Malifaux Wave 5 Playtesting

Yeah! Aaron announced the open beta of Book 5.
themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/127657-wave-5-playtesting-read-me/

Question :
Which new coming are you interested the most in?

Other urls found in this thread:

mega.nz/#F!M9dyDTrI!eNYCwqvg4iPWy_z-M0P9dw
themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/123837-gaining-grounds-2017/
discord.gg/p8sevqe
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

Probably the Grootslang, though Kandara and Ferdinand Vogel also have me eye.

Neverborn stuff is so OP ...

>it's a TT gets 3 more mediocre to terrible 5 SS models to throw onto the heap of never used 5 SS models episode

Thanks Wyrd.

I'm surprised at just how one note and uninspired the whole TT selection is in comparison to the other factions.

If the Tanuki doesn't have gigantic testicles I'll be very sad.

I would have thought they'd expand more towards the Oni side of the 10T given that there are plenty of human models already but apparently not.

And an Ancestor would be nice, too. And maybe more than one trigger spread over four units.

It feels like Wyrd was just scraping the bottom of the barrel when they got to TT. Almost every model is bland, overly simplistic, unsynergetic, and rather weak to boot. They dropped the ball hard.

If you take a look at the TT wishlist thread, its all about Darkened, Oni, Hounds and a model that can poison their own models so fermented river monk, akaname etc are more useful.
Crime Boss is pretty much the only model and Gwyneth though useful for Lynch is basically an extra model for NB since i seriously cant imagine taking her with another TT master. They really should have made her interact with Poison as well as Brilliance (spike all the drinks) so Brewmaster and Shenlong could make use of her.
Considering they have already shown the sculpts for them i was surprised to see no whiskey gamin.

I hope they do something to adress Tara's Glimpse The Void being shut down by Talos because it kind of defeats the purpose of his "heavy bury" focus unless they intend you to rely on Aionus, Hodgepodge and Death Marshals exclusively. Personally i would also like to see Steal Essence replaced with Karina's Burning vs all buried models ability, since it fits his theme more and is more useful. I am disappointed there are still no Ressur Void models, since Tara is supposed to be half Ressur but whatever, Talos has self healing so i imagine he will team up well with Rusty Alyce for that Reactivate.

Freikorps Engineer having one of its potentially broken combo abilities limited to "Outcast only" is interesting, since it acknowledges the high level of out of faction access they have. It's also clear they are realizing out of faction access isn't as game breaking as they thought considering they gave guild access to a hell of a lot of different ressur models.

Yan Lo got two "new ancestors" in the form of the emissary... sort of. He also got two new Retainers last book.

I seriously cannot understand why the Tanuki is Tri-Chi. Because of Promissory Note? Ten Thunders can barely get out enough poison to ever take advantage of that. Akaname only place 1 poison at a time 75% of the time and all other poison causing models are going to kill a model before they ever get any real poison on the enemy.

At the very least the Misdirect thing and the ability to swap Misaki after a charge or Yan Lo after a Hunpo Assault if the enemy hits them seems really good. This model basically means you cant overextend yourself. I'm sure it will come in a box of fucking 3 though, just you watch.

>At the very least the Misdirect thing and the ability to swap Misaki after a charge or Yan Lo after a Hunpo Assault if the enemy hits them seems really good. This model basically means you cant overextend yourself. I'm sure it will come in a box of fucking 3 though, just you watch.

This does seem potentially huge, yeah, given how relatively cheap they are.

I agree that having some actual poison synergy for Brewmaster to have a fair chance of going thematic would be nive though - Tanuki are yet another 'close but no cigar' Tri-Chi unit.
Would they synergise with Gremlins at all?

I don't know about direct synergies, but the ability to get Brewie out of a bad spot if someone like langston charges him is never going to be a bad thing. I REALLY wanted something that poisons your own models in TT. Fermented River Monks and Akaname are just begging for it.

I'm excited for John Henry for my Mei crew.

Question is, do I re-paint the back-left sledgehammer-wielding Rail Worker...

Or go full Black Johan?

