Loving life in the Bayou

[Flippin' Wyrd George]

Hi all 

 

The past three weeks I've moved factions to Bayou from Arcanists for M3E as I wasn't getting much fun out of my Arcanist crews anymore. Holy wow. The amount of fun and power in the Bayou is insane!  It's totally revitalised my hobby. Just wanted to share a few thoughts, and curious of opinions on them.

 

Currently I find Big Brain Brin and First Mate go in every crew without exception: 

First Mate is extremely versatile - can get to 4/5/7 damage with a ram card and is nearly always drawing a card. He also scheme runs like crazy, and makes an excellent anti scheme runner. Butterfly jump, Stealth and soulstone access means he's almost not worth bothering with for the opponent. He can do everything.

Big Brain Brin's Calculate the possibilities is mad too. Being able to discard 20 cards and shuffle 6 from your discard pile back into your deck is very powerful - you should be getting 2 red jokers most turns, and if timed correctly, it can turn the final few flips of your deck into a really oppressive experience for your opponent. First mate managed 15 damage across 2 AP today by using Brin's deck stack. The condition removal is also necessary in most games. Canceling triggers and Serene Countenance is just gravy.

What are your thoughts on these models?

 

As for the masters, I'm thoroughly enjoying Ulix for all the AP manipulation, card draw and positioning mechanics but it does feel like a bit of a glass cannon if touched in the right places. War Pigs are insanely good - this weekend at a tournament one of my War Pigs vs @shakes1066 climbed from 1hp to full wounds by hitting Tear of Bite three times then gaining Eat your fill. In another game a single War Pig killed both Viktoria's from full health to dead in 5 AP, whilst my opponent discarded 4-5 stones trying to save them. Ulix being able to grow and obey the same pig 3 times a turn has real potential too - so much movement!

Today I had my first games with Mah and she is ridiculous good - the activation control by gaining pass tokens off initiative together with the card draw across the crew, and being able to make all models within pulse 3 focus sets the crew up for a huge punch turn 2/3. My opponent today claimed it was the most powerless he has ever felt in a game of Malifaux.... Not sure if that's a good thing

I've dabbled with Zipp but haven't really worked out what I'm doing with him yet - considering putting the Trench Coat on a skeeter so it can carry Mancha Roja around. I've also looked at Brewmaster too but haven't had the opportunity to put him on the table. Fingers' Pilfer trigger seems crazy good - a 2 soulstone swing feels a little like cheating haha. Been looking at Zoraida, Ophelia and Wong too - so much to try (Big Hat seems a little underwhelming?).

 

How have your experiences been of the first 2 months of Bayou, with the M3E official rules? Do we feel a little too good? (Currently, I worry we are!)

[Rufess]

I, like you, started the close beta with Guild and changed to Bayou around the start of open. Everything seems shiny and lovely to me when I started studying.

I do have the same feeling about the 2 henchmen. Big Brain Brin is now a staple pick of all my game. Not a single card gamers would say no to an ability to filter and thin his deck. Still figuring out the timing to Calculate the Possibilities. I always use it early of the turn, and after my opponents have used to it, they learnt to use irrelevant duel to remove my hot deck and force me to shuffle. hope the ability would not change at release.

As for the First Mate, to me it is the Bayou version of Lady Justice. Of course they have some much differences, but both of them have the speed and damage that are able to travel a long distance and take out the key model from opponent crew. The First Mate may not have the damage and tankiness of Justice, but its ability to avoid combat and anti-scheming provides more options.

I currently have 2 crew. Kin is a comfortable entry point for a Guild player. I love the theme of being a mirror Family crew. The crew, to me, is the most straight forward crew in the faction. I am still confusing how to use some models within the keyword, namely Raphael and Raider.

Another crew is Infamous. I was wanting to start the crew since M2E. Zipp is still the mobility board controller. With the multi master system, I have a feeling that Zipp may become the most frequent hired second master given his independency and the impact to the board.

After writing this, I now have a strong feeling to play a all-star crew like M2E, including all models mentioned above.

[GrumpyGrandpa]

'Ello Sir - Nice post. I too enjoy the current version of Gremlins.  Wish we'd have more time to test things out, because I feel the last edition was a bit rushed - Still, this isn't the worst outcome.

9 hours ago, Flippin' Wyrd George said:

Currently I find Big Brain Brin and First Mate go in every crew without exception: 

I really enjoy BBB, and worry about his position in almost every crew. He does have his counters tho', and you are putting a 8 (+1) SS Support model on the board who almost only uses Calculate the Possibilities. Hopefully it'll balance itself out over time.

