Alcathous

5 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

I'm not too familiar with the matchup, but I would assume a slow-roll strategy of slowly building up your crew and claiming the centre will be good. A key question will be how you secure your turn 2 symbol while you're still getting set up, so put lots of thought into that. If you're using spiders (which I always would in something like this when I played Dreamer, but what do I know), have a plan for keeping them safe. Misaki can murder spiders without breaking a sweat (particularly Bandy).

EDIT: Note that I say claim the centre, not necessarily take Claim Jump. I don't know how good it is in the matchup, especially since Misaki can dive bomb you end of turn 5 to damage your claim jumper. Although Dreamer is super good at claim jump, so maybe it works. Who knows!

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.

2 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Oh, and don't forget that while Widow Weaver can teleport to a web marker, terrorize an enemy away from a symbol, and claim it... Web markers are destructible, so don't go all-in on a web marker thinking it'll be there when you're ready to teleport to it.

And a lone Widow is dead to Misaki.

2 minutes ago, Kharnage said:

But I mean, if we want that, we'd play Titania or Zoraida, tbh.

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.

1 minute ago, Kharnage said:

True facts, playing him in Neverborn is snowflakey cuz he's so much better in Arcanists.

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.

1 minute ago, ooshawn said:

I can't , I have to be a unique snowflake....it's in my nature

Then...  why not Marcus? 😅

4 minutes ago, ooshawn said:

Mono euripides for marching was already claimed by one of our breathren. But I had strongly considered it 

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. 

9 hours ago, FlippingWeak said:

Aeslin is not overly liked but situationaly brilliant? What would you take instead of her?

Bultungin are not rated at all - what would you bring in instead? Changeling on tax?

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.

22 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

I was wondering where I check my progress, thanks! Keen to see how far I climbed this month!

Rankings should be up to date now!

5 hours ago, ooshawn said:

8ss for 2x min 3 shots, IF there is a marker there. I'd just have to see it I guess, someone will have to play her vs me. A rou. has a teleport, condition removal, h2w, flay with 6 severe damage. just seems better than aeslin for the points

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

8 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

I was wondering where I check my progress, thanks! Keen to see how far I climbed this month!

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

2 hours ago, ooshawn said:

I didn't realize we were playing for the ability to play in a later tournament.......

Yeah! Check it out: https://vassal.malifaux-rankings.com/#/rankings

But it's also for fun, community, and raffles

2 hours ago, ooshawn said:

@Nathillien could we eventually play with a errata'd DMH for the tournament? I'd really like to play collodi. I'd say if you could just make him not strong as the dreamer i'd still love to play him. As long as he isn't the weakest master in the faction. Maybe just take dangling the strings to a stat 5 and the max damage to 3 and call it a day? 

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

46 minutes ago, Plaag said:

ill tell u as secret-all crews in malifaux are combinations of abilities, but cadmus and most explorers have not balanced abilities, so even if u will fix one-it will not change the result of games-the closest example is dreamer-only nerf of combination of skills and actions will balance this master

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.

19 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Can I ask what the reasoning was? Was it just to keep the meta consistent?

Exactly. 

20 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Masters? Is that the August event? For that I'd say it should be most recent, but for everything else I agree with Sev (GG2 if it exists, or a mix of 1 and 0).

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

3 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

If you're taking suggestions for possible extra rules for funky rules for the series, nifty things include:

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.

2 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

For some reason I thought there only 6 events total/two more to go, but looks like there are tons more that count for the August rankings?

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.

1 hour ago, Graf said:

What I wonder about in organized Vassal games... How many rounds are people expecting to play? I wouldn't say I'm a fast player and definititly slow on Vassal, 4-5h for a complete game I would say (with an at least equally slow opponent). This keeps me from playing with strangers atm, because I don't want to burden someone, who doesnt know that's coming for them, with that.

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.

1 hour ago, Kharnage said:

So anyway, what masters and matchups are people hoping to see into Cadmus? Can anyone that the community feels trustworthy enough play those matchups out? 

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

2 hours ago, SEV said:

I just look at the player pack and I'm surprised to see some map that we already played earlier in this series. Is it because you think those are the best (or most balanced) map on vassal? 

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.  

9 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Dreamer plays quite aggressively. On turn one Dreamer voluntarily walks within 8 inches of unactivated Cadmus models, which seems far too aggressive to play against Cadmus as Dreamer.

• As a result Dreamer gets a parasite token turn 1, a potential game-losing prospect right there I would imagine? Dreamer especially does not cope with parasite tokens well.

 

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.

5 hours ago, farmoar said:

what people need to be looking at is how many masters Cadmus invalidates entirely. if there are too many of those, then there is a problem, as bringing any of those masters into a game against ES could mean an instant loss. can you have silver bullets to certain abilities of crews, sure. but you cant make a majority of master choices subpar-to-unplayable

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.