Cadavere lets Hoffman take Flesh Constructs and power loop/shove upgrades on them. The horror of DF 6 Flesh Constructs is here.

Also, as Marlene can summon Wicked Dolls Levi or Tara can combine deadly ressur poison models (guild autopsies mostly for Tara) with Wicked Dolls, which should actually be decently spooky. Hell even Jack won't mind them as his Crooked Men can toss out plenty of poison, after which his Guilty or Jack himself can deal extra damage thanks to the Wicked Doll. Though i will admit other than Rusty Alyce getting the scrap markers out for Marlene to use will be tough. If you aren't planning to take other poison focused models Levi could take the new obsidian statue to throw them out like sweet sweet candy.

>The horror of DF 6 Flesh Constructs is here.
Awwww fuck, I don't ikke the sound of that.
I don't even like the sound of Flesh Constructs normally.

Any views on Paul Bunyan, the poor man's McTavish?

Deployment: Standard (4R)
Strategy: Headhunter
Schemes: (5R, 4T)

Frame for Murder (R)
Leave Your Mark (T)
Hidden Trap (5)
Hunting Party (4)
Claim Jump (Always)

Opponent declares: Ressurectionists

>What do you pick?

I declare Arcanists, will post my crew about half past.

Neverborn, Ressur or Outcasts most likely, as they are the factions with access to incorporeal and other terrain ignoring shit. So i guess Jack Daw with a shit ton of drowned, ama no zako and jaakana to maximize cactus based suffering. Jaak or a drowned can carry frame for murder and Jack should have no problem doing Leave Your Mark or Hidden Trap with his "kill shit drop scheme marker" thing and intense mobility, whilst the rest of the crew can hurl you into cacti and grab heads.

Decent plan.
Preference on deployment?

I got dragged away - crew up in five or ten minutes.

Arcanists
50ss Crew

Mei Feng -- 7ss
+Vapormancy - 1ss
+Seismic Claws - 1ss
+Arcane Reservoir - 2ss / Price of Progress - 1ss

Angelica - 6ss
+Practiced Production - 1ss

Cassandra - 8ss
+Imbued Protection - 2ss
+Smoke And Mirrors - 1ss

Kang - 9ss
+Hard Worker - 1ss
+People's Challenge - 2ss

Mechanized Porkchop - 7ss
Rail Worker - 5ss

The idea there is to have the Porkchop laying rails for Mei and providing charge points for Mei and Cassandra (and the Rail Worker if it looks safe), with Angelica Pushing people into position early turn.

The ladies then storm the stage with support from Kang's "fuck up Undead" aura, and hopefully kill efficiently enough to generate Heads and guarantee Hunting Party every turn.

Depending on who I'm facing:
Frame for Murder on the Porkchop, if there are killy Henchmen around.
Claim Jump or Leave Your Mark if I reckon I can bumrush the field and get Cassandra into position to get her Df trigger off, or attack trigger to push away and then Nimble and drop a Marker.

I'd strongly consider swapping the Arcane Reservoir slot for one of two upgrades:
Thunderous Smash, 1ss - after damaging, remove all Corpse Markers within 3" of Mei.
Price of Progress, 1ss - after killing a model, draw 1 and heal 1.

It's hard to make that call off the bat - clearing out marker would be invaluable against Nicodem (the only way to avoid tarpits), but similarly a good set of chain attacks on Burning models could definitely kill enough tiny gribblies to keep Mei alive another turn or two, while farming heads to chuck backwards.

Kang could probably drop his Challenge, but definitely keep Hard Worker to let Foundry friendlies in LoS take a (0): Discard 1 card to ignore Armour and Hard to Wound.

That would scrape back enough stones to let me get another 4ss Minion - probably a Wind gamin, which would either hide or score Leave Your Mark depending on the enemy's interceptor capabilities.

>mfw that new neverborn puppet henchman

Mei is looking to scrap somewhere near the middle - lots of terrain to stop her various "damage then push" attacks taking targets out of range, while also preventing her getting totally mobbed, and hopefully obstructing the enemy from getting onto my half of the table.

if I don't get to pick sides (probably North, stacking to the East, with a sceme runner on the West) then Angelica provides the pushes to get people across the river, and later in and out of engagement, without wasting AP I can be snapping necks and taking heads with.

