New Leader from Monday Preview

[fauxreigner]

I really like her thematically. Still making my mind up on the front-card rules.

The defensive cheat ability struck me as amazing at first, but when you consider how intensive it would be on your hand to use frequently, it balances out. Sure, you can drop low cards, but guild crews typically have other models that want to discard a low for some action or other. So its probably something to use in the case of Red Jokers or high severes, rather than all the time. Kind of like a built-in Badge of Office. On the other hand, it might be enough just having it on the card to discourage opponents focusing attacks on her, a la Colette. But if they do focus on her, I think think Revisionist History is not enough to save her with 11 wounds and no other defensive abilities (of course upgrades may change this).

The more I read it, the more I feel like Run From the Truth is the star ability on the card. Being able to shut down the second attack from a charge by avoiding the first, or making one of your own models push out of combat or into combat with another model after they fail an attack - these are very nice options. Of course, it all hinges on her building up enough Evidence, by being in the thick of things where interacts are occurring, which brings us back to the question of whether her defenses are sufficient for that role. 

Overall, she seems like a master you reach for when the scheme pool is marker and interact heavy, but she will need some tasty actions/upgrades to inch out McMourning from that role. Can't wait to see the back of her card, and how she synergizes with the rest of crew. I think we got one of the more unique and interesting additions from the new batch.

[Ludvig]

I have no problem with the theme of a reporter listening in on where cops are going and being there to report about it. Is it confirmed that she is some sort of propagandaist or do you think she hangs with the guild cause she reports on their misdoings? I would love to have a crew where the people weren't really on the same side but just sort of had to defend themselves against the stuff thrown at them.

When you think about what most schemes are about it really doesn't make sense that people are trying to exhaust wild animals  while they claw at them and that you can be considered to have "won" the conflict if you had three dogs who pissed on the corners of a house while your master was eaten by zombies so having a reporter doesn't break immersion for me. You also have the fact that dr McMourning have been in brutal melee fights with all other guild masters a countless number of times and been seen ressurecting innocent bystanders as well as guardsmen in plain sight of Lady Justice but he still hasn't been charged with anyything but gets to keep being the guild coroner. I think manipulative and pacifist playstyles are what makes malifaux the game it is. If I wanted to just play kill points I'd probably have continued with other games.

[Tawg]

8 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

When you think about what most schemes are about it really doesn't make sense that people are trying to exhaust wild animals  while they claw at them and that you can be considered to have "won" the conflict if you had three dogs who pissed on the corners of a house while your master was eaten by zombies so having a reporter doesn't break immersion for me.

And so The Guild was born, of the sinew that draw our muscles and the dog piss that claim our holdings.

 

 

Seriously, funniest quote of the century. Mind .

[Kadeton]

9 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

You also have the fact that dr McMourning have been in brutal melee fights with all other guild masters a countless number of times and been seen ressurecting innocent bystanders as well as guardsmen in plain sight of Lady Justice but he still hasn't been charged with anyything but gets to keep being the guild coroner.

Poppycock! Those dastardly deeds were clearly perpetuated by the nefarious Dr Douglas McEavening... who, it must be admitted, does bear a striking but coincidental resemblance to the good Coroner.

[Ludvig]

10 minutes ago, Kadeton said:

Poppycock! Those dastardly deeds were clearly perpetuated by the nefarious Dr Douglas McEavening... who, it must be admitted, does bear a striking but coincidental resemblance to the good Coroner.

Haha! That is all the reasoning needed to convince me of the fine doctors innocence. I hear the gravedigger and him have been playing poker on more than one of the sightings. Oh well, what can you do against those evil twins...

[4thstringer]

I think she looks like garbage,  personally.  They managed to make an ability less useful in most matchups than lucius and his highest authority.  I didn't think that was possible.   Discard a card and still take damage.  Ooooh, ahhhh.  At least she is a master who won't want to stone for cards. 

[LunarSol]

Thematically she's one of the more exciting additions to the game, IMO.  The old reporter in over their head trope fits in very well with a game like this, and having her stumble upon an M&SU weapons stockpile or following a missing girl to find her added to Seamus's harem or discovering the secret of the Honey Pot just has a ton of potential to construct a great narrative in the game.  I'll be very curious to see if anyone goes out of their way to do battle reports with her in a newspaper style.

I really like the Evidence mechanic.  It's the kind of thing I've long thought would be a good route to take with things like Guild Guard.  Some sort of passive ability that gives the impression that they're watching for misdeeds.  Would not be sad to see more of that kind of effect in Guild.

