Introduction to Arcanist Faction

[Michael Curran]

What keyword do you feel would be the least difficult for a newbie to take on & learn M3e?

[muraki]

Depends on what you want... I'm not a huge arcanist, but most of the masters seem to have a trick or 2 (burning, distracted, power tokens, terrain, auras, etc) that you need to watch after.

I'm also big on 'buy what you think you'll like, and you'll figure it out' nothing in m3e is so hard that you can't pick it up with a few teaching games / podcasts / questions on the forem.

With that disclaimer, I'd say if all factors were equal, I'd pick up a master who was:

1) A generalist, or at least one with a varied starting box

2) Early on the m3e release list

3) Doesn't need you to buy the entire faction to get a list

4) most of the models are in arcanists rather than a secondary faction(s)

With that in mind, I think Raspy / Kaeris / Marcus are pretty newbie friendly as they fulfill most of the above factors.  They're definatley all a bit tricky, but there's an easy 1 sentence description of what to do with them for pure noobies.  The rest are also good, but a bit pricier for a keyword buy in.  Sandeep requires a lot of summons that are currently in a variety of boxes.  Ironsides has her stuff split across a number of boxes currently (or i would of put her in my easy starter group).  Colette is pretty specific (in theme) so you may end up buying out of theme to pad the list.  Hoffman is 1/2 in guild, and Mei Feng is 1/2 everywhere (really just bayou / ten thunders) so they're less useful if you want to expand deeper into arcanists (as you wouldn't be able to take those models).

But again, buy whoever you want to play, cause that's where the fun of the game is.  I'd also say grab some other companies models or markers and proxy some quick games to see what you like.  No need to buy before you try anything.

[CD1248]

For a new player it'll be easier to suggest crews to avoid:

Performer: Extremely scheme focused and Colette's defensive tech can be hard countered.

Academic/Elemental: Massive hiring pool, involves buying a zillion models.

Augmented: You're buying a big pile of Guild models to run an arcanist crew. Makes branching out into the faction weird.

Foundry: Requires a lot of positional awareness to really pop, and pulls models from three factions in hiring.

[Vangerdahast]

5 hours ago, muraki said:

Colette is pretty specific (in theme) so you may end up buying out of theme to pad the list.

Colette can be played almost on theme. I generally include only the Mechanical Rider with Performer models.  So no need to invest in a lot of out of keyword models (like Sandeep needs).

5 hours ago, CD1248 said:

Performer: Extremely scheme focused and Colette's defensive tech can be hard countered.

Hard counter to Colette defensive tech is not super common (at least in my meta) so she can be played frequently. She is focused on non-violent Schemes generally with scheme Markers but she also is centered on specific Strategies (Plant Explosives and Turf War).

 

I agree that for a beginner (playing Colette or facing her)  the Performer Keyword can be difficult to apprehend because a lot of their special rules (don't mind me, agile, celebrity, splitting the Duet, Colette's Bury and Unbury) break the rules in weird ways and it's difficult to use or counter the Crew while also learning the game.

Someone who wants to start Mlaifaux with Colette should be aware that the learning curve can be harder than with more straightforward Masters (Hoffman, Rasputina, Kaeris). But if the aesthetics of the Performers is commanding the choice of the Crew, no reason to not play it, it will just perhaps take some games to win but it is feasable.

 

[mythicFOX]

18 hours ago, Michael Curran said:

What keyword do you feel would be the least difficult for a newbie to take on & learn M3e?

So I'd probably say Kaeris and the Wildfire keyword;

1. Can play all the strategies and schemes,
2. Good pool of M3e models available,
3. Can flex to aggressive, evasive, or defensive play,
4. Almost entirely based in the Arcanist faction so no need to spread out.

Their only complexity is learning how hazardous terrain works, otherwise it's fairly straightforward.  

[cbtb11235813]

I'll throw my hat in for Kaeris, I think she'd be good for a new player. She's a ton of fun, reasonably good at whatever you need her to be, and straightforward. Oh hey, you need that thing way over there dead? Cool no problem