Some questions from a new player

[Rengrave]

So as the title says, I'm very new to 3E. I played a tiny bit in 2E near the beginning of the edition but only a few games.

In reading the rulebook am I left with a few questions. (If they are explicitly in the book I am totally happy with just a page number of where I should go re-read the book).

1 - What do Keywords actually do? Is it anything more than just a restriction on crew hire costs?

2 - What if any are the significant differences between Minion, Henchman, and Enforcer? (Are there other categories on this level I am missing?)

3 - Do all VPs come from Strategies and Schemes? 

4 - What determines the end of the game? I've seen many battle report videos where they say something like "And we decided to call it at turn 5." or something similar and I've yet to see a reason why they did that. Was it just that they got bored of playing? In none of these situations was one of the players tabled or anything so I am not clear on why/how the game ends.

5 - If you are tabled or your Master is killed do you lose immediately (like in Warmachine/Hordes)?

[Maniacal_cackle]

1. Keywords affect hiring costs and often models will have abilities that affect certain keywords. So there tends to be some synergies.

2. You've missed masters. Masters and henchmen can use stones. Minions can be taken in multiples up to a limit. Some abilities and schemes care about particular ranks (such as the catch and release scheme).

3. Yes.

4. The game ends at the end of turn 5. However, since the scoring conditions can be quite demanding, sometimes you will see you have no path to affecting the outcome of the game and call it early.

5. Nope! You can lose every model on the table and win on points, although that is rare.

[TimH]

1. Keywords work much the same way they did in 2E with the added caveat of influencing hiring pools. A Leader (master or henchman, whoever you picked to hire your crew) can typically hire any versatile model from your declared faction plus any model that shares a keyword with them. Then on top of this any other model from your declared faction (at a cost of one additional SS). Exceptions do exist with wider or narrower hiring pools (E.g. Marcus, Widow Weaver, Title Leveticus). In addition some abilities will be restricted by keywords (auras that only buff specific keywords, actions that summon units of a specific keyword etc) and the adversary condition will typically name a keyword when it is applied to a model.

2. You are missing Master there. Typically minions you can take multiples of while enforcers henchmen and Masters are one ofs (there are exceptions). Some abilities will typically name a station that they can effect/summon or conversely cannot effect. Typically only masters and henchmen can lead crews and spend soulstones. Masters also gain an additional action point every turn (a henchman only gets the third point if it is your leader). Some upgrades give an additional ability when attatched to a minion. Unit status also effects many schemes and strategies.

3. Too my knowledge yes, i dont know any models or upgrades this edition that can generate additional VP.

4. Turn 5 is the end of every game of 3E unless the players call it early do to the game having a clear winner.

5. Being tabled is not an instant loss, but it makes it very hard to win unless your opponent has completely neglected VP all game.

[Azahul]

Just to drill down on the stations a little, because it took me a minute to parse this when I was first starting:

 

Masters - Get 3 actions each turn, can use Soulstones.

Henchmen - Can use Soulstones. Can also lead crews if you want, in which case they get 3 actions each turn and a free Effigy as a sort of Totem.

Enforcers - The worst tier on its own merits. Get no benefits. Are usually singular named models.

Minions - The benefit from being a Minion is you get an additional bonus for having a Faction upgrade.

 

The convention is that Minions are the models you can take in multiples, though that isn't an inherent benefit from being a Minion (it is worth noting for example that some Masters come in multiples, like the Viktorias and Nexus2). But practically speaking there are very few exceptions to that rule and we currently have no Minions that can't be taken in multiples to some degree.

[Adran]

TLDR: I agree with the other posters, but with added page numbers. ( electronic version)

Keywords have no intrinsic rules themselves,  but they do 2 things. Firstly, they act as a mini faction for hiring purposes ( pg 42 ) in that you can hire any model that shares a keyword with your leader at its cost, regardless of the faction you announced or the faction of the model you are hiring.  Secondly they can be used as a targeting restriction ( pg 23) so an action could only target friendly nightmare models,  or heal all friendly umani models. 

( there is now a third use, but the rules are going to be in the new book, and it only applies to the Witness keyword at the moment, but if an upgrade has the restriction : crew ( keyword) then it can be hired in any crew which contains a model with that keyword). 

2 there are 4 stations, Master, henchman, enforcer, minion. Masters and henchmen can be chosen to lead your crew (pg 42).

Masters and henchmen can use soulstones. (Pg 27).

Masters and henchmen chosen as a leader get 3 actions rather than 2 (pg 21)

There is no rule difference between enforcer and minion, but the general convention is enforcers are unique and minions are not.  Other cards/rules may add a difference, the biggest one is is upgrades give an extra ability to minions, but some strategies and schemes will refer to station as well. 

3 There is no rule that says this, but so far this edition nothing else has allowed you to score VPs ( there was a time in first edition 1 model did score VP by being in your crew and surviving, or being killed, but in practice this led to complicated things like people scoring more than maximum vps, so I doubt they are going to introduce this back to the game. )

4 the game ends at the end of the 5th turn.( pag 21). Some people will end the game earlier because they think the result is sorted ( and/or time is an issue) but there aren't any formal rules for it. Events often have a time limit, and have their own rules for when the game ends but check what they do. ( most common is don't start a new turn with less than 10 minutes to go, and if you reach time you end the turn and the game at what ever point of the game you are at, so still scoring end of game vps) . 

5 the game doesn't end when one side is wiped out. You can win with no models on the table ( although it's harder this edition than before,  it's still possible). If you do get to the point when one side has no models left, then the other player can typically rattle through their remaining activations very very quickly and then the winner is determined at the end of the 5th turn by the player with the most VPs as normal.