Hello everyone, new players and some advice pls

[Peppi]

Hello to everyone,

first English is not my main language, so sorry for my mistakes, I hate auto translate so I'll try my best...

second I'm reading this great forum a lot, togheter with the gret pullmyfinger site. thanks to all the players and people that make these pages so interesting, thanks for your time!

My game friends and me are starting malifaux. we bought a lot of miniatures just after trying the game in a demo convention. so nice and interesting game, true love!

We are 4 players. Here what we bought, in bold the main master (the master we will use to start):

1 - Seamus/McMourning boxes + The Hanged + Dead Doxies + Flesh Construct + Bete Noire + Dead Rider

2 - McCabe/Perdita/LadyJ/Lucius boxes + Austringers + Riflemen + Guild hounds + Pathfinders

3 - Ramos/Mei Feng boxes + Arachnid Swarm + Electric Creation + Johan + Metal Gamin + Arcanist Gunsmith + Large Arachnid + Rail Golem

4 - Me Lynch/? + Beckoners + Depleted + Teddy (I like Teddy so much) + Stitched Togheter + Waildgeists

And now me...:), I like Neverborn miniatures, I tryed Pandora in my demo but I bought Lynch box, I like the miniatures and the idea, I plan to add now, after some interesting reading:

Not sure about Mr Graves/Mr Tannen ... what do you suggest to close my neverborn shopping? I like to add a second master with a different play style and that optimizes my purchases...the Lilith box (but I don't like the growing list idea and I don't like so much nephilim in general) ?

I think we have enought to try a couple of masters and a solid base to play around in some tournaments or game clubs for some months...

Any advice for us? Are these master well chosen, are they together well?

thanks in advance

peppi

[Kirby]

It looks like you're all off to a very solid start!  All of those masters are very good, though the Guild player may have some difficulty with Lucius.  Lucius, in both Guild and Neverborn, has a play style that is not very direct and has a steep learning curve to get the most out of.

Anyhow, on to you!  Lynch is a very strong master and a lot of fun!  He does very well when running his themed crew full of Darkened and Brilliance models: Beckoners, Illuminated, Depleted, and Stitched.  He also does very well with Mr. Graves and Mr. Tannen, but I don't usually bring them in a Lynch crew.  Not that there's anything wrong with doing so, I just can't seem to find the points for them sometimes.  

For Lynch, you're perfectly fine to run him completely with his usual models, but there are a few things from Neverborn that he likes:

• Doppelganger
  • Everyone in Neverborn loves the Doppelganger.  She can copy a (1) from any non-master model, including enemy models!  This flexibility is huge once you start learning the game and better understand how useful it can be to borrow more of a model's actions.  She also lets you cheat initiative which is super helpful at the right time!
• Terror Tots
  • These come from either Lilith's crew box or as a stand-alone box.  I recommend getting the Lilith box instead if you are interested in Terror Tots because that gives you access to a second master and a useful henchman (Barbaros).  You probably will never use Barbaros with Lynch, but he is handy with other masters.
  • Terror Tots are fantastic scheme runners.  They are very fast with the Sprint ability, which lets them take a Walk action (Wk5), flip a card, and if that card is a  or if you cheat in a  then they get to take another Walk action.  With Sprint, they can move 10" for 1 AP!  This is even better with Lynch because if you get the 1 of Masks card in your hand, you can cheat in that card every time you attempt to Sprint and the card comes right back to your hand so you can cheat again!  This makes their Sprint very reliable for when you need to move them very quickly across the board.
• Mr. Graves & Mr. Tannen
  • Mr. Graves hits like a truck, he is pretty durable, and he can move both your models and the enemy models around the board.  Very handy!  Add in the Doppelganger and now you have two models that hit like a truck and can move your models around the board.
  • Mr. Tannen's job is to frustrate your opponent.  He penalizes opponents for cheating when near him by forcing them to discard a card to do so, he can prevent opponent models from taking Interact actions, and in general he gets in the way of what they want to do.  His ability to raise the value of Mask cards is extremely useful to The Dreamer since he uses Mask cards to summon with.
• Mysterious Effigy
  • Not necessary to purchase, but is nice to have.  The Effigy is a decent scheme runner, is pretty durable, is good at getting in the way of your opponent, and gives your master a way to escape from combat that doesn't rely on suits (unlike Lynch's Squeal which needs a Mask).

You don't really need a second master, especially when you're starting to learn the game, but if you're looking for someone that compliments Lynch and makes use of similar models then you have a few options.