Leave Your Mark should be trivial for a Wind Gamin anywhere on the West flank, doubly so since much of the scrap will likely be taking place on the North bank of the river.
The counter point to that is that, with Angelica's Practiced Production and Mei shoving models back into the water, it shouldn't be too hard to score Claim Jumo without needlessly exposing the Gamin for Hunting Party - the Mech Porkchop tends to be close to the front for charge bonuses and the Rail Worker is wasted if not Implacably Assaulting dudes, and the list is dangerously elite with Hunting Party in the pool.

Taking a Metal Gamin and hiding it is not a terrible option, but since they don't have much in the way of defensive tech, it's also basically 4ss of dead weight rather than an active asset.

I think I've probably gone too elite with this list, and maybe the Porkchop Alpha Strike is not the best wayt o do it even if it's brilliant when it goes off, but I'm new to Mei, and still not really sure how to use her.

>Ml6
>+flips to Ml
>Stackable "Take +1 damage from me" condition
>Melee fucking Master

>MFW

>Melee master
>Collodi can make it take extra actions
>Most of the time it's going to have fast and effigy buffs

Feels good to be a Collodi fan right now

I can only hope it's softer in practice than it reads, because 9ss and Df5 is not balance enough for that volume of low-mid damage output.

I can't see it hitting the table in the state it is now, it's either going to go up in points or it'll downgrade melee master to expert is my guess

I'd think the latter - no-one's taking it for 10ss.

I like the sound of Ferdinand Vogel the Arcanist werelawyer being a Mimic Minion though - having a werewolf pinging around the place with utility/control and face-beating powers could be handy..

>Obsidian Statue
Wow, they actually remembered Mei Feng. While I will never touch the Lotus Eaters or the Tanuki, Gwyneth is a surprisingly nice choice for card control as she is right now. Great with Asami, and a good choice for Jakob. TT card draw in general seems to be more prevalent now that the protection money ability is here.

I am liking how the Divergent Path characters turned out as well. The design for the kid is pretty ugly, but the ability to give tethered soul to a master sounds very handy. Will need to try that with Misaki. More condition removal in Neverborn certainly isn't bad, but I wonder if Serena will actually see play over Johan. Ferdinand is pretty neat as far as focusing on Marcus and Lucius goes. I imagine that it would pan out better with Neverborn Lucius rather than his Guild equivalent. There are worse choices for 8ss.

What I have noticed is that they seem to be going all out with control models. The charm warder, riot breaker, thalarian quellers, and gremlin cries all seem to follow the hose everything within an area idea, which will make location based strategies more difficult.

>Considering they have already shown the sculpts for them i was surprised to see no whiskey gamin.
Most of the models they showed at Adepticon aren't in Book 5, they were pretty clear about that. They did show of the Grootslangs though. Somewhat oversized, but they match the illustration very well.

Are there any pics floating about of it?

Would also like pics - I had no idea any sculpts had been shown.

>complaining about play test models on Veeky Forums
>instead of the play test forums where the complaints belong

Why not both?

>Bbb-b-but they never listen to meeeeee
We all know no-one comtributes meaningfully to the dialogue here.

>Obsidian Statue
It seems pretty anti-synergystic to me - the big blocking 50mm marker is not Construct or Scrap, limiting his uses as a Railwalker node.
His abilities hoover up scrap markers.
He hands out a little burning, but not a great deal.
H'es not really fast enough to be exciting.

With Wd10, Armour+2 and Brittle, I can see him showering the board with Scrap, but the Statue marker seems like it should be providing blocking cover to the models behind, and it's too slow and big to get out of the way - I think it will just end up being a maneuvering hindrance.

Could work if Britlle could put Scrap touching basor or Statue, or the Statue marker counted for Rail Walker purposes.

