Rippling Tides Masters

[Ammanas]

Hey fellow brothers and sisters of the M&SU

Any guesses as to who or what our master is going to be in Rippling Tides?

My guess is the Gunslinger silhouette 

[Aa7]

At first I was hoping for the horse but that's gone so assuming that we are generally a casting faction why would you think the gunslinger shilouette? That to me looks more like a dirty guild option to me. I would be fairly certain it's not going to be the little gremlin looking dude but you never know, it could be any of the remaining ones..my guess would be the one under the gremlin in front of the horse

[Bengt]

I think an argument can be made for any of the remaining ones except the gremlin. I guess I would prefer the artist looking one in the centre (I'm aware that many think it's a Guild reporter, but I still hold out hope), second the gun wielder. I really hope it's not the martial artist stance one, we already have three punchy Masters.

Theme wise I hope it's not another M&SU Master, we already have three of those and there should, in my opinion, be more rogue mage types in the Arcanists. Sure Ramos knows everyone, but more lose allies and less underlings please.

[Dereikt]

I agree that a Master should be a power in their own right even where technically loyal to another master, but I'd say that the problem isn't having three M&SU masters, but rather the degree to which Kaeris and Ironsides are both completely loyal to Ramos, and dependant on him for their own influence. An M&SU master which was a genuine rival to Ramos would be acceptable. 

I'd also like to see another Mage type, and in particular one who owes their powers as much to hard and laborious academic studies as a particular elemental affinity, but I'd actually say the bearded master with a turban is the best chance for this type of master. Looking at both the silhouette and the preview picture sneaked into the online rules manual, he's likely either Arabic/Persian or Indian, and both have a rich mythology of Mages, Sorcerers, and magical creatures to base a spell casting master around. Also, if you study the preview picture in the rules manual, his hand seems to be fused to the hilt of the scimitar, which to me strongly suggests some sort of sorcerous influence. There's real potential for a characterful master(plus associates/minions) there.

The gunslinger feels a lot more Outcast than Arcanist-while there may be a striking similarity to Gunsmiths, Gunsmiths themselves stand out as odd besides the rest of the Arcanist faction, and are already themed to work with Kaeris. I think they may actually be the only model in the faction that even carries a gun. It's a thin and Tenuous connection to me, while Outcasts by contrast have several gunfighters in their ranks. 

[LunarSol]

Yeah, the existence of 4 M&SU masters makes me hope there's not another for quite a while.

[Bengt]

Apart from the Gunsmiths, Envy has miniguns, The Captain has a holster for a pistol (but no attack for it), and the Wendigo's victim has a revolver.  

As for the guy in the rules manual I sincerely doubt he is the same person as the master silhouette, very possibly a minion or whatever for it though. I also think his weird arm is just poorly drawn, it doesn't look fused to me. The crescents on both his hat and shield would support an Arabic connection as it's a quite popular symbol in the Arabic world (and in Islam but Wyrd seems to avoid directly referencing religions).

[Ammanas]

The crouching martial artist once looks like it's wielding a mirror, which Ithought was a Neverborn thing

I'd totally overlooked the turbanned silhouette; would be awesome to see an oxfordian themed scholar mage. 

Granted if I was designing a non-msu master I'd use Damien Ravencroft from the Puzzle box story 

[Aa7]

A new academic type model would be epic and make the Oxfordian Mages much more useable as there is so little Academic synergy at the moment and it is just screaming to be useable. Here's hoping

[Ammanas]

Where is this rules manual that keeps being mentioned? I'd love to check it out 

[Adran]

Edit- copy right link

free to down load - they have 2 versions, and I can't remember which has the alternate art. 

 

[Munindk]

10 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Where is this rules manual that keeps being mentioned? I'd love to check it out 

Its on drivethrurpg too: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/133323/Malifaux--RULES-ONLY-Handbook--2E?manufacturers_id=5162

You have to go through the webstore and "buy" it for 0$.

[Bengt]

1 hour ago, Adran said:

free to down load - they have 2 versions, and I can't remember which has the alternate art. 

The image is in the one called "Rules_Manual.pdf", on page 53. "Malifaux2ERMD.pdf" is the original one. For some reason the new one is twice as large as the original, so the original might run better on tablets and stuff.

[Lucidicide]

1 hour ago, Bengt said:

The image is in the one called "Rules_Manual.pdf", on page 53. "Malifaux2ERMD.pdf" is the original one. For some reason the new one is twice as large as the original, so the original might run better on tablets and stuff.

I tend to export at slightly higher quality

[Ammanas]

Found him.

So as Ramos is our summoner, could it be we're looking at a Djinn themed master to bring summoning diversity?