[Ludvig]

Against models with weak 3 or higher it might not be super useful but that is why you hold the black joker in your hand  

We haven't seen the rest of her abilities and upgrades, maybe she likes being injured.

[Adran]

1 hour ago, 4thstringer said:

I think she looks like garbage,  personally.  They managed to make an ability less useful in most matchups than lucius and his highest authority.  I didn't think that was possible.   Discard a card and still take damage.  Ooooh, ahhhh.  At least she is a master who won't want to stone for cards. 

Its fairly close to Impossible to wound in actual power, which is great against some models, and only ok against others. It generally turns all attacks against her into no better than weak damage, even if they flip a red joker! 

[thebarbalag]

And, based on the front of her card, she doesn't need to be closer than 8" to her enemies to get Evidence. Are we assuming that she has a close combat attack? If she's a control/debuffing Master, we can probably look to her and/or her crew handing out Conditions that make it difficult to do things like Charge, or Flurry, or otherwise interfering with enemy models focusing fire on her. Her stats are also quite decent. She has an uncircumventable defensive ability that can make you deal only weak damage, plus Soulstone use, plus, if you miss her (or her friends within 8"), she can lower Evidence to get a push, so, no follow up attack, ie wasted AP on the Charge, or Flurry, plus a respectable 11 wounds. There will also be other models in her crew, and there is not only another side to her card, but a suite of Upgrades she'll have access to.

Lucius's main problem is the cost of his abilities for the pay off, potentially Paralyzing one of your models to combine moving your Master with a Minion getting extra AP is problematic based on the difficulty of the Horror flip. If it were TN 10, we'd probably think it was substantially better. His other AP exchange ability has the problem of being compared to the better Obey (even unsuited) and the much better Prompt, which have targeting advantages, and more bang for the buck. Then, his defensive abilities all have missing suits. If Red Tape were automatic, and Highest Authority needed only one suit, and in addition to friendly models, could push the effects onto a nearby model with Red Tape (ala Marcus's Defend Me), it would be great.

[LunarSol]

Lucius would do great things if he actually did them.

[Ryin]

She also doesn't have a charge, which in and of itself seems quite unusual, considering she doesn't have any sort of Ulix/Choffman style mobility restrictions/buffs.

i also get the feeling that lawyers maybe fairly synergistic with her too but it's just a hunch (I did not beta)

[Myyrä]

1 minute ago, Ryin said:

She also doesn't have a charge, which in and of itself seems quite unusual, considering she doesn't have any sort of Ulix/Choffman style mobility restrictions/buffs.

For all we know, she could have a (0) action that lets her place herself anywhere on the table.

[Ryin]

2 minutes ago, Myyrä said:

For all we know, she could have a (0) action that lets her place herself anywhere on the table.

I hope so ;P

[thebarbalag]

It's also possible that she doesn't have a close combat action.

[Ryin]

Or if she does, something that is both  and  "just in case"

it might be cool if she didn't though and not totally unprecedented.

[fauxreigner]

I doubt she has a close combat action given she has no charge. Maybe some kind of Ca action that prevents certain types of action being taken, akin the Nurse's pseudo-paralyze triggers?

I hope she has some kind of card-draw mechanic - it will make her defensive ability much more powerful, and she'd be even more unique among the Guild masters who struggle to cycle cards.

[Surrealistik]

17 hours ago, Ludvig said:

I have no problem with the theme of a reporter listening in on where cops are going and being there to report about it. Is it confirmed that she is some sort of propagandaist or do you think she hangs with the guild cause she reports on their misdoings? I would love to have a crew where the people weren't really on the same side but just sort of had to defend themselves against the stuff thrown at them.

When you think about what most schemes are about it really doesn't make sense that people are trying to exhaust wild animals  while they claw at them and that you can be considered to have "won" the conflict if you had three dogs who pissed on the corners of a house while your master was eaten by zombies so having a reporter doesn't break immersion for me. You also have the fact that dr McMourning have been in brutal melee fights with all other guild masters a countless number of times and been seen ressurecting innocent bystanders as well as guardsmen in plain sight of Lady Justice but he still hasn't been charged with anyything but gets to keep being the guild coroner. I think manipulative and pacifist playstyles are what makes malifaux the game it is. If I wanted to just play kill points I'd probably have continued with other games.

Some of the objectives can definitely end up being really silly based on the models used to accomplish them, for sure.

That said, having a crew lead by a reporter/propagandist certainly doesn't really help matters, and is a further lapse of immersion/verisimilitude.

