Showing posts with label RipplesPreviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RipplesPreviews. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Captain Zipp

Alright, folks, it’s time for the last Master Preview! The rest of these have all been exciting, cool themed masters that fill in some corners of the Malifaux universe or introduce some new ones. Time to see what the Gremlins br…wait…what?


Well, that’s certainly different.

Zipp is apparently a Sky Pirate (introducing yet another new tribe/trait.) This is interesting, as it’s been mentioned in previous fluff that Malifaux is criss-crossed by sky cars that transport its citizenry. Clearly, these gremlins have come up with a new and innovative way of raiding these conveyances. I don’t know what thematic elements inspired this character other than…I don’t know, the Rocketeer? Oh well. I’m not going to pretend all the Gremlin silliness appeals to me, and their choice to raise the ante here doesn’t do it for me at all. But, that doesn’t mean the character can’t be interesting mechanically.


So yeah, Zipp’s weird as a master. Again, we can’t see his attacks to know what he’s going to bring to the table offensively, but Df 6/ Wp 6 and 12 wounds is not going to hold up to a lot of punishment. Off-setting it, you’re only going to get one hit on Zipp most of the time, as his trigger for Df and Wp will likely push him out of range for any follow-ups after resolving. On the face of him, Zipp kind of seems like a scheme runner/scheme runner hunter, which is odd for a master. I’m not sure there’s any that comes close to his raw speed: with an 8 Wk and 3 AP he can pretty much get wherever he wants in a turn. Of course, he’s insignificant, so no dropping scheme markers, but that won’t stop him from hunting down opposing runners or scoring for things that don’t require significance. And, his pseudo-chatty bubble will make interacting for things like Detonate Explosives or the old school Deliver the Message pretty tough.

I sort of feel like Zipp, more than most of the others, will require seeing the back to know what he can really do. As it stands, he strikes me as being a denial master, but his lack of staying power sort of seems counter-intuitive to that. I think he’ll do best in strats like Interference where the opposing crew will be spread out and you can chase them down individually. So, I guess we’ll see.


Now, since we know all the masters, it’s time to let your voice be heard! Which master from Ripples of Fate are you most excited to play? Go vote here!

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Nellie Cochrane


Extra! Extra! Read all about it! It’s a new Monday Preview from Wyrd!

                Named for groundbreaking female journalist Nellie Bly (real name Elizabeth Cochran Seaman,) this new addition to the Guild has quite a legacy to uphold. For whatever reason, the face looks odd to me, but the render of the sculpt has a lot more of that Newsy “Golly-gosh-gee-whillickers” look that is so out of place in Malifaux and especially in the Guild, of all things. Wait, a Guild master that doesn’t just explode everything in sight or stab it with a ridonculous sword? Who’d have thought? I’m excited for this new theme for the faction where I initially started my journey through the Breach.





                Well, so that’s a tough master, right there. Df and Wp 6, 11 wounds, and Revisionist History to make it so that A) your opponent never gets to cheat a damage flip against her and B) you always get to cheat their damage flip regardless of any negative twists they may have. Wow! Now this is a crew that will be happy to draw their black joker into their hand! She has a Wk of 5 and no charge, so not going to set any speed records, but Nellie seems to want to be playing a support master anyways. She seems to revolve around a new condition unique to her, Evidence, that drops off of her at the end of the turn, resulting in her dropping a scheme marker. Strangely, evidence is a stacking condition (since it reads as Evidence +1) but the condition says nothing about reducing it by 1. So, that seems to suggest that you have more things for which you can use it during your turn, including using it to push models away which fail attack flips within 8” of her. Interesting.


                As a Guild master, she’s definitely something new in that she appears to interact with or generate scheme markers and acts through support rather than direct attacks (I’m aware Lucius exists, but, come on now.) I think Nellie’s pretty cool, and I want to see what she can really do. This is definitely one of the masters that’s tougher to gauge based on the front of her card. The blurb in the Monday preview suggests that she uses propaganda against her enemies and incites (note lack of capitalization, sad face) them to mess up in public, manipulates schemes, and even does something with the way the Guild hires mercenaries. Weird! I want more info! But that’s not what we’re going to get, next week we get to see what the Gremlins are getting. See you then! 

