What Thunders would you pack? And why?

[Regelridderen]

I’ve decided to throw my attention to my Thunders for the moment - I’ve collected and painted Last Blossom, Ancestor/Retainer, Honeypot and Wastrel + most versatiles - and will likely add Story to the collection as well. So I thought it about time, I started playing with them too. 

I think my ‘tournament pack’ will end up with Ancestor/Retainer for the more fighty focused, Wastrel for the most scheme-y and corner deployment and Honeypot for what’s in between. These, to me, are the most fun/rewarding and I love themes more than the rest.

But what are your preferences? 

[regleant]

When you run Honeypot, are you focused on Lynch1 or Lynch2? I just picked up Lynch2, but haven't gotten in any games, yet.

I've had a lot of success with Youko2. I use a beefy Versatile build and it works well for fighting-focused with some decent scheming capabilities. Youko1, less so.  Which is a shame because I love the model.

Wastrel (Lucas1) is a lot of fun with hyper-mobility for scheming, which still comes with some punch. But I find it falls apart quickly as I start to lose models. They don't want prolonged combat. My W/L record here is respectable. It helps that I use the Nightmare Box.

Lastly, Foundry (Mei Feng1) has been solid for me as she has a lot of options and can switch styles as needed. Scrap markers just improve board position and mobility late game, which ideally keep momentum in your favor. Again, I use the Nightmare box, so have incentive to put them on the table.

 

Special call out for Last Blossom and Oni. I love both for the mobility and hitting power, but they are too glass-cannon for my play style and my W/L record is abysmal, despite how much I enjoy playing them.

I cannot play Retainer / Ancestor. There is too much "bookkeeping" for me to keep track of with all of the Upgrades and bonuses. I can barely keep up with Wastrel...

[Regelridderen]

@regleantwhen it comes to Honeypot, I prefer the old casino master. It just has a certain charm turning opposing models into junkies and prostitutes. Although, number two offer great mobility and versatility - and I think, probably is the better choice most times - and I just love to Rig The Deck.

With my Ancestors I’ve found a fast hard-hitting style based around Kabuki Warriors and mostly Spiritwalker that’s just loads of fun. Basically min3 beaters with constant ++flips to hit and damage and multiple activations.

I’m still finding my way around McCabe (Rollins), I like the Tomb Delver, but I’ve no real preference. 

[Psycho_alchemist]

I just love Oni keyword, unfortunately I think Asami1 is pretty boring and Asami2 not well conceived.

The ability to play with flicker and a few exceptional models in keyword is what captures me (apart from aesthetics).

 

I am also a big fan of monks. I am finding myself to use a few models which did not see a lot of play with Shen1. High river monks with Shen2 are hitting like a freight train!

I was no longer using monks that much after all the errata, but with Shen2 I started enjoying them more and more. Chi manipulation is extremely good at any level

 

Last blossom has been my starting faction, I still use them occasionally, but not really into it. I feel they are too straightforward. Even Misaki2 being an obey bot did not improve my feelings

 

I do not like Foundry, not my playstyle...

 

Ancestor/Retainers is probably my favorite, both YanLo versions are extremely powerful and I like to play them both (yes even after errata).

 

Yokuo I love the models, but I cannot stand their playstyle, I wish it was different but...pass for me

 

Honeypot/Wastrel, not Asian looking so I am not considering them...

 

Definitely looking forward to Story keyword

[The Neon Gnome]

I started with Misaki and really liked how she player at first, it was a good straightforward intro on how the game works for me. Haven't tried Misaki2, since she seemed much less straightforward than Misaki1. But after getting some more experience with the game, I know I'll get to her eventually. 

Then I got into Honeypot. Really loved their aesthetic and struggled at first with the stark difference in playstyle from Misaki to Lynch. Playing Lynch2 REALLY upped Lynch's killingness and became my preferred master in the Thunders so far. The deck manipulation was a hard thing to pass up when I tried other masters.

I've played 1 game with Yan Lo and McCabe. Lost both of them, but now I get how they work a bit more, so I'm excited to give them a try again.

Our local shop started up a Malifaux League-- First two weeks at 30ss, Second at 40s, Third at 50ss-- to introduce a bunch of new people to the game. Which has been great. For that I decided to paint up and play the Foundry keyword. Wow, do I really like playing Mei Feng 2. Her and her crew have some solid staying power and significant mobility to them. She might be my favorite Ten Thunders master so far, but I've been almost exclusively playing her for 2 months, so I might be a bit biased.

I've got the Oni Keyword built, but haven't played. And I haven't gotten to the Monks or Qi and Gong yet. 

I did play a game as Linh Ly on Tabletop Simulator with a friend when he couldn't make it to the shop, and I REALLY like her. Map Map has a similar Boring Conversation ability to Tannen in the Honeypot. And he can put Shielded 2 on himself for some Mei Feng-like staying power. Fujin has some great auras. The Jade Rabbit was super helpful. Overall they are super schemie and I cannot wait for them to come out so I can make them my main Thunders, I think.

