Ripples of Fate review: Ten Thunders

So I guess we saved the best for last... (debatable but I feel I must represent!)

Without further ado...

Asami's upgrades
- Feigned Weakness.  1 SS  In my opinion this strikes me as a trap.  It allows you to summon a model if your opponent ends the turn with more VP than you.  It will come in with flicker +2 and the bigger the difference in VP, the bigger the model you can summon.  If you have schemes that score end of game and you are close to 100% certain you can score them this is a bargain for 1SS but in a tournament differential is a thing so ceeding your opponent VP to use this ability is generally not a good idea.  But it is totally a play style decision.
- A Heavenly Design.  2 SS gives Asami a 0 action 6" teleport and a 10" aura that when a friendly model is sacrificed place a scheme marker into base contact.  It should be noted when flicker ends the model is sacrificed so this is going to be free VP for the summoning she is going to do anyway.
- Grasping Strands. 1 SS gives her an aura 4" that reduces the number of attacks generated for enemy models by the charge action by 1.  Also grant a trigger to Reaching Tendrils for a free Ml after succeeding.
- Nefarious Pact.  2 SS after she activates draw a card.  More importantly 10" aura where friendly models can chose not to end conditions if an action or an ability of an enemy model would require you to do so.  I don't see a ton of condition removal in lists.  That said you can either hunt those models or take this upgrade and not worry about the summoned oni being 1 shotted.
-A Fate of Mortals.  2 SS.  Any Oni model can take this upgrade.  once per turn if your opponent scores 1 or more VP, 1 target friendly Oni gains flicker +1.  Also a 10" aura if a friendly Oni minion kills or sacrifices an enemy it may draw a card.

Amanjaku- 3SS peon totem-  insignificant, disguised, manipulative 13.  a 1" Ml for 1/2/3 and plus damage = to your opponent VP upto +2.  flay trigger.  A Ca action that lets you increase the value of a condition by 1.  And a 0 action that requires  a TN and a suit to put up an aura to put Sh on a negative within 6"  Not sure how I feel about this totem but when I get the set I will put it on the table before I reserve judgement.

Ohaguro Bettari- 8 SS henchman - The Bird and the Snake, Enemy models with in aura 6 may not declare Df or Wp triggers.  Squeel all you want gremlins... it will do you no good.  Drawn to Essence, may chose to place into base contact with models that summon in within aura 6".From the darkness, May charge regardless of LOS and ignores models and terrain during the charge.He has a 2/3/6 Ml with flay, and 2 other triggers.  Ploughed Over if you win do no damage, push the model 4" away and then charge a different target, once per activation.  Or after succeeding place a corpse marker into base contact with the target. He has a 12" cast to place a condition that stops the model from charging.  And he has 2 zero actions, 1 makes a oni at range 6" to take an interact, and the other turns on a 4" aura to add masks to Ml for oni... sad illuminated but still solid (auto flay??? yes please!).  I'm kinda mad I didn't buy this box just to have this guy at gencon.  But I can wait for release.  Also has a 1SS upgrade for eat your fill.

Yokai - 5 SS minion  - plus flip to charge attacks.  Starts with flicker 5 if you hire him. Gets the option for an extra flicker +1 on summon.  And if he is still on the table after flicker and poison is lowered you may place it within 3" not in terrain. Ml for 2/3/4 damage with flay and 4 other triggers.  And he comes with 0 action to lower flicker by 1 to take a 1 interact with a heal trigger.  Don't know if I would hire these guys but I might try it just see.  But odds are I won't have stones to hire them anyway.

Terracotta Warrior - 5 SS minion - I'm going to say I was on the fence about this guy but he has a little bit of versatility.  Thousands Strong, if this model suffers damage from any source other than something that targeted it it may place a card from your hand on the bottom of your deck to prevent the damage.So if you get a bunch of crap cards this guy can potentially go into overdrive.  Armor +1, Unimpeded.  A 1/3/5 Ml with a trigger for +2 damage to you and the target.  It has a Ca to place a condition on non Terracotta minions or enforcers where you can misdirect the damage to this model and end the condition.  And a 0 action to change upgrades that cost more than 0 to other upgrades.  You have to pay stones if the new one costs more.  I will be running this tomorrow just to see what in all I can do with it.  This guy is more utility than most minions so it plays into some of the things I like to do.