I'll have to try First Mate more - He is a really cool model, yeah.

Ulix also seems really fun. Older versions of him seemed broken, but I think they've hit a nice spot for him now. I look forward to playin' him some more in M3E. He does have his counters tho', and so I think he is balanced enough.

My biggest worry is Som'er - Feels like they ended the Beta right as he was beginning to take shape, and I'm not sure they've hit the spot yet. He seems like a not-quite-swarmy master who wants to swarm the board.

[HipsterWhale]

Som'er is good. Good ol boys are unreal. Bayou gremlins are perfect. Georgy and Olaf is murder. 

 

First turn summon about 4 bayou gremlins into melee with anyone who came up to high and then start summoning good ol boys and a spithog if you need the health. 

 

Georgy has s moderate 5 on a gun on a ram. He's good. Really really good. 

 

Mah is still a bit awkward. I've played about 15 games with her and I rarely take brin as my opponents have learned to play around him. 

 

I take mancha and porkchop mostly in zipp since they synergize but with a stack of stones first mates damned good. 

 

I don't think we're too good or even close. 

 

A lot feels just right or really fair. 

 

Fingers

Burt jebsen

Survivors

Taxidermists

 

are the 4 models that need buffs in final release imo

 

As for secondary masters I think somer is our best secondary master. Big hat doesn't say leader only 🤫

[Jesy Blue]

I am a Ten Thunders & Outcast player... then I lost The Brewmaster, but then I gained Zipp, soooooooo I guess I have a summer home in The Bayou now.

The one thing I really fell in love with, even before M3E was announced, was the look of the Lucky Emissary.  Now, I have one, and it's amazing!   Putting the trench coat on an Iron Skeeter and being able to place it past my own still intact Piano Markers then Steamroller the enemy backfield.... wonderful.  Anywhere on the table is mine for the taking and I love it.  I cannot wait to play a December or Euripides crew! 

(sadly, Whiskey Golem is size 4 so I can't airlift that one)

I'm skeptical on BBB because it's a lot of points that I feel I would rely on too heavily... maybe 6 months into getting good with The Bayou I'll think about picking him up.

[Macdaddy353]

As a Zipp player I have to admit First mate is incredible. He can switch from scheme runner, to harrasser, to Face bearer in a moment. My only issue is he is very Soulstone and Card dependent to really max his value and it’s easy to burn through them. Best moment for me has been him just beating crap with his anchor though. 

Zipp has has been a blast for me. His crew is fast, annoying, and incredible at running schemes.

wong has been amazing as well. He is pretty versatile as far as what he can accomplish. Schemes, face beating, tanking, and crowd control are all tools in his crews belt. I’m still exploring combos and options. Just a lot of depth there

Just played my first Ophelia game. Holy Balls is she a monster. Her raw damage is absurd. But she heavily struggles with schemes and cards. Going to be tinkering with versatile options like the Smuggler and card draw options like triple b

As as far as being too good? Go play into Levi or one of the other summoning masters lol. We have some silly ness but there’s plenty of nonsense out there right now. It’s way to early to make judgements about being over the top.

[NAX3011]

On 6/10/2019 at 12:47 AM, Macdaddy353 said:

As a Zipp player I have to admit First mate is incredible. He can switch from scheme runner, to harrasser, to Face bearer in a moment. My only issue is he is very Soulstone and Card dependent to really max his value and it’s easy to burn through them. Best moment for me has been him just beating crap with his anchor though. 

Zipp has has been a blast for me. His crew is fast, annoying, and incredible at running schemes.

Sounds nice xD. What would you buy for him?

[Morgan Vening]

2 hours ago, NAX3011 said:

Sounds nice xD. What would you buy for him?

I ran a crew of Zipp+Earl, First Mate, all three ISkeets, Hans and Midnight Stalker (wot stalks at midnight), and it was ridiculously fast. Given the scheme pool and strat (Plant Explosives), that allowed me to get in and get a lot of points early (I think it was 4-1 at Turn 3, and another two all but guaranteed before EoG).

Obviously, with Hans, it was an Outcast crew. And Hans was only included so I could accomplish a Scheme I thought I'd be able to do (Vendetta was in the pool, and I was gonna put Hans in a position to snipe to get those points, or at least the one, and then be a pain in the ass. Opponent screwed that by not taking an Executioner, that he ALWAYS takes until this game).

