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M2E Marcus


dgraz

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Just played a game with Marcus yesterday, and really enjoyed using feral instincts. Last edition, because you were always casting wild heart, I found it tough to make good use out of casting feral. Now it's a legitimate spell I'll consider casting all the time. Marcus' extra action point also means he can easily howl, cast feral, then cast some other spell (domesticate or darzee's chaunt are perfect for this with your extra 0 action), then you still have two action points to play around with (and accomplice to get the drop on a now weakened target).

In a way, Marcus is still similar to how he was in that you have a ton of options but you really need to keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish with him, but now all (or at least almost all) of those options are legitimate.

Also, make a point to save your middle masks exclusively for the cerberus when you get them. When you can rely on leap, the cerberus is an absolute terror to deal with.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Damn you Dgraz. Now I have another master I must buy *grin* first of the Arcanists.

Seriously thank you, awesome post.

---------- Post added at 01:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 PM ----------

Btw. Does anyone know when the 2.0 box for Marcus is coming out?

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Damn you Dgraz. Now I have another master I must buy *grin* first of the Arcanists.

Muwhaha! Release the beast within!

I wish I knew when he was coming out.....I'm not a real fan of the Cerberus, but the Rattler is really awesome....and I need me some Gorilla love.

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Hey thank you for this thread.

What do you think of the other non-Beast Arcanist models with Marcus?

I know they don't have much synergy with Marcus and with other Beasts, but some of them might be useful.

I was thinking of getting December Acolyte for the shooting and he has solid stats otherwise. He looks more thematically compatible with the crew than Gunsmiths (who might get cuddled with the new edition).

Also the Metal Gamin which aren't that useful with Marcus himself could be usable with Molemen in some cases I guess (I was thinking of adding the lizard looking one to the crew just for painting).

---------- Post added at 10:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------

I'm excited about playtesting with Slate Ridge Mauler, Blessed of December, Raptors and Shikome for the second wave.

Heh, since Boris the Bear didn't have it's spot in the light of the first rendition of the Mauler, maybe there could be an upgrade where enforcerer beasts could become showgirls.

I'm not playing Colette, but still it would be fun and should be possible to cuddle.

---------- Post added at 10:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 PM ----------

Also I have to buy a lot of different dogs and piggies...

And I can hardly wait for the new sculpts of Rogue Necromancy and Night Terrors.

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You're welcome.

What do you think of the other non-Beast Arcanist models with Marcus?

I know they don't have much synergy with Marcus and with other Beasts, but some of them might be useful.

I was thinking of getting December Acolyte for the shooting and he has solid stats otherwise. He looks more thematically compatible with the crew than Gunsmiths (who might get cuddled with the new edition).

Also the Metal Gamin which aren't that useful with Marcus himself could be usable with Molemen in some cases I guess (I was thinking of adding the lizard looking one to the crew just for painting

I don't know. I've been so happy to actually run him with all beasts and be competitive that I haven't even looked at the others. Marcus still lacks ranged punch so that's where I would look first. By the time I feel like looking for something else, other than beasts, wave 2 will be out and I'll have a whole new batch of beasts to play with....so I won't be looking at other things then either.

As you say, I'm also excited to see what the new guys will bring....especially the Mauler and the Blessed. If the Mauler is anything like Cojo, then I'll be able to run a list of Beasts that all have some staying power. Cojo, Mauler, Waldgeists.....my 'Strength of the Bear' list :)

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As you say, I'm also excited to see what the new guys will bring....especially the Mauler and the Blessed. If the Mauler is anything like Cojo, then I'll be able to run a list of Beasts that all have some staying power. Cojo, Mauler, Waldgeists.....my 'Strength of the Bear' list :)

I guess Suilurids and Molemen are "Speed of the puma", now we need ranged beasts for the "eyes of the Hawk" list and we're sorted for Dr Marcus Bravestarr.

(ok I forgot about ears of the Wolf and not sure what that would be)

Edited by Adran
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  • 3 weeks later...

Once again, thanks dgraz for putting this thread together! It's great to have such a consolidated Marcus discussion up and running already for M2E. :)

Some final printing changes that affect Marcus' crews:

- Silurids got melee buffs: Their moderate damage was bumped up one, and their :rams trigger doesn't have a "this action cannot declare triggers" restriction anymore.

