Alcathous

It would be cool to have a ruleset that allows you to create a pool from the comprehensive list of all schemes and strats from all GGs.

5 minutes ago, Jokerboy said:

While trying to show you the error it appeared to work. So I should be registered know. Tell me if not.

Very excited about joining your event. 

You're in! Happy to have you

3 hours ago, Jokerboy said:

Can't open the link to register...

Always getting a warning, but I would love to attend.

Anyone with a simular problem? 

@Jokerboy can you DM me a screenshot of the error?

I can add you manually too, just send me your Name, Faction, Discord ID (including the 4 digit identifier), Country, and Time Zone. 

I had a similar thing happen this week. I had two Titania games in prep at the same time. The first was in Scheme select. Then I set up the second and when I started the second game, that second crew got inserted into the first game.

Edit: splitting into two groups put a wrench in my plan of sending trophies to the podium spots  

18 hours ago, Flippin' Wyrd Jamie said:

@Alcathous Explorers Society book releases in just under a week, are the full faction included in the event? Obviously assuming @katadderupdates the vassal module with the artwork and models in time

I'm operating under the assumption that we'll be able to run full Explorer's by then. If something falls through, I'll be happy to do faction swaps for anyone who was planning on playing ExpS.

2 hours ago, Yore Huckleberry said:

Also I posted this to both the Omaha and Iowa Malifaux player pages and offered to show anyone interested the Vassal and Discord ropes in case that's holding anyone back

That's awesome! Ty for doing that. 

7 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Google says that I'm at GMT+13, but the options only went to +12 so I marked that.

I'll get it updated and add +13 to the form. I didn't know there was a +13! Learning stuff 😅

Hello all! I'm pleased to announce the next event for the Malifaux World Series: December's Feast.

This event will be running December 1st - 22nd. Registration is open today and will be open until the 29th. Like the Fauxvember event running now, this is 3 rounds, 50ss, singles event. Your place in this event will apply towards qualification to the World Championship invitational in the works for August 2021. I am GMT-8 based out of the Pacific Northwest, USA, but this event is open to anyone who wants to play. Player's pack with pools is attached.

Register for December's Feast here!

Once Fauxvember is complete, World Series rankings will be hosted at https://vassal.malifaux-rankings.com/#/. Huge thanks to Malifaux-Rankings for hosting us!

We are working on consolidating our information, but for now, we have these links:
Series Event Calendar
Player Contact List
Game and Match Data - Expect to see more detailed master/score/scheme data here in the coming weeks.
Series Rules FAQ - We are trying to keep rules disputes contestant across the series. If something comes up in game, check here first.

I will check this post as often as I can, but my preferred contact is via Discord: Alcathous#5867

UPDATE: Explorer's models released in the App will be legal in this event. Proxy tokens are OK for ExpS players if Vassal isn't updated.

UPDATE: Since all Explorer's opted to other factions, no new models from the Explorer's release will be allowed throughout this event. E.g. Malisaurus Rex, Spelleaters, Harata Ngaatoro, and The Damned are not allowed. Rough riders are OK.

UPDATE: Fixed typo in R2 terrain definitions (steam cloud is hazardous, not severe).

UPDATE: R3 Pairings are live. Blessed of December. The Damned.

DecembersFeastPlayersPack.pdf

5 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Just note you can score 3 leylines without crossing the centreline.

That's a fair point; I tend to push forward more in that one to try and disrupt the opponent's lodestone movement, but you're right that it's viable to castle up and make that work.

It sounds like you've got most the models you need to really make Pandora shine. If you're planning on soloing her for a while, I definitely suggest the Rider. Carver is another ruthless model and a good tarpit if you're looking to expand beyond that, and I wouldn't sleep on Lyssa either because they get you a lot of value for their cost.

47 minutes ago, Jeffiejay said:

Can you all give a general overview of how to play each strategy with Pandora, and what her best schemes are?  I found some posts from the older seasons, would love to read through some updated advice for gg season 1.   Thanks in advance!

