Mini-Muses
-There've been a few Art Previews since last I wrote. One is the Bultungin, the Neverborn minion previously discussed. It looks like the image above. The other is the Lampad, whose image I put with the Ressers below. Finally, there's the Guild's Monster Hunter, pictured immediately below. I dig her.
-Meanwhile, The Other Side has started doing Friday Previews as well. Here comes Charles Edmonton and the Storm Siren.
-Ok, I lied, there's one more Art Preview. Nathan stuck it in a different place on the forums. It's Kandara, the Arcanist model coming out soon. And, if you follow the link, you can watch a video of Alyssa actually painting the image. Cool.
-Wyrd has another Game Designer job opening. Got what it takes? Send 'em an application.
-Finally, the Malifaux game rules are now available for free in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish (as well as English, of course.)
Outcasts
Benny Wolcomb-8SS Henchman. A new friend for Hamelin, Benny
seems like he might be another member of the rat catching brigade. If he takes
damage, he can discard a card to summon a rat. Also, he has an important role
to play in removing enemy scheme markers. His Rat Presents ability allows him
to place a friendly scheme marker next to an enemy scheme marker within 3” of a
vermin at the end of the turn and then remove the enemy marker. Rude. To help
make this happen, several of his abilities have a tome trigger for “Drop It,”
where you make them drop an enemy marker after damaging them. His greatest offensive
potential in the late game comes from Bleeding Disease, but he has a melee
attack from a knife and a 0 action attack that scales damage based on how many
vermin are standing within 3” of the target. Finally, he can eat other rats
within 3” of him to heal himself a point per rat consumed. An interesting defenseman
model to confound enemy scheme efforts, and a pretty decent henchman.
Freikorps Engineer-6ss minion. A fairly standard Freikorps
type model on the front of the card with relatively standard attacks on the
back, the most interesting thing about the Freikorps Engineer is his ability to
alter armor from targets. As a 0 action, they can increase the armor value of
friendly models, with a couple of interesting triggers to add Rams to the
friendly model’s attacks (only Outcast models for this one) or a Light Distorting
Device which gives all non-melee attacks a – flip to hit. Additionally, a
trigger on the melee attack lets the librarian reduce the target’s defense.
Prospector-6ss minion. This is an interesting minion. First
of all, the Prospector’s “Spend Soulstone to Make Soulstone” refunds you a soulstone
at the beginning of the game after your crew deploys, which is nice.
Additionally, every time they discard an enemy scheme marker with an interact action,
you get to add another stone (though this feels like the ability actually reads
“enemy will not use soulstones near the prospector.”) If you don’t want to earn a
soulstone for ditching a marker (for some reason) or want to stand back a bit from the one you’re discarding,
there’s “Appraise” which discards a scheme marker and then makes you discard a
card, draw a card, or nothing based on the result of a card flip. There’s a
kind of Rg. 8 Lure spell called “I’ve struck soulstone” that has the bonus of
letting you drop a friendly scheme marker. And finally, the tactical action
with the groan worthy name “I’m just talking about shafts” turns the lure into
an attack, because any enemy model that moves within 6” of the prospector and
ends a move or push within base contact of a friendly scheme marker takes some
damage. An odd little guy without a ton of offensive power, but the scheme
marker manipulation and soulstone refund makes him interesting. And he’s a merc,
so any crew can hire him. Could be silly with Collette, maybe.
Talos-8ss enforcer. A new toy for the Void crew, Talos seems
to be some kind of construct/furnace that buries people and burns them up for
his own benefit. It can heal itself for the number of wounds a model has when
he buries them, but takes half those wounds as damage if the creature unburies.
He does the burying with “Into the Furnace,” a Rg 2 attack resisted by WP which
buries a nonleader model. His melee attack gains an inch of range while
something is buried, and he can burn up a buried model for 2 points (take that, stupid Malifaux Raptors). Finally,
he has a 0 action to force enemy models within aura 3 of him to make a Horror
check versus a TN of 10+the number of enemy models which are buried. Seems like
an ok beater (anything with a minimum 3 damage melee attack usually qualifies) though he has a lot of competition for his slot in non-Tara crews. The buffs from
having models buried might make him better with his sub-faction than as a generalist.