Sun Quiang - 8 SS enforcer.  4 abilities on the front of the card.  Thirteen Measures, enemies that activate within 4" must past TN 12 Wp duel or gain slow.  Don't mind me. Absolute Sincerity, when this model activates all models in pulse 4 heal 1 damage.  King of medicine, when a model within LOS suffers damage you may place a card at the bottom of your deck to push up to your walk toward the model.  If you push at least 3 you may take a 1 interact.  He has a weird Ml which is Rg 6 or close 1 no damage track but 4 triggers, tome discard all scheme corpse and scrap marker within pulse 2 of target, Ram (built in) heal or deal 2 damage, Crow hand out the adversary condition, Mask after succeeding vs an enemy place the target within 6 of its location not in terrain.  His tacticals are a 1AP Ca A Recitation of the Essential Formulae which activates an aura that makes enemies within 4 count as a peon.  His zero Study targets a scrap corpse or scheme marker, place a friendly scheme marker then discard the target.  This guy is going to be very annoying for the opponent.

Yasunori - 12 SS enforcer. This guy is kinda a rider as far as stats go but that's where the comparison ends.  He does come with armor +1, stubborn, flight, scales of heaven once per turn, when this model suffers damage draw a card.  He has a 3/4/5 Ml with plus to attack that has 2 once per activation triggers for a bonus attack, 2 suits for 1 and the other 2 suits for the other.  A cast to make any minion take a 1 AP attack action with a trigger for bonus damage equal to VP the models crew has up to 3. And he has a 0 action to look at the top 3 cards and put them back in any order. With Asami if you give this guy fast and use recalled training you can charge for 1 AP with a 12" threat range and if you kill that model in 2 to 4 attacks you can charge a second target with 2 plus the remaining unused triggers.  This guy is going to wreck 2 models and then probably die if he is in the thick of combat.  But he will soak up AP to remove so still worth it.  He is not as scary with other masters but still needs to be dealt with.

Fuhatsu has a 0 SS upgrade to get +1Wk and a 2/4/6 Ml.  Odds are I still won't buy this model.

The Peaceful waters- Grants the Low river monks a Rg 6 heal flip if they are within 12" and LOS of the model with the upgrade.

Equality - once per turn after the opposing crew scores 1 or more VP do one of the following:draw a card, place a scheme marker in base contact with this model, or heal 2 damage.  I don't see myself taking this upgrade to have it, but I might use it to draw a card or 2 then flip it to something else with the terracotta warrior.

Death contract- comes with a decoy card, both don't count vs upgrade limit, play both face down, and if you kill or sacrifice the model the model that killed it must discard 2 cards or 2 stones or be killed..

Let me know if I need to fix anything since this is not really a strong suit of mine.  I will go back and update the Arcanists when I return from Wandering River Style.

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! 

CMON expo. A tale of an almost first place finish.

Greetings all.  This is Jon.  Adam asked me to report my exploits and shenanigans.  So instead of sending him bits and pieces I figured I would give this blogging thing a whirl.  Writing is not something I do often so if I am somewhat vague feel free to ask questions or leave constructive criticism.  Also my phone takes crappy pictures.  I am very aware of this.  I will upgrade in the near future.  With the disclaimers out of the way on to the tournament!

Game one:

Normally I would name opponents but I misplaced a sheet so I'm doing that round by memory and there may be some content that can be construed as a negative play experience.  While it is relatively easy to extrapolate who I am talking about, I will leave all names out as I feel its a polite thing I can do.  I'm not angry.  There are several things I did wrong to lose that game and it was a hard lesson in tournament scheme selection.


Round one:
Strat: Guard the stash.  Schemes: Convict Labor, Set up, Undercover Entourage, Leave your mark, Exhaust their forces.  Deploy:  Corner

Going into this one I was going to use Brewmaster because his defensive trigger is debilitating in corner deployment.  But my opponent told me he was relatively new to the game (less then 10 games played if memory serves.  So I figured a more straight forward master like Lynch would A. play faster on my side and B. not be so confusing and be a NPE for a newer player by making his models do nothing all game.