- Hoarcats now have a rule that gives all shooting attacks targeting them a :-fate to the attack flip.

- Waldgeist's Germinate action lost the Dense trait, so it no longer blocks LoS.

The Silurid changes are pretty great, IMO. They're not going to be combat monsters, but it makes them a little more combat capable which is very helpful.

The Hoarcats change is actually really good. They seem like good 5 SS beasts, which is a slot Marcus didn't have access to before. I'm interested in testing them out on the table now.

The Waldgeist change kinda had to happen. I had a buddy who was abusing their ability to place Dense terrain with his Neverborn crews and it was very obnoxious. Waldgeists still have lots of value as tanky models that are good in melee, so I still see them being valuable for Marcus.

Wave 2 is supposed to start up late September/early October (source), which means we're going to get a ton of goodies to play with. Just off the top of my head, here's everything that's coming back on the plate for Marcus:

- Avatar (maybe it won't be straight up garbage this time!)

- Slate Ridge Mauler

- Blessed of December

- Malifaux Raptor

- Guild Lawyer

- Guild Hounds (this one may end up by the wayside; Canine Remains are so damn good.)

- Rogue Necromancy (like the Avatar, I hope the rules are cool, and can't wait for a resculpt)

- Shikome

- Night Terror

- Ama No Zako

That's not even counting all the Arcanist models that will be available (Gunsmiths, yessss) and whatever random things Wyrd may deem okay to gain the Beast trait (similar to how pigs picked it up in M2E.)

Wave 2 is gonna be fun as hell. :)

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Great, I've been waiting for my book for this. I went back and edited the original entries a bit to reflect the changes....thanks.

With them fixing traits all around, I'm not sure we'll actually see a Beast Lawyer anymore....I think that was just for fun, but it really didn't make sense. And Ama No Zako perhaps....that one could go either way.

I'm also waiting to see if there is anything new....there are models to be released still, and unseen masters so who knows? We already got a mini-dragon and a big gorilla.

- Guild Hounds (this one may end up by the wayside; Canine Remains are so damn good.)

I hope not.....I just ordered a blister of each.

Edited by dgraz
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Re: Upgrades for Sabertooth

You need to remember with imbued energy you can discard it for fast. An extra attack action can sometimes mean the difference between him succeeding at leaping over and killing a tactical target or failing.. Especially with his + to flips and damage on his opening attack because he doesn't have wounds on him yet.

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Great, I've been waiting for my book for this. I went back and edited the original entries a bit to reflect the changes....thanks.

With them fixing traits all around, I'm not sure we'll actually see a Beast Lawyer anymore....I think that was just for fun, but it really didn't make sense. And Ama No Zako perhaps....that one could go either way.

I'm also waiting to see if there is anything new....there are models to be released still, and unseen masters so who knows? We already got a mini-dragon and a big gorilla.

Happy to help! Final confirmations on model rules have been a slow trickle since GenCon, so I'm happy to clear up whatever questions are out there now that I finally have the rulebook in hand. :)

I agree, the clean up of types may pull some things out of Marcus' stable, but it's not at all a big deal at this point. His pool of models is so much more effective than it used to be it's crazy; taking a few things away that didn't make much sense wouldn't hurt him at this point.

I hope not.....I just ordered a blister of each.

Haha, we'll see! I'm just supposing at this point. It's perfectly possible that they'll be extremely valuable. Considering how clutch they could be for Guild (they could really use some decent objective runners at this point, for instance,) I'm sure they'll still be useful for Marcus.

I think at worst they'll end up being a little redundant (Marcus' 4 SS options are finally very fleshed out,) but hopefully they can find a good niche. Since you play Guild as well I'm sure you'll get mileage out of them either way.

Re: Upgrades for Sabertooth

You need to remember with imbued energy you can discard it for fast. An extra attack action can sometimes mean the difference between him succeeding at leaping over and killing a tactical target or failing.. Especially with his + to flips and damage on his opening attack because he doesn't have wounds on him yet.