So far the Wind Gamin don't have a thematic master 

[Ammanas]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nhB1oKO7f5Z0lNSGpYRVdfbFE/view?usp=drivesdk

This guy

[Dereikt]

While I wouldn't be surprised to see Djinns of some sort as minions/enforcers, it doesn't really feel like there's enough Djinn-type models to support a summoning master-the various Gamin types are too disparate and focussed on particular masters to work very well, and not really distinct from summoning spiders, so Wyrd would have to be adding a lot of Djinn-type models to form the summoning pool, more than I'd expect them to. 

Quote

As for the guy in the rules manual I sincerely doubt he is the same person as the master silhouette, very possibly a minion or whatever for it though. I also think his weird arm is just poorly drawn, it doesn't look fused to me. 

I'd agree on the minion interpretation, but the interactions between arm and scimiter looks a lot more like a deliberate effect than a badly drawn hand, particularly in the context the rest of the picture, which is well drawn. I'm inclined to suspect either a lesser Djinn(or similar spirit) that wears a (mostly) human guise, or magically enhanced guards.

Does anyone know of any examples of either of those in Abrabic/Persian/Indian mythology?

[Ammanas]

I'm sure there are records, my middle east mythos begins and ends with Aladdin and Heroes of Might and Magic. 

19 hours ago, Dereikt said:

While I wouldn't be surprised to see Djinns of some sort as minions/enforcers, it doesn't really feel like there's enough Djinn-type models to support a summoning master-the various Gamin types are too disparate and focussed on particular masters to work very well, and not really distinct from summoning spiders, so Wyrd would have to be adding a lot of Djinn-type models to form the summoning pool, more than I'd expect them to. 

That's said theres now an Oni summoner on currently 1 type of Oni (to my knowledge) but i think you're very right

[Ammanas]

Sorry, my mistake

Oni

Ama No Zako
Jorogumo
Kamaitachi
Obsidian Oni
Tengu

[Munindk]

While not primarily summoners, both McMourning and Seamus have summoning pools of 2 models, with a generic resser upgrade they can bump it to 4 model.

I could see a Oni summoning master working with just Jorogumo, Obsidian Oni and Tengu, although it would be odd if her starter box didnt include a new Oni  type.

[Dereikt]

While there's only a few ONI, they are quite varied and distinct, meaning they form a decent basis for a summoning pool-you have a cheap, easy to summon minion with a focus on speed and scheme running, a slightly costlier damage focussed minion, and an expensive and powerful minion. Also, while she would be the first master to be able to summon a henchman, having one available to hire means extra use for ONI-based support abilities.

By contrast, the 4 types of Gamin are all cheap four soulstone minions, with minor variations that tend to focus on synergies with a specific master, meaning there's much less to base a specialist summoning master around. It would also overlap not merely with Ramos, but also the Mech Rider, both of whom specialise in summoning this type of minion. A token summon along the lines of Kaeris's 'Born of Fire' upgrade is possible, but I'd be surprised by anything more specialised.

[Ammanas]

Do you think we may still see some synergy with Wind Gamin perhaps? Or is it reasonable to assume that they are there to provide cheap scheme running across all masters?

 

Here's hoping we find out Monday

[Adran]

44 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

Do you think we may still see some synergy with Wind Gamin perhaps? Or is it reasonable to assume that they are there to provide cheap scheme running across all masters?

 

Here's hoping we find out Monday

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. 

Even if Arcanists win, we'll only see the front of the card. Not sure what synergy you want with the wind gamin. Other than the fire gamin handing out burning, that can help some models, there isn't a huge amount of synergy with them, and I don't think I'd say the metal gamin has synergy with anything. Ice obviously have frozen heart, and Bite of winter. 

[Ammanas]

True, I always forget the metal gamin.

[Dereikt]

Exactly what synergies are possible with a wind gamin is actually a good question, since they are a very generic model even compared to other gamin. They don't confer or interact with any conditions, have no auras or buffs, and aren't even constructs. They just have good mobility and a passable(for their SS bracket) melee attack, which I've found to be very useful to a Kaeris crew, since Kaeris likes a mobile crew, but would probably be nearly as useful for a lot of other masters. The only special part of their card is the 'bury then sacrifice for a 5" push' mechanic, and since they're specifically forbidden from being unburied by friendly models it's hard to think of how you would write a rule to synergise with that. A synergy with the GAMIN keyword is an outside possibility, but even there I find it hard to think of one that would be very useful, especially since his own minions don't seem likely to be Gamin. It seems more likely that any synergies will be based around either the ACADEMIC keyword(although the reporter/artist type is also a strong candidate there) or else, as with Reva and Titania, a completely new keyword introduced for the purpose

[Squirrelich]

I thought wind gamin were already loosely associated with The Captain (fluff wise), thus they may not get pegged on with a specific Master since they already have a Henchman.