Next one to chew over:

Deployment: Corner (8)
Strategy: Guard the Stash / Reckoning (11)
Schemes: (12M, 6C)

Accusation! (M)
Dig Their Graves (C)
A Quick Murder (12)
Recover Evidence (6)
Claim Jump (Always)

Your opponent declares: Outcasts

I'll go Arcanists again, but I'll be out for an hour or two before I post my crew.

What do you tech against for Outcasts?
I don't think we have a single Outcast player at my FLGS.
One guy played Tara for a while but dropped her before my time for being shit and un-fun, apparently.

Arcanists
50ss Crew

Colette Du Bois -- (2+4)ss
+Arcane Reservoir - 2ss
+Cabaret Choreography - 2ss
+Seize The Day - 1ss

Angelica - 6ss
+Practiced Production - 1ss

Cassandra - 8ss
+Imbued Protection - 2ss
+Smoke And Mirrors - 1ss

Performer - 5ss
Mannequin - 4ss

Performer - 5ss
Mannequin - 4ss

Rail Worker - 5ss

Probably going for Dig Their Graves and Claim Jump, but possibly Recover Evidence, less likely Accusation, Least likely A Quick Murder (unless the target is guaranteed to charge straight at me, and is improbably easy to kill).

On the diagonals (ideally deploying North-West) Claim Jump should be easy-ish, with Practiced Production letting doves position to drop difficult markers either on building rooves or the North-East corner, and then Performer-Mannequin combos shitting them out everywhere else.

This ideally lets one Performer throw between one and four scheme markers (as a zero, both normal AP, and one Prompted) on turn two, and then the other performer can (0) drop a marker of her own and hten has up to three chances to Seduce them (blow up a Scheme Marker to force a Wp13 duel on enemies withing 3" of the marker, or gain --flips on Df AND Wp).

Normally one Secution will achieve very little, eating maybe one card, being two or maybe three Wp13 duels for high stakes, but four to seven duels start either chewing up cards or leaving folks on double negatives.
If I can Prompt a Rail Worker into Ml range, or get Cassandra's blasts off, or even put a Mannequin in there, stuff starts dying surprisingly quickly.
It's doubly efficient if I can get the markers out ready for the start of the next turn, Prompt a Performer to Seduce a marker, and then I have two Manipulative 13 Performers blocking actions.

This all makes Dig Their Graves very achievable for a crew that you might not expect to hit hard, and can also help in clearing off one of the Stash markers if the opportunity arises.

Also Cassandra is, was, always will be the best thing since sliced bread.

For this one, where LoS blocking might force Colette closer to the front lines than common, I might swap
>Seize the Day: +flips to Initiative
for
>A Lady's Secret: handy triggers to take her (0) Ca7 4" attack again at 8" range, and enable more teleporting bullshit)
to go a bit more beaty, or
>Nothing Up My Sleeve: (1) Swap 1ss for 2 cards or vice versa
for easier resource management.

I just don't understand the Obsidian Statue.

It's big and blocky and annoying for your opponent in terms of LoS and charge lanes, but it's just as bad for you, only it starts on your side of the bloody table blocking up your lines and lanes.

Armour +2 is fine, but Df3 isn't stopping shit, so that Wd10 will last just about until the enemy decides it's annyoing, and then it's barely four AP from any halfway decent damage spread to get rid of it.
And at Df3 Ht3, it's probably taken two or three of those shots on the way to the middle anyway.

Am I missing something about it being an Enforcer?
Is there some magic upgrade that will render it great?

Because at the moment I don't really see the role.

I'm thinking of picking up Toshiro just to have something to bloody to with all the Scrap it'll be littering the field with - far too much to be necessary for Mei.

>it's a TT gets 3 more mediocre to terrible 5 SS models to throw onto the heap of never used 5 SS models episode
MFW

Exactly. With the TTB, T. Warriors and Komainu no one is ever going to pick these three new ones.

Hadn't noticed that the marker wasn't optional. That and the fact that opponent's cast actions also deal extra damage really kill this model.