• Dreamer & Lord Chompy Bits - A relatively fragile master who is often strongest when summoning.  The downside to playing a summoning master is that they tend to need a variety of models available in order to make full use of him.
  • Can summon Stitched Together, so you will use those models very often with Dreamer
  • Can summon a Teddy with the help of Mr. Tannen.  This can only be done with two cards from the deck (13 and the Red Joker) so it's pretty rare, but it can happen.
  • Mr. Tannen also helps make Dreamer's summons easier if you have Mask cards in hand.  Mr. Tannen has an ability that boosts the value of Mask cards, so an 8 of Masks is now valued at a 10 of Masks near him.  The higher the value, typically the better the summon.
  • Since you already own Stitched Together and a Teddy, there are only two other boxes you'd need to cover all of his summons:
    • Lelu & Lilitu
    • Insidious Madness
    • Probably a second Teddy if you plan on having one in the hired crew
  • Other models the Dreamer likes to have:
    • Widow Weaver
      • Widow Weaver places Web Markers all around the board which cause the opponent to be at -1 Willpower.  When you look at all the Willpower shenanigans that the crew does (Especially Dreamer, Teddy, and Lilitu), you can see how that adds up fast.
      • She can also summon both Marionettes (puppet minion) and even a Teddy!  Keep in mind that summoning a Teddy does require four corpse or scrap tokens, a high card, and 2AP.  These are a lot of resources and set up, so it is not common.
• Lilith
  • Lilith is the picture of Neverborn.  She stops your opponent from moving easily, she creates terrain practically anywhere on the board, she can teleport models around the board, she hits hard, she is fast, with an upgrade she can fly wherever you need her to be, she ignores terrain while using a Ca action or charging, and she is just overall amazing.  Yes, I like her very much.  You mentioned not liking Growth lists or Nephilim very much.
    • Growth Lists
      • I think that Growth lists with Lilith are a trap.  They require a lot of set up and a lot of things to go perfect.  When it works, it is awesome.  It doesn't work too often, especially once your opponent understands how to prevent it.
    • Nephilim
      • The only Nephilim I regularly use with Lilith are Terror Tots, Mr. Graves, and Nekima.  Sometimes I will use Lilitu as well.
      • I think the Young and Mature Nephilim are good models and do a good job on the board, but I'd rather have Mr. Graves instead of a Young and I'd rather have Nekima instead of a Mature.  Mr. Graves and Nekima generally get more work done.
  • Models she shares with Lynch:
    • Doppelganger - Because everyone loves the Doppelganger.  She has very useful things to copy in a typical Lilith crew such as Nekima's sword, Mr. Grave's fence post, Mr. Grave's push, Terror Tot sprint, and Lilitu's lure.
    • Mysterious Effigy - Again, can get Lilith out of trouble and is a durable scheme runner.
    • Mr. Graves - Helps move Lilith and Nekima around the board so they can spend their AP doing more useful things.  He also hits like a truck.
    • Terror Tots - Great scheme runner overall and even better with Lynch if he gets the 1 of Masks in hand.
    • Illuminated - No direct synergy, but Illuminated are so good that it doesn't matter.  It is always ok to take one.
    • Johan - One of the most common Outcast mercenary models.  He provides condition removal and a relic hammer (hits like a truck, ESPECIALLY against constructs)
    • Depleted - Very rarely do I reach for a Depleted with Lilith, but it can be helpful in certain schemes like Hunting Party where you just park one in the back corner if you think your opponent cannot get to it.
  • Models Lilith likes that are not usually shared with Lynch:
    • Nekima - Optional, but hits very hard, moves quickly, and overall very strong.  A Teddy works too, though.  Lynch also likes Nekima as a distraction piece, but she is very expensive to hire (13ss) so it's sometimes hard to fit her in.
    • Primordial Magic - This is the Neverborn generic totem.  Any Neverborn master can take it.  Lilith and Pandora are the two that most often take it.  Lynch will NEVER take the Primordial Magic because it would mean he could not take the Hungering Darkness.

Other masters that make use of your models are Collodi (loves Stitched and Illuminated) and Pandora (loves Teddy).  I am not very familiar with the closer details of Pandora or Collodi though, so someone else can fill in.  

[lusciousmccabe]

Good rundown Kirby. I would just note though that the Doppelganger can't copy Fence Post since it mentions Mr. Tannen. 

Also, I'm sure everyone would prefer Mr. Graves over a Young Nephilim and Nekima over a Mature if they didn't have to spend the extra two Stones for them!

 

[Kirby]

7 minutes ago, lusciousmccabe said:

Good rundown Kirby. I would just note though that the Doppelganger can't copy Fence Post since it mentions Mr. Tannen. 

Also, I'm sure everyone would prefer Mr. Graves over a Young Nephilim and Nekima over a Mature if they didn't have to spend the extra two Stones for them!

 

Hm... I'm curious about not being able to copy the Fence Post.  The Doppelganger doesn't get triggers anyway, and the action itself does not mention Mr. Tannen, only the Mask trigger does.  But that would also suggest that triggers are not part of the action, which can't be right.

And yeah, the Young and Mature are definitely less of a stone investment than Graves and Nekima.  I just think they're well worth the extra investment, to the point that I don't really take Youngs or Matures.  Nothing wrong with them though, they do good work!

[lusciousmccabe]

Yeah, Triggers are generally considered to be part of the action they go on. The FAQ doesn't deal with the Doppelganger and Triggers, but seeing as names mentioned in conditions applied by actions prohibit those action being copied I think the intent is that any mention of a name is enough to stop you copying the whole action. 

[Kirby]

Yeah that sounds right.  Meh, doesn't matter, Doppelganger is still awesome.

 

[lusciousmccabe]

True Fact.

[Peppi]

Oh so nice, thanks a lot Kirby  !!!

I finally bought today for me:

Lynch/Lilly boxes + Beckoners + Depleted + Stitched Togheter + Mr. Graves + Mr. Tannen

As you said I will play for the moment Lynch using the tots from Lilly.

Secondly I will introduce the Doppelganger, Mysterious Effigy and the Black Blood Shaman just to try all that can be interesting with Lynch, probably with a box of young/mature nephilim that I can use also with Lilith in the future.

thanks again!