I think Imbued Energy is hugely valuable for the Sabertooth. In a perfect situation you can Leap in and triple bite (at minimum,) but what I like about it the most is that you can still lurk with the Sabertooth out of LOS without absolutely needing that Leap to go off to get you back in the game. Fast to walk out, then charge.

It's not as good as Leaping, of course, but sometimes you need to get in there and don't have the card, or you may have misfortune befall you and you flip the Black Joker for the casting. That kind of semi-redundancy is clutch.

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I agree, the clean up of types may pull some things out of Marcus' stable, but it's not at all a big deal at this point. His pool of models is so much more effective than it used to be it's crazy; taking a few things away that didn't make much sense wouldn't hurt him at this point.

So true. You could almost forget the wave 2 stuff.....almost. But I'm having a ton o' fun with what I have now.

Haha, we'll see! I'm just supposing at this point. It's perfectly possible that they'll be extremely valuable. Considering how clutch they could be for Guild (they could really use some decent objective runners at this point, for instance,) I'm sure they'll still be useful for Marcus.

I think at worst they'll end up being a little redundant (Marcus' 4 SS options are finally very fleshed out,) but hopefully they can find a good niche. Since you play Guild as well I'm sure you'll get mileage out of them either way.

I'm hoping they're either weaker but faster than the Canines for objectives, or maybe be a little beefier and more expensive....as you mentioned with the Hoarcats, that 5-6ss range is a little small for Marcus........unfortunately, that 5-6ss range in Guild is pretty good! So I don't know what's going to happen....but you're right, I'll get mileage out of them.

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- Hoarcats now have a rule that gives all shooting attacks targeting them a :-fate to the attack flip.

I like the change a lot - it means they'll be above it's 3 wound threshold when it arrives at the enemy much more often. If you suspect you'll be dealing with a very shooty crew, Marcus will be able to crew a very tough to handle crew with hoarcats, waldgeists and silurids. Extra terrain + extra :-fate to shooting means those crews will have a tough time putting out much damage.

Even when not expecting heavy shooting - Manipulative 12 + :-fate means they'll fit into lists much more easily.

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Yeah...with the ranged protection, manipulative and pass through, they stand a very good chance to get into combat with a 3/4/5 damage profile, which is excellent for a 5 SS model (weak damage 3 in particular stands out). Add in rip throat, and there will be games where they punch well above their weight class.

That said - they're not particularly resilient in combat, they're fairly slow and they're the only beast (I think) without unimpeded or some other way to skip past terrain (like molemen). I think they're definitely still a finesse piece.

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The damage track definitely makes them compelling. It's not at all a 1-to-1 conversion, but they're like budget Cerberus in terms of melee output.

It's also nice that you can have access to Myranda for healing. If the Hoarcats aren't dead, you're just one moderate heal away from them being fighting fit again.

Eat Your Fill can also be deceptively useful. If they're fighting models approximate to their weight class, they can get into a back and forth fight and if they come out on top they're back at 100% effectiveness, ready to go again.

They did a very good job of putting the Hoarcats back on the map IMO.

Also, unrelated to actual rules: the artwork for the "Drake" (now Dawn Serpent) is awesome. I'm very happy the rules for the model ended up being solid, because the model will probably look cool as hell on the table.

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Where is that artwork? I'd love to see it :)

The more I read about Marcus the more I start believing I would love to bring him on the table. It's just the fact that I prefer some 1.0 models over 2.0 and vice versa. So not sure when and what to buy. Also quite scared about the whole deck thing with him, the amount the cards alone will cost :/

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Where is that artwork? I'd love to see it :)

The more I read about Marcus the more I start believing I would love to bring him on the table. It's just the fact that I prefer some 1.0 models over 2.0 and vice versa. So not sure when and what to buy. Also quite scared about the whole deck thing with him, the amount the cards alone will cost :/

Only a small pic on the card....but it was enough to have me salivating when I saw it for the first time tonight.....I gotta get me one of those!!

The good thing with the decks for you (not so for me since I already own virtually everything he can take) is that you really just have to get the Arcanist deck for the upgrades. If you're buying models, they'll be coming with the new cards anyway........so when you buy Cojo or the Dawn Serpent you'll get the card. But it does create more of a dilemma if you prefer some of the older models and you can get them from ebay or something.

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