Questions bout Zoraida and Effigies

[FistfulOfSoulstones]

Hello all,

 

Im new to Malifaux, and play guild under lady j, but I have a friend ive gotten into it, and she wants to play Zoraida and gremlins. Ontop of that, she really likes the effigies.How do they all fit together, what do the effigies do and allow etc etc.

 

Im trying to figure out how she works so I can help teach the friend how to play the game.

 

Thank you for your help,

Fistful

[EnternalVoid]

Collodi is currently the only master that can take all the Effigies, Leveticus can take all of them save for the Gremlin one *apparently he is not lucky enough for the Lucky Effigy*.

 

Each Effigy has a similar build set.  They all have similar stats, Armor +1, Hard to Kill, and Accomplice.  They also almost all have one attack, one general tactical action to help the crew and one tactical action that targets the leader of the crew to give a bonus to that model.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Zoraisa can hire the Mysterious Effigy when she is declared as NB and the Lucky effigy when declared as Gremlins.

 

You'd use the Mysterious to cheat your fate cards face down with a model that is close to it, and also to give your leader a condition that needs to be reapplied every turn, but allows that leader to push 3" after an enemy attack resolves against them.

 

The Lucky Effigy has a terrible attack Ml 3 with a beatstick's dmg line 3/4/7. So if he hits you'll feel it, but actually hitting is tricky.

 

He can also put up a fairly large aura that forces enemy models who make an attack or start a charge in the aura to pass a middling WP duel, or they must make the lucky effigy the target of the action.

 

Additionally he can put a condition on the master of his crew that must be applied again every turn, but it gives the master the ability to heal a tiny amount of dmg when a ram is flipped as part of a duel.

 

If you are looking to able to play with all the effigies you need to play Collodi instead of Zoraida as he can hire them all, and one of his limited upgrades has a lot of synergy with the effigies.

[Lupercal]

If you do want to try them with Collodi though, he makes great use of Brutal, Hodgepodge, and Arcane.  Shadow, Carrion, Lucky and Mysterious are alright(better for the stuff they bring than for the buff he can hand out to all his puppets from what I know)

 

His limited upgrade Fated allows him to once per turn share the Condition he receives from an effigy with all friendly puppets and minions within 6.  So with Arcane all your puppets have pseudo burning attacks, with Brutal they all heal for 1 when they damage (repairing the 1 damage they dealt to themselves to get an extra AP from Reckless) and draw 1 card when they kill something, with Hodgepodge every time one of your puppets kills something they can discard a card to gain a soulstone.  All the effigies have their uses but the others are not as crazy powerful when you spread their leader condition buff accross a ton of puppets. 

 

I havent had enough time to play Collodi with everything else going on but when I do I want to make a list with a single coryphee and a few effigies, it will be tough deciding which ones though.  While you could probably play with all of the effigies it would most likely be better to drop some of them in favor of a lone Coryphee, Stitched Together, or Vasilisa.

[Anaxiamander]

Back in first edition, the Effigies were hirable by Zoraida as well (since, as best I can remember, she was the one who made them), so it's theoretically possible that we might see a day where that becomes possible again through an Upgrade.

 

Other than that, Void, Fetid, and Lupercal have given you a much better overview of the Effigies than I could.

[Lupercal]

Back in first edition, the Effigies were hirable by Zoraida as well (since, as best I can remember, she was the one who made them), so it's theoretically possible that we might see a day where that becomes possible again through an Upgrade.

 

Other than that, Void, Fetid, and Lupercal have given you a much better overview of the Effigies than I could.

 

Yep just wanted to confirm Zoraida made the effigies.  As far as I remember she then voluntarily let them go to join and help who they would, but im not 100% sure its hard to remember the fluff. 

[Fetid Strumpet]

That may or may not be the case any more. The book Twisting Fates spelled out very clearly that Zoraida made the Effigies, as I believe that it spelled out very clearly that Leveticus made the riders, but the new book is exceptionally vague on both those points. Also given that I believe their main story guy from that time I don't believe still works for them its entirely possible they are retconning that.

I don't really see any other reason to be so coy about it in one book after it was explicitly called out in another.

[EnternalVoid]

While the M2E fluff does not say as much about Zoraida's hand in their creation, the Lucky Effigy does state that it was Zoraida's creation.  So as far as the fluff goes she is still the creator of the Effigies.  Thing is back in Twisting Fates it is suggested that Zoraida made them with out informing anyone about it, not even the other Neverborn originally as the Effigies were sort of a weapon against the various factions, the Mysterious being one that was again their own kind in a way.  But when the Red Cage fell they activated and wandered off, draw to the similar forces that they were based on rather than against them.  If you look at the fluff for the other Effigies in the M2E crossroads book it is all from the view of the faction to the Effigy, so it would make sense that they have no clue who made them.

 

As for the Riders, Levi did not made them, the old books made that clear.  Instead they are something from an Older time returned, like a legend returning from old.  They came for Levi back in Twisted Fate as if drawn by some flow of Fate to him.  Based on Levi's vision he had at the time he is to be the one to lead the Riders in some important battle, something it seems the individual riders know as well thus why they were drawn to him.  Why they work for the various factions might be well like the Effigies that they are drawn to those with those sort of powers.