I have mostly played Pandora in Recover Evidence this season. I'm a big fan of "Castle Dora" where I force the enemy to me and force them to overextend due to the strategy markers dropping within your bubble. I think that can work in Public Enemies too, but it's less consistent because the enemy can get more benefit from ranged combat.

The other way to go is throw Pandora into the opposing crew as early as possible, follow with Candy, and just start wrecking their day.

With Dora as a main, I recommend trying out both styles. I think you'll find the aggressive style better suits the strategies that want to play on the opponent's half of the board; Ley Lines and Symbols.

Schemes wise, I think she's one of our best at scoring two points off Let Them Bleed (especially if you're hiring 2+ sorrows). Poltergeist's Telekinesis + Iggy's Arson means she has the faction's best scheme marker denial. I like Hidden Martyrs and Vendetta for her as well. Mood Swings does a lot to make Vendetta more viable than other crews.

Any chance of having a way to "spectate" and look at the crews/pool/revealed schemes/total score of a game in progress? This would be really nice to have for streamed games and other content creation.

21 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Is there an Australian or NZ TO?

I believe so!

On 10/17/2020 at 4:28 PM, Roadhouse said:

And when compared to a pass token for activation control you can look at using the Dolls activation as a pass token because they are usually quite far from the action.

If you're running 2 pacts, it's often just as important that the opponent does not get pass tokens. You want to be 2 up on the initiative flip as much as you want last activation.

I use the dolls occasionally, but only if I need the activations and don't have more points to spare.

Sometimes you only need one activation with poltergeist nearby to win a game. As M_c mentioned, timing is key.

My most effective poltergeist plays have been double-walking into an engagement towards the end of a round. Top of the next round, use mood swings to delay threats to the poltergeist as long as possible and abuse distraction as much as you can until the poltergeist dies. 

Setting that up is hard. Sometimes the better play is to feint with the ghost to soak some damage and buy you some time.

On 10/4/2020 at 10:04 AM, Ogid said:

Lol, I guess the cold never bothered him anyway.

😝

On 10/4/2020 at 10:04 AM, Ogid said:

So what do you do in worst case scenario? Just use 2 AP from the master to create 2 ice pilars, expend SS to create aditional ones?

T1 I am willing to spend 2-3 AP and a high tome + old ways to get 4+ pillars out. My goal is to have 7 by the time combat starts on T2. Ideally, they are placed so that the opponent is spending AP to remove them or avoid them. If I don't have a tome in hand, I'll hold Euripides until there's a tome on the discard pile (if I think I need the AP) or bite the bullet and spend the AP 1-for-1. That said, even when I don't have a tome in hand, intuition and old ways usually make up the difference and I can get at least one frozen domain off.

On 10/4/2020 at 10:04 AM, Ogid said:

Do you rely on Shattering Shove (Gigants) for any kind of opening? How do you pivot when the inital hand make that impossible?

Only if I've built a crew around tossing in a wrecking ball (Titania, Nekima), and I usually only do that if I think I've lost at master declaration. If I'm relying on getting shove off for a dive, then I'm also running two Pacts on minions (gigants) to maximize the chance of getting the tomes. 

In general, I think Euripides is a late game master. Diving with Shove is plan B or C. I don't like rushing to engage before the end of T2 unless I'm up against a crew that will scale better than mine or up against a threat that negates my defenses. With a board that's full of pillars, the giants are really quite good at attrition and soaking enemy AP. Plus, Euri and the Gigants have a great mid-range artillery barrage if you're able to force the enemy to come to you.

On 9/24/2020 at 3:35 PM, Ogid said:

I was also wondering something simmilar to this, this crew is very reliant on tomes for basic stuff; how does this crew work when they got no tomes on the initial hand?7

Euripides himself can get enough pillars on the board to get his ice palace rolling, regardless of opening hand. I find it's much worse when you don't have the Rams you need for shatterering surprise. 