When it comes down to it, I'd much rather be having Steampunk Stark running his slice n dice deathmachines, or Sonnia 'Cremator' Criid burning down the opposition and imagining that than some preppy chick skipping around the skirmish, diligently cataloguing all the very naughty things the enemy crew has been doing.

[LunarSol]

7 minutes ago, Surrealistik said:

When it comes down to it, I'd much rather be having Steampunk Stark running his slice n dice deathmachines, or Sonnia 'Cremator' Criid burning down the opposition and imagining that than some preppy chick skipping around the skirmish, diligently cataloguing all the very naughty things the enemy crew has been doing.

Luckily, that means you've already been given thing that appeal to you.  Something that doesn't may simply be an opportunity for someone else to have something that draws them into the game where they were uninterested before.

[Ludvig]

 What Lunar said. There is a multitude of stabby, hitty and explody masters so a single non-combat one could work. I'm also guessing you haven't seen any stories featuring her, there could be some reasonable explanation. It's not like Colette makes perfect sense if you just look at the model, that's why she has stories explaining how she ended up where she is.

Edit: I'm not trying to belittle anyones feelings towards this, you are free to dislike whatever you dislike, I have a ton of models I don't like for whatever reason.

I like the silliness and go to great lengths to play crews that kill as little as possible and only do interacty schemes since I feel that is the unique part that makes me want to play Malifaux over something like Warmahordes.

At the end of the day Malifaux is the game where a policeman sends a bird with instructions to order his dogs to stop beating on a gogo-dancer with it's glowing sabre that cuts through armour with ease and instead plant bombs that will not hurt any of them but will make his master extremely happy to detonate. Most games sound like the birthday party of a coked up lunatic when you narrate what you are doing and that is part of the fun.  

[fauxreigner]

33 minutes ago, LunarSol said:

Luckily, that means you've already been given thing that appeal to you.  Something that doesn't may simply be an opportunity for someone else to have something that draws them into the game where they were uninterested before.

Well said. More diversity in playstyle and theme means more people get what they want. Especially with recent threads like "is Guild meta stagnating?", we obviously needed something to shake up the faction.

Thematically I'm very happy with Nellie. The Guild certainly strikes me as one of those governing bodies that manipulates the media and revises history to make themselves the great Liberators and Protectors. Making that explicit through a playable character is fantastic.

[RodneyAnon]

I was preparing myself to be disappointed (because I'm an American and it's my God-given right to judge things before I know about them...now git off mah lawn, hippie!) but I actually don't think I could be happier with Nellie. Thematically, she's close-to-perfect as The Guild would be in control of the media (except for the fanzines). Yes, she's supposed to exemplify "the pen is mightier than the sword", but there's nothing wrong with that. The Guild has two three very "killy" models (Sonnia, Lady J, and Lucius...just kidding; it's Perdita), but if there's one faction that doesn't need to advertise their slaughter abilities, it's The Guild. That's why we get to chose from Bureaucrats, Office Workers, and Coroners (and now Reporters) as well as the expected Law Enforcement...and the occasional treasure hunter.

As for Nellie's stats,  Of all the newly released Masters. with the possible exception of Reva, Nellie has the most interesting stat card. It's impossible not to be intrigued by "Revisionist History". imagine having a Red Joker in your hand and not being able to use it against an opponent.  

Also, she has a hat. And haven't we been asking for more hats?  

[Bengt]

It seems highly unlikely that she has a on her own card, but Kirai has an upgrade that gives her both a action and a Cg of 5 (instead of the '-' that is on her stat card), so you know.

What makes me vary of the Evidence mechanic is that the front of the card is highly dependent on what the opponent does to generate more than one a turn. Sure it does steer the opponent a bit in scheme selection and activation order (since it goes away at the end of the turn), but that can still make it kind of boring in actual play if you can't use your fun abilities very much. Of course we don't know how many other spenders and gainers she has. One can only hope that it isn't like Ironsides where the spenders require high number of Adrenaline and to get them you need suits or outright discards and/or your opponents cooperation.

Regarding Revisionist history, when I plan to kill a model I expect every hit to do weak damage anyway. So RH can stop the occasional happy accidents of Red Jokers and so on, but as someone else said most of the time it's just impossible to wound.

[Freman]

On 6/21/2016 at 6:10 PM, Dirial said:

Lucius is perfectly capable of putting the nail in his own coffin.

That's what lackeys are for.

[Dirial]

On 22.6.2016 at 8:35 AM, Freman said:

That's what lackeys are for.

If he just were better at making them do what he wants....