[Regelridderen]

@The Neon Gnome I’m really looking forward to story - if only to paint it up. At first glane they don’t seem at Madness ridiculousness, which is only good, but they do seem to be able to do some really, really cool stuff. 

[Dendrophile]

I've got most of the Faction and played a lot with Misaki, Shenlong, Youko, Yan Lo and Mei Feng.

Misaki is my favourite by far and I've been solo mastering her this year at tournaments. I love the playstyle, kind of got addicted to Arcane Reservoir and love the bonus action to shuffle cards back into the fate deck.

As said above, Misaki has a fairly straightforward playstyle but there's capacity to go into more depth and play a range of playstyles from killy to schemey but also pseudo obey with Oyabuns Command and also some summoning with Minako.

Her in-keyword models have great movement or movement tricks, good damage output and good for getting scheme markers but are dreadful at taking damage so you will lose quite a few models over the game.

One of her keyword mechanics of Charge Through which is a positive to damage flips when you've charged which is great for damage output but I've found that Last Blossom synergises quite well with Oni as the Flicker Tokens (although different) can end up in the same place. If I have a killing scheme (Cursed Objects in current GG) then I'll take Ama No Zako and some versatile models rather than staying in keyword as Last Blossom models will largely go down to a stiff breeze when facing a beater!

Ototo seems to get a lot of game play when people take Misaki, which I don't really get as Ototo is pretty trash in my experience and opinion. For the same soul stone cost you can take Bill Algren who is infinitely better. As a henchman then Minako Rei is much better. The only time I would take Ototo is if my opponent has a beater than I need to tie up with a model that I can afford to have do that.

 

I've taken Shenlong 1 & 2, Youko 2, Mei Feng 2 and Yan Lo to tournaments and had fun with all of them but not the best success, but that is more to do with my inability to hold lots of information in my head at any one time so now I solo master Misaki!! 

I'd personally say that Ancestor/Retainer covers everything really well and I'll be trying to do more of that keyword as well 

[Moinetbeard]

I soloed Misaki at Uk nationals in November last year, stayed fully KW/versatile (i had a limited collection of malifaux models at the time) and was quite happy with my performance - the only games I lost were against a dreamer player and a tara player, neither of which i'd had much or any practice against before. I've had some time away from the keyword since then and played lots of other stuff from lots of factions. I would definitely solo misaki at a large tournament again.

Her Main KW abilities (assassin and charge through) are extremely simple and universally effective - she's not a master who needs to stay in keyword at all to create synergies and be effective. many models can be flexed in and out depending on your needs (at the moment i'm enjoying taking a kunoichi and kitty dumont who are a great combo in any crew). Also, because her abilities are relatively simple, she isn't at all taxing or tiring to play and I can guarantee that I can play my half of a game with her in 45mins - 1hour and get to turn 5, which i feel is the most important thing in a tournament. also because i can flex alot of the crew around misaki it keeps it interesting  - especially for those 6 or 7 game events!

Misaki herself can flex very quickly between scoring/killing. Yes some of the models in the keyword can be a liability (ototo - looking at you) but you just don't need to take them if they don't fit with your plan. The only model I consider an auto-include(*) in Misaki is Jin - he is great with both versions of misaki, generating a pass token, giving you options on scheme removal, enemy model displacement and card draw, none of which you even need to flip a card for. his attacks are fine but not really what you take him for, although if you do get lucky with them he can catch people off guard. (*- the only caveat is sometimes i won't use him against crews that can take alot of anti burial tech for obvious reasons.)

so yea, i love Misaki, i wouldn't say her keyword is trash like alot of people claim, but she definitely benefits from you having a wide collection of minis from Ten thunders to pull from.

 

[regleant]

22 hours ago, Moinetbeard said:

so yea, i love Misaki, i wouldn't say her keyword is trash like alot of people claim, but she definitely benefits from you having a wide collection of minis from Ten thunders to pull from.

 

Interesting. I have to agree with some of what you said. Misaki herself doesn't really care about her keyword, and some of my most fun lists were basically her leading a bunch of Versatile models (Love those Samurai and dragons). Even within her keyword, I've found 3-4 different ways of running her. One of the most irritating for my Neverborn opponent was a list full of Extended Reach. I even used the Jorogumo, who work very well with Yamaziko and Great Teacher. I am pretty sure my opponent scooped Round 2.🤣 

[Dendrophile]

On 4/28/2023 at 1:20 PM, regleant said:

Interesting. I have to agree with some of what you said. Misaki herself doesn't really care about her keyword

Misaki 2 on the other hand relies on Keyword models much more!

Her Spreading Influence ability is limited to "Last Blossom or enemy model[s]" to drop the shadow markers so friendly versatile and out of keyword models don't enable this ability.

Misaki 2 also makes a lot of the keyword triggers more useful as some will drop the extra shadow markers. Then triggers such as Shadow Pin or Unworthy Of Her Attention are easier to achieve as there are probably shadow markers in range

The majority of the keyword (minus Yamaziko and Crime Bosses) have the ability to gain Fast through Assassin, or Life of Crime with the Wokou which are also ways of getting out shadow markers