Marlena Webster-8ss Enforcer. The orphan from the Divergent
Paths event is apparently a Teddy and Orphan together in the same model, now.
They can charge an enemy that drops a scheme marker near them, hitting with
protector claws that do decent damage. It has a Squeel-esque mask trigger to
push away from things that hit them, with the added benefit of smacking the
attacker for 2 points of damage. There’s a vaguely nasty ranged attack that
ignores hard to kill and wound and, with a trigger, can prevent healing for the
rest of the turn. It can discard scrap markers to summon wicked dolls, which is
interesting but probably not that useful, and most importantly can use a 0
action called “Soul Tether.” You make a Cast to beat a TN10 targeting a
friendly leader. The amount by which you exceed the TN becomes the value for
the “Tethered” condition and, if that leader is killed, they are immediately
healed back to life for the value of the condition and Marlena takes the same
amount as damage. The condition then falls off. Ostensibly this is designed to
be thematic with Leviticus, but I could see using it on, say, Victoria before
launching her up the board as a sort of insurance policy or wound buffer. I
think she’ll see play, though again, the mid-high point enforcer space is
crowded for Outcasts.
The Midnight Stalker-8SS Enforcer. From a thematic
standpoint, I love the idea of another serial killer in Malifaux, especially one that has a
massive inferiority complex towards Seamus. His front of card has an
interesting balance of abilities that will make choosing when to activate him
key, as models get a double negative flip to target him before he’s activated
for the turn, but his respect for the art ability makes it so he can only
attack models that haven’t activated yet. At the beginning of his turn he is
reborn, healing all the damage he’s taken and placing within 8”. He gets fast
if he’s on the opponent’s side of the board, which is new and different, and ignores
intervening models when moving. His melee attack is a pretty standard ml 5
2/3/5 sword with critical strike, but he can use a 1 ap action to give himself
a ram for every model with which he is engaged. And, finally, if he’s dealt
damage that turn, he can force anyone trying to charge him to pass a TN14 Wp duel or
the action fails. My first impression is that this model is fun and
characterful, but possibly not that competitively viable due to the less than
inspiring attack (the crit strike ability is nice, but swapping 2 attacks for
one attack with more critical damage isn’t going to make a huge
difference, imo.)
Resurrectionists
Asura Roten-8SS Henchman. A henchman with roots in the
Through the Breach module A Night in Rottenburg, Asura is an interesting
addition to the faction. She has a Sandeep-esque ability to hand out her melee
attacks to undead models within 12” of her. She places a Quarantine Marker
within 12” of her at the beginning of her activations, which boost the damage
of the aforementioned melee attacks or can be used to summon a Mindless Zombie
with a 0 action. These markers force enemy models that activate within 3” to
pass a TN14 WP duel or take a point of damage. Finally, she can eat corpse
markers within 3 of her to heal 2 per corpse. Probably the most interesting
ability is the Grasping Hands, which reduce the target’s Df, Wk, and Cg by 1
point per instance of the condition. Seems she’s built to interact with mindless
zombies and other less than stellar minions, handing out her melee attacks to
either drag the enemy’s models to a halt or grind them down with her attacks.
Could be interesting with a crew that has Mwahahaha or lots of smaller minions, like maybe an alternate spammy version of Nicodem maybe.
Kentauroi-8SS Minion. This is an interesting model apparently
based on Centaurs (though, considering Ressers are involved, I have a suspicion
the man and horse halves didn’t necessarily START attached to each other.) They
have an ability to taxi models around ala Gracie or Iron Skeeters, so that’s
automatically interesting. The model seems to be built around transporting
models and then charging, as its lance attacks do the most damage on the charge
and they can use a 0 action to let them charge when engaged, so long as the
target is different than the one with which they are currently engaged. After
the charge, their loose stitches causes them to take 2 damage and drop a corpse
marker in base to base contact. The centaur can use its 0 action to pick up the
corpse marker and heal the damage, or you can leave it for summoning or as an
attack point for Reva. I think these will find a place in many crews.