On 9/22/2020 at 1:29 AM, Ogid said:

In fact when I got a bit more time, I want to try to optimice a pocket strategy double master Lucius/Euripides around that idea: Changelings may copy his rune-etched Ice, Lawyer may obey those to do it again and give Euripides Shielded so he may use Old Ways more liberally and Lucius may obey all them to do it all again, and then Euripides of course can rain even more ice on his own activation. Rune-Etched ice is quite good for this because the TN is fixed, so the ability casted from Changelings is as good as the one from him but requiring an 8 and without the option to reuse the card with old ways. That's the main idea; not sure how good it'd be and it'll probably need an already dense map plus an enemy crew with few movement tricks and without good marker removal, but seems fun to try. That's a lot of shockwave damage and roadblocks (but also a lot of high TNs to reach, which is why this crew is tricky to build; I still need to see how many obeys and card draw need for it to work well).

I've been toying with the idea. Not sure if it's in the top tier of dual master pairs, but it sounds hella fun.

14 hours ago, Ogid said:

But I suspect this ability is going to be more like Execute, potentially amazing, but hard to use it to the limit (which is fair, taking in count how good the effect is). I see a few ways to make good use of it:

• The most straightforward way I see to use it would be waiting for the last activations of a turn and brick something unactivated and as big as possible that cannot be unbricked that turn with the remaining models from the other player. The next turn the other player will probably free him without much problems, but making a good model lose a full activation is worth an SS.
• Thoon missile: Throw him through an ice pilar with a gigant and brick something far away from the other crew. In this case an activated model could be a better target.
• Back to back Trophy hunt: Combinable with the above, basically timing a end of the turn FT with cheating initiative and then brick the other (probably in a double AP set up and reusing the severe card discarded for the initiative cheating). This will work best when there are only 2 models watching each other's backs far away from the rest of the enemy crew. In that case when one of them activated, thoon brick the unactivated one and then at the start of the following turn, brick the other before it can unbrick his friend. Very card and SS intensive and kind of all in as if it fail both will be free; but potentially good.
• Kidnap and brick: Lures, WW, Gigant's trigger... basically move the other model into a hard to reach position before.

But I'd like to know about experiences of players doing or failing at it. How easy/hard it was and how much it impacted the game.

I agree with your assessment. I've had decent luck with a doppelganger lure, who I also like for copying a Cyclops' ice pillar ability T1 if I have a 4tome. The missile option is the least good in my opinion, because that isolated model often isn't worth the resources or is just as easy to kill as it is to turn into a popsicle.

On 9/17/2020 at 7:50 PM, Maniacal_cackle said:

Sounds like some focus on the fundamentals could be good (and possibly focusing on fewer crews, depending on how many games you play). I often say it takes at least 10-20 games to properly learn a crew. So rather than focusing on Neverborn vs. Outcasts, sounds like at this stage just focusing on the fundamentals might be a good idea.

I strongly second this. I played 20+ games with Titania before I picked up another master and I feel like it really helped me to learn the fundamentals of the game, but also to learn how to play a crew in a way that scores points and wins games. Because I knew my own models, I was never struggling with activation order or what a model's purpose was, instead I was able to focus on how to maximize my ability to score and deny my opponent.

He's a good, situational model. The potential strength of frozen trophy is why he doesn't have a strong bonus action, in my opinion. Df 6, frozen vigor, and hard to kill make for a pretty tough model, and having 2 intuitions in your crew means that your card consistency is really high when he's included in your Euripides crew. He's a tarpit, not a beater, and his trophy is better as a deterrent than as your main strategy. If he's sitting next to your gigant gunline, the threat of his trophy is a big deterrent to an opponent overextending.  All that said, I think Thoon only worth it about 20% of the time in a Euri crew, usually when you are expecting an alpha strike or when you think Euripides needs a bodyguard.

You didn't mention Mv6, which is really useful, especially when made incorporeal by the totem. However, his lack of relevant bonus action means he's not really jumping in to alpha or dropping markers to score. He's getting where he needs to be to tie something up and keep in there.