I don't really see the point of the (0) condition.
It seems to imply that you want it operating semi-independently, if it puts your own models at risk.
That, for making the Spew Lava a 3/4/5 isn't great, even if it is Ca6 Vs Wk, which is probably about as good as Ca7 Vs Df/Wp.
Seems silly.

Any Sandeep players about to pass judgement on the new monster Gamin?
Looks decent, but I feel like it's a win-more buff to the already decent Sandeep.

>no one is ever going to pick these three new ones
The leve of card and deck control is mad though.
Not the only faction to get somethinglike that, but Ten Thunders' opponents are going to be facing a player with a hand packed with the right suits and severes all game long, thanks to these models.

Gwyneth's Luck Thief is slightly bullshit as well.
And the free card from the (0) is too.

For 8ss to get the card and +/-flip manipulation on top of an OK Sh attack and the Lure/place, she herself is in fact bullshit.
I can see the Lure going wrong a few times (she's only Df5, after all) but generally being able to burn cards or drag models around like that is big.

Maybe all the card draw is to power all the apparently pointless "discard a card to X" abilities, like the Tanuki's - C add's Poison +1 to their Ml attacks, R adds a heal to their condition application, or a Cassandra-like T Df trigger, or M for Misdirection. But it won't be poisoning on Disengaging strikes.
Neither of the attacks are big deals, the Df(T) is probably not that reliable at Df5.
Chucking it into a crew with Misdirection always on is probably a good laugh, I guess. That would be really fucking irritating.

Anyone up for another listbuilding practice round?

Screw you guys, I'm doing it anyway.

Deployment: Flank (12)
Strategy: Interference / Reconnoiter (11)
Schemes: (2R, 13R)
Eliminate the Leadership (Doubles)
Frame for Murder (R)
Undercover Entourage (2)
Last Stand (13)
Claim Jump (Always)

Your opponent declares: Resurrectionists

I'll declare Ten Thunders.

Ten Thunders
50ss Crew

Mei Feng -- 5ss
+Seismic Claws - 1ss
+Thunderous Smash - 1ss
+Recalled Training - 1ss

Emberling - 3ss

Kang - 9ss
+Hard Worker - 1ss

Toshiro The Daimyo - 9ss
+Command The Graves - 1ss

Mechanized Prokchop - 7ss

Rail Worker - 5ss
Rail Worker - 5ss
Rail Worker - 5ss

The plan here is to missile Mei in again to disrupt the summoning engine if there is one, riding the Recalled training flips and burnin stones to try to kill and clear some models, while the rest trudge up to murder turns Three and Four, while scoring Claim Jump.

If the enemy crew looks poison-light, Frame for Murder goes on Mei (or the pig), and I might not try to get Kang up there in time to lend her the smashy aura.

If it's McMourning, I guess Mei hangs back to Steam away the Expunges, Toshiro summons like a madman, and then either Mei tries for Undercover Entourage or the gang gets together for Last Stand.

Of course if it's Kirai or Spirit Molly I'm boned, but what are you going to do, hey?

Man why is no one talking about the new guild stuff it looks dope.

The Jury
-A Fees Printing Machine.
-Good overall stats for a cheep price
-Great Attacks
-Healing,Card manipulation, and disruption.

Guild Investigator
-Marker Removal
-Control
-Turning off other players Scheme Markers

Thalarian Queller
-Actions may not have their damage reduced and can give it to others
-Suppression Markers with huge range
-More control conditions

Monster Hunter
-Free movement and attacks
-Stalk gives a lot of very little investment
-You can bring 2 and get 2 times the Stalking
-More control

Andador de Cadaveres
-McMorning Support
-Gives everything with in 6 (1) ap when they die
-Discard and Paralyze
-AoE Healing and Damage

Riot Breaker
-More good cheep Constructs
-No extra APs with in 6
-Free pushes
-Ranged Insignificant
-Pretty good tar pit / peeling model.

For Lucius

Ferdinand Vogel
-Control, Healing and extra APs
-Minion and a Mimic
-Marker Removal and card draw
-Comes with a free Beatstick

I agree entirely. There are some really cool control options, and they have really spread it out to directly support a good amount of masters. I think that the Thalarian Quellers are especially potent, as against some models suppression can really hurt. If I ever do more with McMorning I will have to figure out how to use Andador as well.

