palmSide Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Hey all, I played in m2e, dropped the game for various reasons at the end of m2e and sold all my minis (no regrets - I am not a materialist). I am considering dabbling in M3e as a casual shits and giggles game with the occasional tournament if I have time. So I am once again asking for your help in choosing some masters. This time I want to play 1-2 masters only, that can cover all of the strats and schemes between them. While I would prefer only a single master, I understand that two is probably how it will be if I want to cover all bases. There's no major preference for any faction or aesthetic, however, in M2e I played all of the Ressers, so I am trying to avoid them as I have already painted every m2e resser model and I don't really want to paint the same things again. cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
touchdown Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 With the current strats and schemes, I think it's pretty easy to use just 2 masters. I'd say Arcanists with Colette and Sandeep, Bayou with Som'er and then Ma or Ophelia would do it. You could probably do solo Levi in Outcasts, maybe solo Von Schill too. With no direction on what you're looking for, it's hard to know which way to recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcathous Posted March 8, 2021 Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 There's a fair handful of masters in the game that are generalists and you could manage to solo-master if you're willing to also pick up a few extra boxes for out of keyword or versatile hires. Most summoners are decent at this, just because of the sheer versatility summoning gives you as a baseline. The exception might be strategies like Public Enemies that reward killing models (if your summons are easy to kill, you're feeding your opponent points), but honestly most summoners have options that let them play those strategies. For Neverborn I think Titania and Zoraida are probably the best options if you want to try to make it work with a single master. I think they are probably high on the list of generalists across all factions, too. I think there's definitely merit to just picking something that's cool and putting in the time to make it work for you. Has anything caught your eye flavor-wise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palmSide Posted March 9, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 Cheers for the replies, I ended up having a chat with some friends and the local guys yesterday to get some opinions. I ended up ordering Lord Cooper and On the hunt to begin with. Cooper hits harder than almost everything I remember in the last edition. He isn't the schemiest of masters, but he has a few options available at least. I will probably add Halliday later for extra scheming when needed. I think he will be fine to start with and should definitely cover me for games where the aim is to just shoot holes in the other crew. I'm still looking at a second master for scheme heavy games. I'm not sure where the other explorers fit in this regard. I'm under the impression that Cadmus has been pretty controversial so far, so I don't want to look too hard at them because I imagine they are going to get changed. Their theme looks great however, but they seem to have a lot of moving parts? I'm not too keen on mass book keeping. Same deal for Ivan, seems like a lot of book keeping between shadow markers etc. Do any of the ES masters stand out as a good secondary to Cooper? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muraki Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 If you want something schemier and stay in explorers I'd go for Anya or McCabe. Anya alone is an amazing schemer and she has some interesting models in keyword (like rook or Winston) to help the scheme work. McCabe is also great with hidden passage + false claim in keyword. Really depends on what excited you more, they're both good. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniacal_cackle Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 Jedza is surprisingly scheme-y for a bubble crew as well, but yeah, McCabe and Anya are the ones that stand out as super schemers in my mind. For me, I'm working on McCabe. Hucksters + Desper Laraux just seems fantastic. Very card hungry crew, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoisyAssassin Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 Cooper probably isn't going to love corner deployment most of the time, so you probably want someone who doesn't mind those pools. McCabe is schemy and can really cover ground, so seems to be a perfect compliment (I'm also starting ES currently with Cooper, McCabe, and Basse). If you don't like book keeping and moving parts you should probably avoid Nexus and Jedza, as both those keywords are pretty heavy on lots of little interactions stacked up together. Ivan would have less moving parts, but definitely needs to keep up at least a little with shadow markers and balancing the DUA/Umbra parts of his crew. Haven't heard much either way bout his potential in scheme-heavy pools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydranixx Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 Agreed, I'd be inclined to lean Anya if you purely want a Master to handle a Scheme Marker heavy pool Just now, NoisyAssassin said: Ivan would have less moving parts, but definitely needs to keep up at least a little with shadow markers and balancing the DUA/Umbra parts of his crew. Haven't heard much either way bout his potential in scheme-heavy pools. Ivan's ability to swap Shadow Markers into Scheme Markers or vice versa on the front of his card makes me suspect he can be a reasonable schemer, all the while remaining mobile and pumping out damage and potentially summoning every turn. Mr Mordrake is insanely good with some Schemes in GG1 as well - Vendetta and Hidden Martyrs - as he's essentially unkillable if Ivan plays conservatively. Corvis Rook with Slippery and Wk6 and Eva Havenhand with Don't Mind Me able to cover more generic Interact Action requirements pretty easily. So, although I really want to like Anya, I honestly think Ivan is brilliant even in schemey pools, and is an overall more robust Master and offers a more complete Keyword than Anya. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniacal_cackle Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 I think English Ivan is pretty great at scheme-y pools for a few reasons: The keyword has some great tricks (including Don't Mind Me) Keyword is quite maneuverable (especially Ivan). The crew can REALLY punish you for having to cross the centreline. For this reason I don't see Ivan being good in Recover Evidence, but can totally imagine he would be great in Symbols, etc. Haven't faced him in those pools yet, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniacal_cackle Posted March 9, 2021 Report Share Posted March 9, 2021 On the flip side, playstyle wise, Ivan may be extremely similar to Cooper. Both crews focus on powering up the master and getting insane activations with their master, with less action from everyone else. You may enjoy having a second crew with a more support-oriented master. Personally I get tired of crews that focus primarily on the master extremely quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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