Considering new blood in my veins

[stochastic]

The Title prolly got your attention

Deciding to buy a new crew (Prolly from a new faction)

At this moment I have a huge Arcanist' Army lead by Rasputina.

I do often play with Silent Ones, Snow Storm, Blessed of December,

Acolyte, Slate Ridge Mauler, Gunsmiths, and even with the Henchmen Kaeris. etc.

Even though I love this Army, I have been thinking that I might get tired

of this army if I keep playing it all the time - (I am far from that stage atm.)

However I figure that I could invest in a new crew, so I have a second army

to switch with.

So could anyone please recommend me a Leader from a faction (maybe different), who is maybe the opposite of Rasputina/Kaeris. I want something more mystic, strategic, slightly stochastic... hmm... well something that requires a different playing style.

Please feel free to enlighten me!

[Boshea]

I believe anything other than Criid will give a fairly different playstyle. Criid, Kaeris, and Raspy all rely on their blast damage and table denial to get things done. Rely depends on what you want to go for next. Melee focus, different style of ranged combat, different control aspects, etc. Any models jumping out at you currently that you'd like to paly, but don't work well with Raspy?

[stochastic]

Well... I have thought about these:

• Neverborn – Jakob Lynch (when I can get him)
  
• Neverborn – The Dreamer
  
• Neverborn – Collodi
  
• Arcanists – Colette DuBois
  

Maybe Guild - Lucius...

Hamelin was also interesting, however my friend have just picked him.

If any Malifaux players have experience' with these leaders, feel free to share it.

Edited September 18, 2012 by stochastic

[stochastic]

Apparently no one has ever played these leaders it seems

[djkickz]

Well... I have thought about these:

• Neverborn – Jakob Lynch (when I can get him)
  
• Neverborn – The Dreamer
  
• Neverborn – Collodi
  
• Arcanists – Colette DuBois
  

Hamelin was also interesting, however my friend have just picked him.

If any Malifaux players have experience' with these leaders, feel free to share it.

if you have any interest in tournament play i'd suggest Colette as many tournaments are single faction and then you are free to use her of raspy or kaeris depending on the strategy, terrain, and opponent. Otherwise they are all vastly different than raspy and Kaeris so go with whatever strikes ur fancy!

[stochastic]

Yeah djkickz, I was thinking about that as well - however it really depends on how different the playing style is with Colette.

I just want something else... It is really hard to explain. Maybe there just ain't that much differentiation among the leaders playing style... I don't know.

I mean, I play Rasputina, my friend plays Lilith, and my brother plays Nicodem. And in my opinion all these leaders' playing style is quite similarly.

[Adran]

Hmm?

How do you see Rasputina and Lileth having similar playing styles?

when I use them they do completely different things.

I would have discribed Rasputina as someone who hid at the back and cast devestatign damage spells, with the ability to block routes to her with Ice pillars. She has almost no personal mobility, but because of Ice mirror and her minions she has much longer than expected range.

Lileth is most happy standign next to her foe. She hits hard in melee, and has no ranged capabilities. She also is very hard for someone else to hit. She has some tricks such as her illusionary forest, and moving people about with Transposition, but otehrwise, she needs no interactrion with her crew.

Just might help get a grip on what you are looking for

[Ausplosions]

I mean, I play Rasputina, my friend plays Lilith, and my brother plays Nicodem. And in my opinion all these leaders' playing style is quite similarly.

I don't think it could have been possible to pick three Masters more different in play style from each other honestly....

[Forar]

I'm primarily a Guild player, but I have two friends with several Archanist masters apiece, and in my experience Colette's crew definitely plays *very* differently from Rasputina.

The latter certainly has the ability to 'reach out and touch people' easily based on using her minions to extend her range dramatically, and Snow Storm can certainly give them some otherwise lacking mobility, but Colette is all about the tricks and mobility. Resource manipulation is very much her thing, be it shuffling around figures on the board, generating soul stones out of thin air or abducting an opposing crew member to murder, or just throwing doves around to act as portable SS's and reactivating to make an opponent's life hell.

And don't get me started on the Coryphee Duet.

As noted by others, sticking within the same faction has benefits. Some figures can be shared between Masters, and while this isn't always the case (depending on faction and master), I believe it does add some potential versatility to potential crew builds.

Also, if you only have one master from a faction, and especially one particular crew (maybe with some variation) built for them, it sort of telegraphs who and what you'll be playing when you announce your Faction at the start of the game. Thus I'm a fan of having at least two from a given faction around, helps keep your opponents guessing. Though it does bump up the cost of expanding to another faction considerably when all is said and done.

[stochastic]

Hey agian, and thanks!

After I have gathered some information about these masters, I have been able to narrow my thoughts down to Colette - due to slightly many factors, I even used what I have learned from an economic-subject at UNI called Decision Theory, in conjunction with the great experience and knowledge people have been willing to share with me - Which I am very grateful for! –Thanks!

The reason why I compared Rasputina and Lilith (is because my friend and I plays those 2 leaders) - and my assumption is that they are focused on either melee or ranged (what I would form as damage, instead of control or mystic-combos) - My intellect about the game forms are not that evolved yet, since I only have played a few matches against Nicodem and Lilith. However masters such as Colette, Jakob, The Dreamer, Lucius, Collodi - seems more abstract to play, because they are imo not only focused on Damage as primary playing style - please correct me if I am wrong (sorry) - I know the Dreamer has his alpha-strike, but I wanted something more strategic/tactically-minded, rather that hack'n'slash/mobility/ranged focused. Then again, if this game doesn't have such masters, I am sorry for questioning it - however, I just had the view, that the masters I mentioned above possessed such qualifications.