But after the game, I figured I could have gone Bayou, and switched out Hans for Rami, and it would have been even easier to do. Rami might not have the suite of abilities Hans does, but in most cases he doesn't need them. Only one of his triggers isn't universally awesome, and that's Armor Piercing. Which is nearly always awesome. And Quick Retreat would have solved a lot of problems.

Also, probably switched out an Iron Skeeter for Merris. Not quite as fast, but different in it's own way.

[Macdaddy353]

So for Zips crew I currently consistently run:

Earl, 1-2 Skeeters, Mancha Roja, First Mate, and then the rest is heavily dependent on schemes and strats. But that core there is pretty versatile, fast, and oddly enough hits like a train with mancha and first mate. Give a skeeter tactical trench coat as an upgrade and he can use “fly with me” on mancha. Which is really strong 

For adding in extras I normally don’t look outside infamous but here are some of my top picks:

gracie- She’s a great durable piggy that can give rides. She’s a good add if you need beef(pork?) and punch 

merris: Been highly impressed with her. Bombs away is a really strong way to get schemes like Breakthrough, search runs, and plant explosives. Up we go is also really good at killing other non flying models in her cost bracket. 

Flying piglets- Little dudes are so good at running schemes and being annoying. 

Lucky Emmisary- Fast, Durable, Hits hard, aura of luck is a pretty great support tool even if it doesn’t trigger showboating. 

Zipp and wong have a few models that cross over too. (And mancha is in wings box currently) so I also recommend looking into wizzbang as the next crew you build with

 

[longfanz]

21 hours ago, Morgan Vening said:

 

But after the game, I figured I could have gone Bayou, and switched out Hans for Rami, and it would have been even easier to do. Rami might not have the suite of abilities Hans does, but in most cases he doesn't need them. Only one of his triggers isn't universally awesome, and that's Armor Piercing. Which is nearly always awesome. And Quick Retreat would have solved a lot of problems.

 

Midnight stalker is not infamous, he lost the keyword some time ago.

[Morgan Vening]

4 hours ago, longfanz said:

Midnight stalker is not infamous, he lost the keyword some time ago.

Yeah, I would have had to swap in a Silurid instead. Given the kind of game I ran, that probably would have been better.

Given my opponent shot Midnight Stalker (wot stalks at midnight) on his last activation (and cheating in a Severe), denying me the second point from Claim Jump, and would have been screwed if I'd had Stealth.

So the crew would have still worked, to a lesser extent. I say lesser because I cycled 4 low Masks through the game, from Showboat Leaping, though I did only get a single good card from it.

[BornOnTheBayou]

BBB is a solid pick, I agree. I have noticed though, that you want him to go first to benefit from your hot deck, but often there are more crucial models you have to move to get the jump on your opponent. This, I think, reduced his powerlevel to a fitting one.

[NAX3011]

I just wait for the offical rules on 28th of june and then I will decide what to go next.

 

For now I have:

Zipp Crew

Merris

Mechanical Porkchop

Sparks

[Barmution]

10 hours ago, BornOnTheBayou said:

BBB is a solid pick, I agree. I have noticed though, that you want him to go first to benefit from your hot deck, but often there are more crucial models you have to move to get the jump on your opponent. This, I think, reduced his powerlevel to a fitting one.

And that's why you grab Zoraida as a secondary master, then you can Obey BBB to calculate (potentially twice) before replenishing your hand from your freshly hottified deck 

[Scoffer]

3 hours ago, Barmution said:

And that's why you grab Zoraida as a secondary master, then you can Obey BBB to calculate (potentially twice) before replenishing your hand from your freshly hottified deck 

And two Bokors to do it six more times!!!

[Morgan Vening]

1 hour ago, Scoffer said:

And two Bokors to do it six more times!!!

Sadly, doesn't work.

Bokors can't Obey Zoraida (Non-Master), and can only do it to BBB once each (OPA).

You can still do it a total of eight times easily enough. BBB does it twice. Each Bokor makes him do it once each. Zoraida makes him do it twice, and then Obeys each of the Bokors to make him do it once each.

Of course, it's got diminishing returns if you don't make use of it somewhere in the middle.

[Scoffer]

8 hours ago, Morgan Vening said:

Sadly, doesn't work.

Bokors can't Obey Zoraida (Non-Master), and can only do it to BBB once each (OPA).