Friday, June 17, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Paker Barrows


I’m gonna be honest with you: I thought I had written this already. I remember doing the research, hunting down the links and what-not. I guess I just didn’t write the damned thing. Anyways, let’s take a look at this week’s preview: Parker Barrows.
With a name that alludes to some historical bandits (who would have been children in the current time-frame of Malifaux, so probably not a direct link,) Parker is an Outcast master who seems to reverse the trend of the faction to get progressively weirder and weirder over time. He appears to be a living human being, not someone possessed by a tyrant, a spirit of vengeance, or an old necromancer who is progressively dying and resurrecting repeatedly every, just a Bandit (his new trait, as has been the trend in Ripples of Fate.) In a way I’m a little bummed by this, as I don’t play Outcasts but really like the Wild West tropes of Malifaux, so Parker is sort of tempting in that regard.

Also, the sculpt render looks badass.

One presumes he’ll be a ranged master, as he is dual-wielding pistols in his art. 14 wounds is a pretty hefty chunk, but Defense and Willpower 6 and no other defensive abilities (that we know of, anyway) means Parker will probably not want to get up close and personal very often (gee, where will Outcasts come up with some melee threats to throw in with him?) He draws cards when he or another bandit kills people within 6” of him (you cycle a card if it’s not a bandit that does the killing.) Cache of 4 is a welcome change for Outcast masters, I’m sure, and he can generate more Soulstones in response to his discarding Upgrades he attached to himself. Oathkeeper? Sure, why not make that better. And, one could guess this means he’ll be cycling upgrades in a McCabe or Ophelia-ish way during the game itself to make more use of this. I think the most interesting part of the front of his card is A Fistful of Scrip (awesome ability name) which lets him discard up to 4 cards and replace enemy scheme markers with friendly ones around 4” of him. That is neat. Good luck getting Convict Labor or Detonate the Charges when Parker is around, and it fills in what can be a weakness for the Outcast faction in scheme marker focused games.

I dig the idea of a crew of bandits that steal your stuff during the game. I’ll probably not end up playing Parker much, but that’s more a result of my not having Outcasts than anything else. It also continues a trend of “Here’s something different” that we’ve seen with all the masters so far. Let’s look forward to seeing where this goes in the future for the Guild and Gremlins. 

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Sandeep Desai

I’m running a bit behind this week, what with the American Society of Virology conference coming up and a manuscript being prepared for publication, but let’s get to the Monday Preview…on Thursday.



So, this is Sandeep Desai, a new master for the Arcanist’s faction. This continues a trend of a master working with a new Tribe in the faction, in this case the Academics. I think we all figured there would be some master eventually who interacted with them (currently they’re the Oxfordian Mages, Iron Zombies, and Freikorps Librarians only, but I’m sure there will be more,) but this is hardly the stuffy professor I expected. Sandeep appears to be an Indian Sikh (hurray for more diversity!) who channels magic that his crew can tap into and use for themselves. Also, his break-down in the Monday Preview itself mentions that he uses Gamin friends, so hurray for the little elemental dudes getting a boost (cut to a sad-faced Iron Gamin suddenly perking up and smiling a metallic smile.) Let’s peek at the stat card real-quick.




Well, 12 wounds, Arcane Shield, and Impossible to Wound. These Ripples of Fate masters are pretty tough on average, it seems. The rest seems pretty standard, though Df5 is nothing to write home about. The real interesting mechanic with this guy seems to be the Beacon and Student of All abilities. Beacon lets friendly non-peons within 12 of him take one of his Ca actions at -1 Ca during their turn. Once they do this, that ability is locked out for Beacon until the next turn, so no spamming the same spell over and over through multiple little weenies, but it still makes for some interesting force projection possibilities. Then, Student of All allows Sandeep to take a (1) action once per turn when someone uses one of his spells and ends up with a Tome in the final duel total. This leads me to assume that Sandeep won’t have said Tome built in (although if he does, good lord) but still creates some good ability to get bonus AP outside of activation. This leads me to think Sandeep is going to want to be in the mid board where he can project his Beacon out into the action, but isn’t quite tough enough to survive long term in the middle of melee (though being engaged won’t lock other models out of using his spells with a gun symbol, so it’s not the worst thing ever for him to mix it up with that big hittin’ stick he’s carrying around.) Of course, we don’t know what spells he’ll have, not seeing the backside of the card, but still cool.



