Maxine Agassiz (EVS Keyword) Discussion

[Maniacal_cackle]

5 minutes ago, Rufess said:

They had FIT the dinosaur on the 50mm base. I would not surprise if they do it again with a ship.

Hahahaha, true, guess you just need one piece touching the base. Technically the model could be 16" long and still be mechanically 50mm.

I hope this isn't the case 😜

[clockworkspide]

2 hours ago, Mikes said:

Then we'd be getting dangerously close to Corner Gas territory.

 

 

Not seeing the problem with more Corner Gas.

[Jesy Blue]

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Hahahaha, true, guess you just need one piece touching the base. Technically the model could be 16" long and still be mechanically 50mm.

I hope this isn't the case 😜

Oh, if it's an airship, the "new" anchor could be on the base then the whole ship is held up by the chain!

[Maniacal_cackle]

2 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

Oh, if it's an airship, the "new" anchor could be on the base then the whole ship is held up by the chain!

Hahahahaha, can you imagine assembling that?

[Rufess]

7 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

Oh, if it's an airship, the "new" anchor could be on the base then the whole ship is held up by the chain!

No way a rookie could get a airship before the Great Captain Zipp.

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 minute ago, Rufess said:

No way a rookie could get a airship before the Great Captain Zipp.

They tried doing one for Zipp, but the anchor was bigger than Malisaurus Rex?

#SoundsPlausibleToMe

[Mikes]

42 minutes ago, Rufess said:

No way a rookie could get a airship before the Great Captain Zipp.

Zipp's "airship".

 

 

[AverageGatsby]

It's a good thing we got a Mei Feng nightmare box recently, as this whole conversation has gone ... off the rails! I'll see myself out. 

[HomelessOne]

The original post has been updated with treasures dredged up from under Malifaux's turbulent seas.

[Jesy Blue]

I had a thought then found it was illegal and now I'm sad.

I was gonna tax in Lord Cooper and put him in the Calypso, that would solve his movement problems and let me play with Runaways. Alas no... Belly of the Machine upgrade is Restricted (Living).

[Adran]

21 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

I had a thought then found it was illegal and now I'm sad.

I was gonna tax in Lord Cooper and put him in the Calypso, that would solve his movement problems and let me play with Runaways. Alas no... Belly of the Machine upgrade is Restricted (Living).

I tried to put a dinosaur inside, but it's limited to size 2 or smaller as well. 

( actually I tried to put in a sandworm as a friendly bury to let it appear anywhere, but that's a less funny picture than rex inside a submarine). 

[clockworkspide]

2 hours ago, Adran said:

I tried to put a dinosaur inside, but it's limited to size 2 or smaller as well. 

( actually I tried to put in a sandworm as a friendly bury to let it appear anywhere, but that's a less funny picture than rex inside a submarine). 

Maybe Beebe's saving that for the Mk. III.

[HomelessOne]

In my slice of the fanbase, EVS seems like the new Keyword (sorry Basse) generating the least excitement. The little mention they do seem to get in my circles is largely for OOK use, like Calypso, or Harpooners over in Apex. Talking with friends, we've come up with a few thoughts as to why:

1) Some of the least obvious Keyword abilities on paper. Deep Discovery and Reconfigure are good, obviously, but like a lot of odds/luck manipulation I think it can be difficult to fully understand how good without seeing them go off on the table yourself.

2) A more restrained and 'realistic' aesthetic than some of their peers. Obviously they do have some wacky stuff like a bathysphere mech and water elemental, but a chunk of the models look like "ordinary people" with regular jobs. This can be leveled at other keywords even within the same faction -Syndicate especially (People in suits! At least they have Price of Progress)- but it makes them struggle to stand out compared to stuff like the Cadmus and Seeker keywords.

3) Their lore is too HAPPY, lol. Besides Maxine's brain now having a touch o' the Burning Man, as a friend put it everybody's bios are basically "they love science, but what they love more is their bond with the rest of the crew".

Any thoughts? Anyone actually take Maxine for a spin? It's a little sad to see the thread slowly sinking toward page 2.

[Jesy Blue]

Totally agree, and I want to try it.... but I think I'm too dumb to pull it off.

[Mycellanious]

17 minutes ago, HomelessOne said:

In my slice of the fanbase, EVS seems like the new Keyword (sorry Basse) generating the least excitement. The little mention they do seem to get in my circles is largely for OOK use, like Calypso, or Harpooners over in Apex. Talking with friends, we've come up with a few thoughts as to why:

1) Some of the least obvious Keyword abilities on paper. Deep Discovery and Reconfigure are good, obviously, but like a lot of odds/luck manipulation I think it can be difficult to fully understand how good without seeing them go off on the table yourself.

2) A more restrained and 'realistic' aesthetic than some of their peers. Obviously they do have some wacky stuff like a bathysphere mech and water elemental, but a chunk of the models look like "ordinary people" with regular jobs. This can be leveled at other keywords even within the same faction -Syndicate especially (People in suits! At least they have Price of Progress)- but it makes them struggle to stand out compared to stuff like the Cadmus and Seeker keywords.

3) Their lore is too HAPPY, lol. Besides Maxine's brain now having a touch o' the Burning Man, as a friend put it everybody's bios are basically "they love science, but what they love more is their bond with the rest of the crew".

Any thoughts? Anyone actually take Maxine for a spin? It's a little sad to see the thread slowly sinking toward page 2.