[Setoth]

Hey agian, and thanks!

After I have gathered some information about these masters, I have been able to narrow my thoughts down to Colette - due to slightly many factors, I even used what I have learned from an economic-subject at UNI called Decision Theory, in conjunction with the great experience and knowledge people have been willing to share with me - Which I am very grateful for! –Thanks!

The reason why I compared Rasputina and Lilith (is because my friend and I plays those 2 leaders) - and my assumption is that they are focused on either melee or ranged (what I would form as damage, instead of control or mystic-combos) - My intellect about the game forms are not that evolved yet, since I only have played a few matches against Nicodem and Lilith. However masters such as Colette, Jakob, The Dreamer, Lucius, Collodi - seems more abstract to play, because they are imo not only focused on Damage as primary playing style - please correct me if I am wrong (sorry) - I know the Dreamer has his alpha-strike, but I wanted something more strategic/tactically-minded, rather that hack'n'slash/mobility/ranged focused. Then again, if this game doesn't have such masters, I am sorry for questioning it - however, I just had the view, that the masters I mentioned above possessed such qualifications.

Lynch, in my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience is actually pretty straight forward. If you can wrap your head around some of the movement shenanigans (Depleted's (0) 5' move, Graves' Bar Closed) the rest is basically moving your way towards objectives and tactically using Hi-Def. There's a few small tricks here and there like managing the Depleted's Insignificance but honestly I'd consider him to be one of the simplest to learn. Especially compared to other Neverborn.

[*Jack*]

I think both colette and dreamer would be a very nice change from tina.

Colette is arcanist, so aside from being a great choice if you plan to visit some tourneys, you'll have an idea how some minions already work. Colette crew is LOVELY to paint up, a lot of fun to play, and looks great. A unique playstyle, that might take some getting used to.

Dreamer too is very unique, and would take some getting used to. chompy bits as a melee master, and stitched and other nightmare minions would be a lot of fun to use, and again different from tina.

I'd pick up a coryphee duet blister (As you'll probably need a second) and maybe a blister of stitched or alps or daydreams. Paint both up, see what you enjoy painting more.

[Adran]

Ok, I guess I see what you mean.

For what its worth, although Lilith, Lady Justice and the Viktorias are all masters who seem to have the main aim of hitting with a big sword, they all can play very differently.

In fact, My playing of those masters makes them work very differently to my friends playing of them.

Lilith does not have to be focused on damage. But I do find that players often focus on the damage aspect of things. She crosses the board in no time with her force of terror tots and still have plenty of actions to interact with objectives. She can use her Transposition spell to completely ruin opponents plans by switching their models about, or even with your forces and her forest spell can add extra terrain when needed.

Rasputina has plenty of non-combat tricks she can use to trap enemies involving freeze over and ice pillars.

But, at the end of the day, interacting with your opponents crew is probably going to involve some form of combat.

The Dreamer is probably more focused on combat than lilith, its just a more complicated deployment form. Collodi has rediculous speed, but it is typically used getting a force of his minions to where he wants and then letting them attack for death by a thousand paper cuts.

I'm not sure there is much in mystic combos in the game - Colette can bury enemy models until the end of turn, but it is most often used to then try and turn them into manniquins for your side which is probably, from your point of view, Damage.

Seamus can do a lot in his crew with model placing and terrifying, but unless you are going with his avatar form, the tricks mainly only work against living. One of the book 4 models, Chiaka, will help with this when she is released, but they still are likely to need something in the crew to help with combat.

I'm not sure what you're looking for, so probably can't help much. There are plenty of non combat tricks to most of the masters, but its generally viewed as a war game, so people often look for the killing blow. And with several of the Stratergies requiring you to kill enemy models, you need someting to handle that, just making them run away lots won't help you in a slaughter.

[stochastic]

Thanks for the great reply Adran, just to clarify it, I am aware of that in some absent it is all about damage and combat next to schemes and strategy - however for Rasputinas point of view, she is not that tactically versatile - because freeze requires a certain condition to happen (enemy model in base-contact with terrain), and Ice-pillars are focused on how the environment is build - and then it is all about point n' shoot. I guess I am looking for something more flexible. For instance I love how she can shoot her own minions to actually pressure the opponent or to surprise the unaware opponent - but it is not that much of a combo. So I seek more some gambling, some effects that are triggered by other effects, some more spectacularly calculations that give a certain outcome - that might fit for the current situation. Like an unseen move in chess - first I make 4 moves which seem to be no really threat, and then it unleashes a brilliant triggering combo - or maybe in a smaller scale (exaggeration promotes understanding).

I hoped that helped a little - and do not get me wrong, I have done some nice combos with Rasputina and her crew, but they are hardly never surprising, or requires a harder calculation to act.

[Adran]

I find to an extent that masters with walks 4 or less are strongly dependent on their crew for tricks. Movement is currently king, and it can be a lot of effort to get something that can't move more than 8" a turn to play a part in some games.

Well Colette and Lucius can fit that play style. I'm not sure how Jacob is going to play, so no idea on that front, but Mei Feng seems like she can tie in a few carefully placed minions for a sudden huge burst of stuff.

Misaki with the Tonkage and Lucus McCabe seem to have similar tricks but currently I don't think we officially know when any of these 10T crews are going on sale.

Good luck with the new crew