Overall, his presence in the Arcanist rebel scum reminds me of Nemo from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, so he’s automatically awesome for that. Here’s hoping he has a cool submarine hidden somewhere. 


Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Asami Tanaka



This week’s preview is Asami Tanaka, a new master for the Ten Thunders faction. Continuing with the precedent established by Shen Long, she is single faction (apparently the infiltration part of the Thunders’ plans has now passed) and seems to be an interesting mix of traits that makes for a unique, Oni themed crew.

But what is she? Other than a walking, talking bad-hair day (rimshot) a speculation has been made, based on that hair and the description provided by Wyrd that she is a support master but doesn’t “lack her own bite.” This led to some speculation as to what sort of horrible thing she may actually be, which was tantalizingly teased by Nathan that the community was on the right track. So let’s go with the assumption that the speculation is right and present the monster Tanaka may actually be: a Futakuchi-onna.

Om nom nom


This is a creature from Japanese myth, a woman with a mouth on the back of her head. Created in most myths by a miserly husband who fails to feed his wife, this creature’s hair acts as tentacles that feed the mouth on the back of the head which will end up consuming twice as much as the mouth on the front. Personally, I always love these new Ten Thunders style creatures, mostly because I’m not familiar with Japanese folklore at all, so things like Yin the Penanggalan and the Kamitachi are always a fascinating look into an unfamiliar culture. Also, as a dungeon master for other roleplaying games, they’re always good to crib and use for other things to make my pcs miserable. If Tanaka really is one of these onna monsters, then she is a very cool addition to the faction.

But what is she in Malifaux? Let’s see what we can glean from the card.


Her stats are pretty strong, in my opinion. She diverges from the Ten Thunders pattern of 6’s all over the place, but with Lillith’s defense stats, 10 wounds, and Hard to Kill she has some decent staying power. The rest of her stats and her cache are fairly middling, but this may not be a huge surprise given that the preview mentions that she can call forth Oni onto the field of battle, which sounds pretty much like she’s a summoner. This fills a gap in the faction and puts her in an odd place, as she has Lillith-y stats but will likely want to be midfield, since she’s summoning and giving her Oni the ability to charge as a (1) action. Rush of magic is always a good thing, especially for summoners which can tend to be card (and suit) intensive.

Just for reference, the list of Oni in Malifaux are: Ama No Zako, Obsidian Oni, Jorogumo, Kamaitachi, and Tengu. I’m sure she’ll have other synergies with Oni, but I can only see the first three getting much use out of the Charging buff. Still, I’m sure there will be new Oni coming with her release, and it should make for a very cool and very weird looking crew!


All of these masters have been pretty strong, in my opinion, and I don’t know who I’m more excited to see (ok, it’s Titania.) Ripples of Fate is going to be a pretty awesome book, if this trend keeps going. See you next week! 

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Reva



Continuing with the Ripples of Fate previews, this week’s sneak peek reveals a master from the Resurrectionist faction. Reva appears to be a woman wearing what resembles a nun’s habit, riding a horse. I know I, for one, enjoy the mounted characters, so that’s always fun. I wish I had more details to share on the character’s background, as I did with Titania last week, but alas Reva hasn’t appeared anywhere to give us some information on who or what she is (at least, not that we know.)
So, let’s take a look at the stat card, shall we?