There's a whole bunchof new shit, but so much and so simiilar across the factions that this is goind to dilute further the individuality of each ,and push a number of the less-used models further into obscurity.

Can you give any examples?

But all of this is new for guild. Like the the model closet to a repeat is the Jury who is a lot like Phiona Gage. But brings a different set of defensive and utility options for less damage.


Also a bunch of the less-used models are less used because they are under / over costed, Don't work as well as they should, Or other models do what they do just better.

This a thing in every single game ever. Unless they want to do a mass rework of a lot of the models. Which would be hard, time consuming, and might just make the issue worse.

But credit where credit is do they are trying with there soft reworks(The 0ss upgrades). In any game there is just going to be stuff that is never used it is just part of games.

is there a malifaux tg discord?
or sort of active vassal players?

There is a discord, but OP didn't post the copypasta as he is a faggot.

Here you go

>What is Malifaux?
Malifaux is a 30mm Skirmish Tabletop game, with a focus on completing several different objectives, while denying your opponent their objectives.
Books;
mega.nz/#F!M9dyDTrI!eNYCwqvg4iPWy_z-M0P9dw

Book 1 - Basic Rules and first wave of updated (from 1st edition of Malifaux) models
Book 2 - Second wave of updated models
Book 3 - Campaign system and new M2E models
Book 4- New Wave 4 Models


Through the Breach Fated Almanac - Basic rules for the RPG set in Malifaux
Through the Breach Fatemaster Almanac - GM stuff for the RPG

Current Gaining Grounds Tournament Rules:
themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/123837-gaining-grounds-2017/

Discord for Shitposting and other Wyrd related things.

discord.gg/p8sevqe

>discord.gg/p8sevqe

thanks

How is Vogel Guild? Arcanists won his loyalty.

He's a Mimic so Lucius can hire him with an upgrade.

Oh okay. I thought of it fluff-wise, did not mention he is mimic too rule-wise.

Draw from discard:
Arcanist Union Steamfitter

Fiddle with Fate Deck:
10T Gwyneth Maddox
Gremlin Brin

High-volume/easy card draw:
Gremlin Bayou Smuggler
Guild The Jury
Guild Investigator
Guild Thalarian Queller
Guild Andador de Cadavares
Outcast Freikorps Engineer
10T Gwyneth Maddox
10T Crimme Boss (twice)
10T Lotus Eater

It's not quite as egregious as my knee-jerk response thought it was, but I still think that's probably going to turn out to be too much card draw.

>-Minion and a Mimic
:P

>Also a bunch of the less-used models are less used because they are under / over costed, Don't work as well as they should, Or other models do what they do just better.

This is pretty much my point, and is expanded in your next two lines, albeit in the negative.

There are already never-takes that could use a bump to improve synergy or make a key (or even secondary) action a little better, enough that they'd see play.
As you say, their soft re-works have been pretty good so far.

What I meant by similar shit across factions was .across. factions - each factions theme seems to be less adn less cohesive with each passing release.

Guild were the high-kill, low-scheme faction, until Nelly.
Ressurs were summoned hordes of attrition shamblers, until Reva. Well, that's a pretty weak example
Neverborn were like a melee, glass cannon Guild until Titania.

Each wave, models are released to 'patch' the things that a faction is bad at.
A large part of the identity of the faction is it's strengths and weaknesses, and part of the interest is playing around those points to win.

Giving for example Guild the best activation control and AP control master in the game spoils that dynamic.

Also Nellie herself is an ugly model in a box of good models, in a wave of good models.
Not relevant really, but another reason I don't like her.

But all of the card draw you listed in Guild is situational. Needing other effects or markers to already be in play. Most of them are 1 card a turn maybe.

Also all the ones with card draw need to discard to use quite a few of there main abilitys / are card hungry. In a card hungry faction.