As good as frozen trophy can be, it costs you a high card and often a stone. All it takes to undo is an action from any throwaway model on your opponent's crew. I see it as alpha protection because it can force an opponent to overcommit with multiple models of play a more defensive game. That works for Euripides' gameplan, but the issue is that most factions have pretty good options for mass marker removal, and declaring Euripides is enough for most players to consider that even OOK. I don't think a single Blow it to Hell shuts down Savage as a whole, but it does pretty much negate frozen trophy's usefulness. 

This has been discussed before, but if you're looking to really abuse trophy, you bring Thoon into Lucius. In addition to potentially two more trophy models, lawyers can get Thoon into position and changelings can use his glacial pull to yank popsicles out of the enemy's reach. It possible to trophy something and yank the pillar away in a single Lucius activation if you are using a mimic'd trophy or chaining through a lawyer obey. Trophy gets much better when you have more control over the WHEN and WHERE and you can hire Thoon when the enemy isn't expecting him.

4 hours ago, Nagi21 said:

So how are you getting your opponent to your side of the board if there's no schemes to get him to come to your side of the board?  Pandora has the Raspy problem where you want your opponent to come to you, but you can just as easily be forced into a situation where they sit and wait for you and nobody scores (has happened more than once). 

Pandora has so much more agency than Raspy to pull the fight to her. It's lures lures lures.

1 hour ago, Nagi21 said:

Lure is a 12" range.  If there's nothing forcing your opponent to cross the midpoint of the board, how are you getting him out of position if he sits back, without going towards him first?

Literally the entire objective pack. 

In the context of Recover Evidence, I'm holding at least 4 of my opponent's VP hostage wherever I am. 

Spread Them Out, Leave Your Mark, Claim Jump, Sabotage, Research Mission all push the opponent towards center or across the centerline. Breakthrough ever moreso.

Vendetta, Assassinate, Hidden Martyrs, Catch and Release, Let Them Bleed, Take Prisoner, Runic Binding all pull the opponent towards my crew.

With Walk>Lure, I'm threatening at least a 17" area outside of my killzone. Iggy is denying schemes at a 20" bubble. I am confident in the crew's ability to force the space if my opponent tries to score at all. 

Vendetta/Assassinate and guns is where it gets tricky. But I can probably lure you if you're shooting at me.

3 hours ago, Nagi21 said:

Compare her to something like Som'er or Hamelin and it's not even close in a midtable melee. 

I know Som'er is a monster lol. I'm not saying Dora is in that caliber of "always good" but if you pick her into the right game, it is that oppressive. Key thing is that I'm never trying for the midtable melee. I want to stay solidly on my side of the board, and when the opposing crew sidles up to brawl, I pull in their key models over to me after activation and murder them the next round before they activate. Do that twice and you've usually won the game. Mood swings gives a lot of breathing room to killing unactivated models, so I don't have to rely on winning initiative and spiking damage to make it happen. 

@Kharnage @Nagi21 I think Castle Dora has a place in Recover Evidence. There's a lot of scheme pools that force a fight or crossing the centreline, which can make a great opportunity to pick a killzone and dominate a fight there. Running her with 2-4 lure effects is pretty easy to do, and you can reliably score your strat points while making it an absolute nightmare for the enemy to get theirs. She's got great options for Hidden Martyrs, is one of our best scorers for Let Them Bleed, and has some of our best anti-scheme tech. She may not be the best, but she's far from DOA. 

To the original topic, I'm starting some Euri reps this week. I'm come back after I get some games in, but right now I'm looking at him having potential in Recover and Symbols in particular. On paper, I like the aoe damage potential combined with the ability to funnel enemies together using pillars and big bases. I know the 50mils are often cited as a downside of the crew, so I'm going to be looking for ways to turn that into a strength as much as possible. Shattering surprise and ranged tech makes me think the crew has potential to have pretty good target selection if you set up right. Control space > soften the enemy > pressure weak spots > profit? Lol. I'll let y'all know. 

I'm enjoying your vids! Looking forward to more.