We have the first appearance of the Revenant keyword, so apparently Reva will come along with her own new type of creatures. With 13 wounds she has some survivability, but perhaps not as much as we’re used to seeing from Rezzer masters since she is only Df 5 and has none of the usual defensive keywords (armor, Hard to Wound, Hard to Kill, etc.) This appears to be less of an issue for Reva, however, as she is able to cast her spells out of any corpse markers she can see within 18”. As such, it seems she’s going to want to stay back a bit rather than leading from the front lines. Her horse seems to embrace the “Slow and steady wins the race” mantra, as it only has walk 5, though with Unimpeded and a charge of 10, I wouldn’t exactly call her slow either.

Reva definitely seems to draw power from the dead a bit more directly than the other Rezzer masters, both from her ability to use corpses to draw line of sight and her The Final Veil ability, which lets her heal whenever a non-peon is killed within 8” of her. She can summon a corpse candle (whatever that is. Probably some sort of dead totemy thing like a daydream or a marionette) by discarding a card at the start of her activation.

"Careful now! Or Hobbits go down to join the dead ones, and light little candles of their own."


Looks like a cool model, and potentially a new flavor for the Rezzers (wait, we don’t want to get the corpse markers back up again?). I’m quietly hoping she doesn’t have an awesome (0) action, as Maniacal Laugh to turn corpse markers into Mindless Zombies creates some interesting possibilities to give her Rasputina-like force projection abilities. Of course, we don’t know what the spells she would be casting out of these corpse markers will be, but I doubt they involve cuddling the enemy and giving them a nice box of candies. In any case, as a sort of sideline fan of the Resurrectionists (I’ll get around to playing them some day) I’m interested to see more of who Reva and her Revenants are and what they do on the battlefield. 

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Ripples of Fate Preview: Titania

This week’s Monday preview brought us the first in a series of reveals for the masters in Malifaux’s next book, Ripples of Fate. Confidentially, I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, as the first preview was…Titania!



With a name that hearkens to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it should be no surprise that Titania is the Queen of the Fae. The resemblance ends there, however, as details revealed from the Nythera Penny Dreadful (stop reading if you plan on playing this or don’t want this spoiled) let you know that she was once ruler of the Neverborn before she made a pact with the Grave Spirit to defeat the Tyrants by shattering their physical forms. The Neverborn were not thrilled with this (their hatred of the undead continues to be one of their defining traits, as Hayreddin can likely attest) and they locked her away beneath Nythera before she could bring the Grave Spirit fully into the world. Since then, she has leeched the energy from the Badlands, turning them into the wastes that they currently are, before being released by Fated at the end of this summer’s events (assuming that your Fated released her. I am aware that not all are as impulsive as others but, as my players put it “We’ve come this far, there’s no way we’re NOT going to find out what’s locked under here.”
Fluff-wise, I like this character a lot from the little bit we have so far. Someone who is an enemy of the Neverborn from the inside, who is returning and going to make the other masters decide how they feel about this person being back, could lead to some very interesting stories going forward. Also, it occurs to me that all of us should feel some sort of affinity for her, as Titania is one of the first characters any of us ever saw in Malifaux and one who many of us have spent games praying would appear in our favor.

Look familiar?

But what about in game? Let’s take a look at the front of the stat card.



For Neverborn players, it should be apparent that this is something very new and different for the faction. This character is very tough. With twelve wounds, Impossible to Wound, and the ability to heal two wounds every time her crew drops a scheme marker within 6” of you, it’s going to take some doing to bring down our new Undead queen. Additionally, enemy models that activate within 6” while in base contact with her scheme markers have to make a WP duel or take some damage. This seems like it would be sort of difficult to set up, but still makes some interesting possibilities for using her to defend markers in schemes like Convict Labor. Walk 5 and flight on a master usually means speed, though that’s nothing new for Neverborn. Still, good to see she will be able to keep up with other members of the faction if she needs too. And, frankly, nobody is likely to say no to a 4 cache. That’s good stuff, and will let you feed stones into the crew without having to save them for her (usually.) It’s tough to gauge anything past that without seeing the flip side of the card and her upgrades, but so far I like what I see.
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As an aside, I’m happy to officially announce that roving reporter Jon has joined the blog as an official coauthor, and should be posting soon about his experiences at the Cool Mini Or Not Expo tournament.