Guild needed some card draw anyway because they have been lacking in that for a while now. Even more so with all the discard / cost a card effects they have been putting in as of late.

But yes the Bayou Smuggler is busted. I would higher him out of faction any day of the week.

Yes but that same thing can lead to really uninteresting gameplay. Since each faction has one main way to play it makes them super predictable and counterable. Let's say your playing Guild and it is super Scheme heavy game. Your only choice is to kill your way to victory and the other player knows that can use that to take over the game. Its a game of Hard counters that point. Which I do not find very interesting. More Options leads to more ways to play which leads to a healthier game.

Also most factions are very Loosely cohesive over different sub factions. They have the over all theme of , The Government, Magic, Asia, Monsters, Death and Unlife, Gremlins, and random shit. But for each master there is a sub faction of there own theme. Such as Profomers, Beasts, Rail Workers, Scientists, Frost Cult, Mob enforcer, Firestarter, and Genie man. Every faction dose this it add to the health of the game. Because it gives everyone a champion / niche in most factions to enjoy. Like I would never play Arcanist but I think Ironsides is so cool I bought her box.

It helps reinforce what what Malifaux is trying to be. If its a game where when you announce factions and you just bring stuff to counter the other faction you are playing that is unfun. This game is trying to be very back and forth style of game with many avenues of play.

If you start making one faction play the same way across the board. Then you just get people making 1 list to play all their games with and playing only the best models over all. Because the more narrow you make something the less room there is for other stuff to work.

That was the whole point of Book 4 was the freshen up the game and give people new and interesting ways to play and makes people want to try out other factions. With out that people get board and leave the game.

I find that to be kind of a stretch. Guild had schemier support options for a while with Lucius and McCabe getting other models to set down markers. I will agree that Reva has made Resurrectionists different as you can have less undead models than is typical, but that is nice a nice direction for the game as it makes resurrs harder to counter. Neverborn if anything have been more about WP duels than glass canon play. Only Lilith really focuses on that, otherwise you have choices like Collodi who deal damage and supports from a distance, and Jakob who runs a very sturdy crew.

Regardless the faction identity is still there. Gremlins still hurt themselves to do things, Resurrectionists still shit out corpse markers and zombies to do things, Ten Thunders get oodles of positive flips ect. If anything it lets you play the game without there being hard counters for each faction as there were in 1st edition, so you don't have to buy an entire faction to be competitive.

I will agree with you on Nellie's face though. It's pretty ugly, and they are sadly going the same direction with the model previewed in the OP. It's nothing new either, M2E Nekima is hideous but not in a good way.

Still wonder what reason they had to make a blight guy a bandit. Was hoping for more cowboy and bandit stuff.

But regardless he seems fun and lets me pop out rats.

I'm assuming its a reference that I have no clue what it is.

Fair points - as I said in my post, my knee-jerk reaction was probably not fully justified.
Once stuff hits the table it will probably be fine, but at first read it seemed like a destabilising volume of card draw in Ten Thunders, and then less so in Guild (as you say, most of that is situational and discards power their main ability).

Pahe 10 save.

Governor Holcombe of Indiana?

All fair arguments.

I still think that it erodes the purpose of announced factions - it's inching towards being an irrelevance, as every faction has the capability to do everything with similar ease, even if they might only have one master instead of two or three that are perfect for a given Scheme-pool or Strat.
A couple of folks at my local club have picked up the W4 Masters, and it makes something like Interfecrence vs Ten Thunders a bummer - the risk of Oni sprouting up in scoring positions is either something you take numbers against or lose, and if you take the numbers to contest the oni then you won't have the output/resilience to withstand Shlong or Yolo.

It might just be because I think Sandeep's extreme toolboxiness is a bit much, as is Nellie's hard activation control and Reva being a better Rasputina (ish).

Admittedly I may be making a lot of hay out of this.

Nellie, I think, is a problem, activation control still being an overpowered postion despite attempts to build schemes against that.
I like what they were trying to do, but "a card OR Evidence" to pass makes it too easy for the player - if it was restricted to one or the other it would be .far. more limiting, which would be appropriate given her crew-building options.