You can still do it a total of eight times easily enough. BBB does it twice. Each Bokor makes him do it once each. Zoraida makes him do it twice, and then Obeys each of the Bokors to make him do it once each.

Of course, it's got diminishing returns if you don't make use of it somewhere in the middle.

It does work as long as Bokors can obey each other.

Zoraida->Bokor1->Brin

Zoraida->Bokor2->Brin

Bokor1->Brin

Bokor1->Bokor2->Brin

Bokor2->Brin

Bokor2->Bokor1->Brin

With two obeys from Zoraida and Brin's two actions it makes ten. 

P.s. with three Bokors it will be 15 (:

[Jesy Blue]

You do realize this is useless, right?

You're spending 30 points, 5 activations, and an untold number of severe masks on card cycling, so you'll have 20 points left for the rest of your crew.  On top of that, once you do it a 5th time, you will have to reshuffle and all those cards from the discard pile will be back in the deck again, defeating the purpose.

[ShinChan]

 

On 6/16/2019 at 8:36 AM, Jesy Blue said:

You do realize this is useless, right?

You're spending 30 points, 5 activations, and an untold number of severe masks on card cycling, so you'll have 20 points left for the rest of your crew.  On top of that, once you do it a 5th time, you will have to reshuffle and all those cards from the discard pile will be back in the deck again, defeating the purpose.

Not really. You're removing 35 cards from your deck, drawing 5 and using another 5 for the flips. Since BBB has Arcane reservoir, you'll have in your hand 7 cards. Which leaves in your deck a total of 2 cards

This counting that you haven't flip for anything else, ofc.

[Jesy Blue]

Well, I'm not gonna waste any more of my time proving you wrong... good day sir.

[ShinChan]

I've just pointed out that it's possible without shuffling the deck, not that it's worth it. Actually it can be done with a Bokor and BBB for an optimal of 4 times, which means removing 31 cards from your deck (28 to your discard pile and 3 to your hand).

1. BBB
2. BBB
3. BBB uses the  on the Bokor, who obeys BBB
4. Activate Bokor -> Obey BBB

That's one full activation of BBB and a single action from a Bokor. Quite efficient.

[Flippin' Wyrd George]

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 6:58 PM, ShinChan said:

I've just pointed out that it's possible without shuffling the deck, not that it's worth it. Actually it can be done with a Bokor and BBB for an optimal of 4 times, which means removing 31 cards from your deck (28 to your discard pile and 3 to your hand).

1. BBB
2. BBB
3. BBB uses the  on the Bokor, who obeys BBB
4. Activate Bokor -> Obey BBB

That's one full activation of BBB and a single action from a Bokor. Quite efficient.

Does rely on having a 9 of masks in your hand whilst discarding a marker near to BBB though. Not sure I'd spend a 9 of masks and a scheme marker on a single card which could be lower than the 9 of masks I've just spent . 2 was plenty enough for me haha.

[Flippin' Wyrd George]

I've branched out a little more now!

 

Have played Mah Tuckett, Ophelia and Zoraida now, as well as a few more games of Zipp. I think Zipp's crew is in serious need of mobile models that can work well independently. Mctavish was a really good hire with him in a recent game.

Mah is ridiculous good. Her imitative shenanigans are always useful and being able to stack 1-3 focus on your entire crew turn 1 by using Horrible Horrelin' ram trigger is filth. Plenty of card cycle in the crew too.

I've only had one game with Ophelia and Zoraida. Ophelia looks like she will be able to deal some hardcore dmg at range. Her upgrade mechanic (can't remember the name) where after taking an action she can discard it to deal 1dmg to a model within 6" is hyper good. She would be a great second master, but with some UK tournaments already restricting second masters I'm not going to try this myself.

Zoraida is also a lot of fun. Still working on what my core crew will look like, but it almost certainly will include two willowisps, Bad Juju and at least 1 Bokor.

 

 

Bayou life is still goooooood!

[NAX3011]

12 hours ago, Flippin' Wyrd George said:

Zoraida is also a lot of fun. Still working on what my core crew will look like, but it almost certainly will include two willowisps, Bad Juju and at least 1 Bokor.

Why 2 whisps. I really don't see what the whisps or tze Adze brind into the crew.

[Flippin' Wyrd George]

28 minutes ago, NAX3011 said:

Why 2 whisps. I really don't see what the whisps or tze Adze brind into the crew.

They can attack the voodoo doll and give Stunned, Distracted and Slow to the voodoo target. Very useful.