I've played them in vassal and think they are very fun. So far (3 games in) I feel more like I'm playing with myself than my opponent, in the sense that most of my brain power goes towards thinking about how to use my hand, and this card will go here which lets this guy go here and lets him draw some cards which lets me do this with him, but I should wait on that until I activate this guy so I can draw that specific card from my discard pile that the other guy wants to use during that activation, and oops looks like I managed to kill something while doing all that. 

[Adran]

I think you're right.

Its had very little hype up to release, and as you say, the crew are generally happy and normal looking (aprt from the water elemental and the submarine). Its certainly a lot more normal than you might have expected the Captain Nemo crew to have (I don't think it is a captain Nemo inspired crew, but that was one of the most expected crews out there). 

I like the story and the mix of characters on the ship, but the story is a bit "Star Trek Voyager" even down to the mix of New Zealand, Abyssinian and Kings Empire in a crew doing work for the guild. 

I think its probably a really challenging keyword to get the best out of, with you constantly having to re-evaluate your hand, and keep track of the opponents discard pile. EVS is the kind of keyword competitive players will like because it  gets you the same results over and over again (even if it doesn't). I would predict it being the "sleeper" keyword, that takes the longest for play groups to get to work. (It is probably close to Seeker, Syndicate or Cadmus in complexity to use, but doesn't have the same "hook" to get people starting to use them)

[Morgan Vening]

1 hour ago, Adran said:

I would predict it being the "sleeper" keyword, that takes the longest for play groups to get to work.

But the Sand Worm isn't even in Keyword. 

/nerdjoke

[touchdown]

I don't have the book but the card art for EVS actually makes them the keyword I'm most excited about for ES. I also went a little nuts buying new boxes this year with the covid lockdowns so I'm going to have to put off getting their stuff for a while.

[Sudsy]

@HomelessOne Good observations.

I mostly play with my kids, and our interest has been elsewhere (Pathfinder 2e) since lockdown. And then I heard TFW's Matt & Kyle episode last week and when they mentioned Maxine, I was riveted. And my hype was enough that my kids have put models on the table every day since then (mostly Enforcer Brawl and HH, some small-sided masters). But now that you mention it, the other masters are getting the public attention...

I'm not going to be the one who unlocks this crew - I'm mediocre at best - but they certainly seem like they have a good solid engine. The keyword abilities seem to make for a predictable process [that might be part of the "lackluster" appeal - this crew doesn't have a dinosaur or immortality or a BFG - just a good solid work ethic]. I'm finding myself writing down my plans to try to discipline how I spend my cards and AP.

Anyway, I'm in love with Maxine, and I'll report back as I learn more.

[SEV]

4 hours ago, Sudsy said:

@HomelessOne 

Anyway, I'm in love with Maxine, and I'll report back as I learn more.

She's seen it all, so you'll have a lot of seducing to do to make her love you back 😉

Seriously, I'm a bit off topic, but I'm curious : how old are your kids? How do you approach the game with thems when you're playing new master as complicated as Maxine (as other say this keyword seem to be deceptively hard to play, with a lot of odd calculations involved).

[Paddywhack]

Surprised honestly. Their aesthetic isn't that interesting (with a couple of exceptions), but they seem really strong. I've played them a few times and Reconfigure makes my hand so much better. Pretty much every card I have is useful for someone in the crew - and pretty decent at a 9. I like to take Rams for Maxine and then every suit is covered by someone. Tomes is the least with only Beebe and Calypso. The card draw from Maxine and Machinist as well as deck manipulation from the same can really help as well. I always feel like I have a good hand. Deep Discovery is something I only use sparingly compared to Reconfigure. 

With the Tidecaller (Fast from Maxine helps) they can also be right in your face real fast. A Fast Calypso and Beebe and/or Kiya or Harata can be up the field T1. If Harata can get his Haka up it negates enemy Focus. Calypso can be a right pain to take out unless you can ignore armor. And then when you do kill him Beebe should be set up to bring him back ASAP (that part does need a 10 tomes to get scrap from Beeps and Sweeps or some other way to get scrap). Beebe and the Machinest can pretty much auto-heal Calypso and Tidecaller as well. 

I'm curious to see what a good player can do with them. I've enjoyed them in the games I've played and they seem to do really well. I don't think they are as 'sexy' as the shadows or spiders or dinosaurs though. That may be one reason for the limited talk. 

I did find it refreshing that they seem to be one of the truly 'good' guys in the game. Basse struck me in a similar way. 

[Adran]

32 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

And then when you do kill him Beebe should be set up to bring him back ASAP (that part does need a 10 tomes to get scrap from Beeps and Sweeps or some other way to get scrap). 

Can do it with any tome whilst inside calsypso.

[Jesy Blue]

6 minutes ago, Adran said:

Can do it with any tome whilst inside calsypso.

Oh yeah, Master Pilot!

There's a just so much math in this keyword....

[Maniacal_cackle]

17 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

Oh yeah, Master Pilot!

There's a just so much math in this keyword....

Ohhhh, I understand why Dr. Beebe + Calypso is a reasonable scrap generation model now xD Bleeps and Sweeps' tomes trigger makes some scrap, and you can do it with any scrap marker (and still move the model up the field thanks to four AP + walk bonus with any tomes).

So I can see why Wastrel crews consider the pair (only 12 stones out of keyword instead of 14 thanks to the discount).

[Paddywhack]

1 hour ago, Adran said:

Can do it with any tome whilst inside calsypso.

Ah! I always forget that +1...