I think I just hate Nellie.

How do you think they are going to differentiate Neil Henry from the other pile of muscular sledgehammer-wielding Foundry models?

Besides being black, obviously.

The traditional representation, taken from a couple of the statues around the US, is not the most distinctive pose, necessarily.

Kang and Johan already have the two obvious poses, and are beefy enough that that's not the way to differentiate, but making him skinny/wiry like the rail worker doesn't seem right either.

Pic related:
The John Henry statue (Top left)
Rail Worker (Top Right)
Kang (Bottom Left)
Johan (Bottom Right - bonus points, already black)

Deployment: Corner (8)

Strategy: Headhunter / Squatter's Rights (2T)
Schemes: (4C, 7C)

Eliminate the Leadership (Doubles)
Dig Their Graves (C)
Hunting Party (4)
Set Up (7)
Claim Jump (Always)


Your opponent declares: Arcanists

I went away and thought about it, but this isn't that likeyl to end up so different (apart from the specifics of the board approach) from what I posted here.

On a diagonal, it should be easy enough to partially cut off the opponent from two Squat Markers, and the Performers give me easy Heads (hurdurlol) generated by either the Rail Worker or Cassandra.
I could swap a Mannequin-Performer pair for Joss, perhaps, drop Practiced Production from Angelica (also allowing me to be a little less cagey with her) and go hard for the killy schemes.

What distracted me for so long is the protracted shit-fit being thrown by the Ten Thunders' sub-forum regarding their decidedly lacklustre new models.
Many points are brought forward, but many of them seem to be "this isn't as good as the 10T Brother" while missing many points about why it is different in the first place.

The Ten Thunders Brothers are defensive - get you markers down and keep them there to score those points.
Huge for Line In The Sand or Convict Labour, Search The Ruins, Covert Breakthrough and other schemes requiring that you hold markers in place to score.

The Charm Warder can block the enemy from getting those markers down at all, allowing you to aggressively deny them points.
To a lesser (reactionary) extent Crime Boss and Lotus Eater both do the same by feeding cards to your crew to let you kill your way out of the deficit - if someone tries Claim Jump against a Yakuza mob now, the late activations are rolling in with a full hand of cards to play with to wipe away those models and markers.

Ten Thunders Brothers are kings of the stationary days of Books 1 and 2.
The new wave of models are aggressive denial defence, and will fair better now that the focus is dropping and removing markers.

Is there any definitive data on whether malifaux is less or more popular than infinity and guildball?

None of those games even chart on ICV2, but tournament attendance shows that it is less popular. You can look at the booking numbers for Malifaux events on the Adepticon website.

At a guess I'd say it's heavily locality dependent, as are many of the games at this tier of popularity, but generally probably has fewer players globally than either.

As far as I can tell, at my local, it goes Malifaux>>>Infinity>Guildball in terms of number of games you might stumble across on an average night.

Must say I'm impresssed with how hard and (apparently) successfully Guildball pushed their 2-player starter.

Parker Barrows is broken and needs to be removed

OK

What's broken about him? Been playing him a fair deal since his release and I still find Hamelin and Leveticus sweeping games far easier.

Have any advice for either of them? They are my weakest masters

At a guess the sheer volume of card and stone generation makes it too easy to force through/block stuff.
On top of that, pretty mobile folks.

For Hamelin, take a bit of chaff to screen rats, and pick up all the flying and leaping and incorporeal stuff you can, along with decent ranged damage.
Blasts are less useful than you might expect because the upgrade Hollow can block them.
Since the rats themselves do such poor damage, you can sometimes use them to clog your opponents field by engaging in the right place - this can either force him to sprout a Rat King in a less-advantageous place, or prevent him from doing so entirely.

No idea about Levi though - don't lynchpin your crew on just one or two models?

Ambiguous response to ambiguous question.

I was talking about beating them...

In fairness, TT already has the most 5ss models and about half of them are quite strong already, so when they then decide to pump out another three in one release it's not covering the areas where they are lacking. Not to mention how bland their designs are compared to the rest.