheming with Study and Draw Out Secrets. Rougs have to be in melee to get their min 2 attack off. It's only min 3 if you have the card. I don't often stone to keep Aeslin alive, but also I don't often have to because she's a ranged model that should always have a front line to support her. Rougaru are great runner hunters and late game marauders, but DF 4 is enough of a downside that they cannot create the anvil that Aeslin + tank can be.

I know we have a couple new recruits: Here is the discord server where we're posting results and such: https://discord.gg/26RsBjb9

Feb isn't up yet, but we should have it in the next day or two.

Yeah! Check it out: https://vassal.malifaux-rankings.com/#/rankings But it's also for fun, community, and raffles

The DMH stuff had been discussed, so we might bring it into an event in the future. However, I'll be honest it's not the highest alternate on our wishlist right now. Those masters are not balanced with the same process as non-DMH masters and it only opens up possibilities for 3 factions so it's not a particularly equitable format. We definitely aren't changing any models, DMH or no.

So all you're asking for is a small essay? Honestly, I love chatting Euri, but I don't have the time to write out a deep dive at the moment. I'm putting down some of my schemes thoughts now; I'll come back later if I have time. For Strats, I think he's a bit of a generalist. Symbols was his weakest until Damned came out, and now I rate them all fairly equally. Best schemes: Research Mission, Leave Your Mark, Hidden Martyrs, Breakthrough. Schemes he scores well but also gives up easily: Assassinate, Let Them Bleed Also, lot has already been said about Euri: edit: found another thread

You're mostly right, but there is a balance that can be reached where certain abilities can be exceptionally strong in a vacuum but counter-play exists that negates the ability's strength. So, in the example of Dreamer: Lucid Dreams is inherently powerful and that's fine, but the apparent counter of pressuring Dreamer early doesn't consistantly work because his Lucid Dream models are too resilient and are still strong even without a hot deck. Taking down the survivability of some key models would make Lucid Dreams fall in line. For Cadmus: There's more going on here and I think it is closer to the point @Plaag is making that multiple nerfs are needed. The EE/Husk engine wants to be countered by surgical strikes, but WaL/Flush/Emmy make that hard to pull off consistently. WaL wants to be countered by blasts/aoe, but that's creating tension with the need to kill specific models in the crew, and is made hard to do consistently because of the shielding and healing coming in from Meridith and Emmy/Effy. That's not even touching the surprising mobility and card draw the crew has at it's disposal.

Exactly. Yeah, he's referring to the World Series Championship in August.

Totally! We definitely want feedback and suggestions. We're trying to figure out a good balance between Standard/Alt formats, but we have had a really positive response to the alts.

Yeah! 9 total, 5 to go

Raffle Time! We’re really happy to see so many people playing ‘faux while FLGS games are shut down, so thank you to everyone who has participated so far. The participation has far exceeded our initial expectations, which is awesome. Thanks for bearing with us as we iron out the details of running this thing. This is the first of three raffles that we’ll be doing for the world series and is based on participation in the first three events. We awarded a virtual raffle ticket to each player for participating in an event, for each game where a player scored 4+ VP, for finishing an event best in faction, and for finishing an event on the podium. So, here’s our raffle winners this round: $5 Wyrd store voucher: @Legislat $5 Wyrd store voucher: @jdoogler $10 Wyrd store voucher: @Plaag $10 Wyrd store voucher: @Pergli $15 Wyrd store voucher: @Domin $20 Wyrd store voucher: Dylangoy on Discord Congrats! I will reach out to the winners to provide your codes. Thank you, Wyrd, for providing the raffle prize support! We're very happy to be able to add these raffles to the event. While I’m here, some series upkeep and updates: Looking ahead, the events in March, April, and July will be 4 rounds. May will be another 3-round event, which gives us the ability to run a 5-round event in June. The next several events will be “standard” without alternate rules, with May as a possible exception. The World Series Championship will be in August, an invitational made up of the top 16 players from vassal.malifaux-rankings.com. A player’s best 3 events make up the score that determines their rank, and longer events are weighted slightly higher. So although there are some players who are consistently putting up wins, there's a lot of time for things to shake up over the next few months. We have clarified what our process is going to be for missed games and games that end in concessions. We have been feeling like an 8-0 differential for conceded or unplayed games negatively affects everyone involved, so we are going to be using a 6-2 score for unplayed games and will encourage players to agree upon scores based on the board state if a player concedes a match. Check out our event FAQ for more details. Finally, GG/errata season is around the corner and we want players to keep that in mind when they are setting up their games. Once any changes are live in the app, they are going to be live in the events; but we aren’t going to allow list or master changes once set in the app, even if something changes in a way that you think makes your crew unplayable. If you’re worried about potential changes to your models, a best practice will be to wait to lock in your crew until the day your game is scheduled.

I started in M3E but followed the lore a bit at the end of 2. Titania's aesthetic (a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn) appealed to me and her rise to power solidified my interest in Neverborn. Pretty much all the other masters in the faction interested me in either aesthetics or playstyle, so I took the plunge.

The World Series events are running on a 3-hour time limit and most games are getting through 5 rounds. As Cackle said above, practice is the only way to improve. There are plenty of folks who would be happy to play a longer game with you if you're looking to get faster in the digital space. Running through some T1s on your own is also a great way to get the hang of movement and shortcuts. Once people have the hang of it, Vassal doesn't take much longer than a normal game. I think 2.5-3 hours is a reasonable goal, but it probably took me 20+ vassal games to reach that point.

I'm interested to see Euripides and Lucius. Willing to put them on the table if anyone wants to take the Cadmus side.

We don't have a "short list" or anything, but we try to avoid maps where we feel Attacker gets an exceptional advantage from picking deployment. Generally, its the TOs choice on the maps and overlap is just happening by happenstance or because TOs have similar map preferences. You should see more variety as we see more 4+ round events over the next months.

PSA: I'm reworking the way the contact sheet works so registration isn't being displayed publicly yet, but it is working. Should be up this week.

Haven't watched this vid yet; but I agree with this. Dreamer has no incentive to start an engagement early, especially into Cadmus. Your Nightmare, From Nightmares, and Lead Nightmare allow him to quickly reclaim any board presence he cedes in T1-2. The more turns his crew doesn't have a parasite, the better, and that dovetails with the Lucid Dream plan anyways. I know a lot of people don't like Castlefaux, but sometimes it's the right play.

I think this is key; if any master "wins" at master select against more than a couple masters across the game, that master probably needs to be looked at. One overturned master can stagnate the game quickly when players start to feel like their options are limited playing into certain factions ("Oh, you're playing Res, so you need to buy VS if you want to play competitively. NVB? then you need Dreamer"). Now, there's an argument to be made about whether games should be balanced around competitive play or not, but if it doesn't hurt bringing new player is, then tuning to high level play creates the best game overall.