Bone Pile-6ss Minion. This model seems best used as a higher
point scheme runner. They take one point less damage from enemy attacks, reduce
enemy damage flips with a negative flip, and are immune to all conditions that
are non-scheme or non-slow. With a 2ap action, they can bury themselves and
unbury at the end of the turn from a corpse counter somewhere on the board,
which they can then discard to heal 2 damage. At the start of their activation
they choose from a trio of buffs: One which increases their movement, one that
grants a plus flip to their attacks, and one that makes the bone pile count as
two models for the purpose of schemes and strategies. Their attacks are
somewhat middling, so you’ll probably want to pick from the first or last
option and use these guys to take care of some schemes.
Gravedigger-7ss Enforcer. An interesting utility piece, the
Gravedigger’s job is to grab corpse markers and move them around the board.
This is reflected by a condition, Corpsebarrow, which goes up by 1 for every
corpse marker this thing discards with its varied abilities. The Gravedigger
pushes to corpse markers that other models drop within 6” of it and discards
them, giving it the condition. Additionally, the Gravedigger can use a
0 to discard a corpse marker within 2” to increase the condition as well. What
do these markers do? Well, a model can target the Gravedigger like they’re a
corpse marker, reducing the condition by one for each marker that would be
discarded for an ability like summoning. Secondly, the Gravedigger can discard markers to fuel the damage on
its attacks. There’s a little risk in doing this, as a model that can remove
conditions gets rid of your corpse markers, but if the Gravedigger dies it
drops corpse markers equal to its Corpsebarrow condition in base to base, so at
least you won’t lose corpses that way. Finally, assuming any corpse markers are left on the board, the Gravedigger can make them count as friendly Scheme
Markers with a 0. And, if none of that does anything for you, the Gravedigger
can push enemy models around for a wheelbarrow ride and potentially slam them
into terrain for some damage. I think the utility will have a place in many
crews.
Little Gasser-4ss minion. An undead gremlin? Ok. Apparently
it’s a gremlin’s corpse inflated with poison gas? ………..ok……… It moves over
terrain and pushes an extra inch when something pushes it, and puts the Poison
condition on any models within 2” of it at the end of its activation. It can do
an AoE pulse forcing non-gremlins to pass a TN 15 WP duel or suffer damage as a
0 and then, with a trigger, push some more. Finally, it has a not impressive melee attack
with the infect trigger, or a different trigger that, in the unlikely event the
Gasser kills something (maybe you left a weak model on one wound for it to
finish off,) makes it count as having been killed by the poison condition
rather than by the Gasser. Potentially useful with McMourning describes that
trigger and, potentially, this model in general.
Lampad-7ss Enforcer. Based on Nymph companions of the Greek
goddess of witchcraft (two greek mythology things in Book 5 ressers? is this a theme?), this critter is based around burning. All of their
attacks give burning. They have a ranged attack with blasts, all of which
spreads more burning. Any model that ends their activation within 3” of them
gets, you guessed it, burning. And they can even use their 0 action to float 6”
and give burning to any model they pass through during the move. But why all
the burning? Well, because any model which dies from Burning damage within 10”
of them lets the Lampad summon a new Lampad in base to base for the cost of a
card from your hand. Pretty good, but I’m always a little leery of something
like this because it asks a lot of the model playing it and also relies on the
opponent not taking steps to stop you (burning can always be reduced at the
cost of their AP, remember, to say nothing of good old fashioned condition
removal). I think the damage part is good, and the summoning should be
considered a bonus. Getting a full-powered Lampad for one card is a pretty good
deal, but it’s going to be tricky to pull off.
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