So the lists: 10 Thunders Vs Arcanists
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun, Recalled Training
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Yin, Smoke Grenades
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
10 Thunder Brothers x 2

Rasputina, Child of December, Decembers Pawn, Shattered Heart
Wendigo
Ice Golem, Armor of December
Hoarcat Pride
Ice Gamin x 3
Sabretooth Cerebus

I don't remember who won flip or who deployed first.  There was no from the shadows I started by the building with the grey roof, and my opponent in the opposite corner.  I sent a brother down each flank to complete convict labor and then to peel off for leave your mark, an illuminated toward each stash marker (hugging cover), Huggy to support one and Yin the other.  Lynch set up behind a fence where he could not be seen between both strat groups.  He came up kinda in a cloud formation and I'm not really certain if there was a plan other then to try to win combat and sweep past me.  This was probably one of his first games since Huggy's incorporeal was frustrating him.  So much so he used smash when Huggy was on one wound top of turn two (probably unaware he was only buried).  Removing Huggy left a lane for my illuminated to skirt past the golem and charge Raspy. He tried to harass one of my thunder brothers with the hoarcat.  Lynch deleted the cerebus releasing huggy who charged the hoarcat and deleted it so my markers on that flank would count.  With Raspy effectively neutralized (don't remember if I killed the golem somewhere in there) he decided to call it.  We both failed the strat turn 3 so I got that game 9-1.  I don't particularly enjoy beating brand new players this bad.  I only hope he sticks with the game and gives it a chance.

Game two:

This table was interesting.  The stairs up to the platforms didn't seem set up in any logical way and I knew I was taking 3 models that don't care.  This guy was running Outcasts but also said he was relatively new.  So we agreed everything was climbable.  Since he showed up with a box that didn't look like it could hold the rat engine and if it did all my stuff can act independent and it was standard deploy sooo...

Round two:
Strat: Turf War.  Schemes: Convict Labor, A Quick Murder, Public Demonstration, Show of Force, Exhaust their forces.  Deploy:  Standard

The lists: 10 Thunders Vs Outcasts
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun, Recalled Training
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Yin, Smoke Grenades
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
10 Thunder Brothers x 2

Von Schill
Hannah
Lazarus
Strongarm Suit
Librarian
Hans

I don't remember his upgrades as I didn't write them down but every model had an upgrade.  With Turf War and Show of Force having obvious synergy I didn't expect I could compete in Show with just Yin.  As an aside with his crews only threat to my scheme runners being Hans I knew I had 3 points locked up for convict labor (or he would have to potentially lose a stat point and a scheme point to contest my markers).  Public Demonstration while this being the easiest set up I will ever get the list is not built to do it and it relies too heavily not picking off an Illuminated before I spring it.  In hindsight a quick murder on the Strongarm was probably the way I should have gone but somewhere in the back of my mind what if he plays cagey with an obvious melee model and stands back shooting people?  So I settled on Exhaust.  The Brothers didn't have to guard markers anyway as he was obviously all in on a rush to the middle.

Something that didn't happen is I didn't stop to think what he probably took for the second scheme.  I can rule out Public Demonstration seeing as how he had 0 demonstrators, not enough models to attempt Convict, and Exhaust is difficult if you are being out activated (but not to be ruled out) so it was almost certainly a Quick Murder (which my list inadvertently thwarts with attacking Yin at a double negative outside of 6"). But had I did this step I would have deployed Yin in cover for an extra negative.  Even though it turns out Hans doesn't have a built in positive like the other snipers these are the kinds of mistakes I'm going to need to eliminate from my game.

Turn 1.  I deploy on the closer side in the picture.  Brother on each flank and everything else aiming to support the fight for the middle.  He takes a pot shot with Hans (set up on the walkway behind the building for cover) at Yin which misses (still not triggering my spidey senses).  I advance everything into cover except the Brothers.  I send Chiaki to support the thunder brother on my left flank so I can get the markers down quick to maybe get him into the scum turn 3 for Exhaust.  He brought the Strongarm and Librarian down my right flank but angling for the center.  I think he got Hannah and Schill up to or on the walkway towards the center.  I still don't know what the plan for Lazarus was but he was back by Hans on the ground.  Score 0-0

Turn 2.  He advances Strongarm and Hannah up to score.  I charge Huggy in to melee range of both putting some damage on Hannah so the Librarian would have to think about randomizing.  I advance an Illuminated to score.  Between Hans and Schill they kill that Illuminated.  So I advance the other one and Yin in for scoring.  I start running the left flank bro toward the center and advance the other to cover to maybe make a run at Hans.  Score 2-2 (Convict for me, Show for him).

Turn 3.  This where my opponent says 'That's where it all went horribly wrong really'.  I win imitative pop Recalled Training stone for the envelop trigger.  I hit the Strongarm for a straight damage flip and top deck the red joker for 11 damage.  Then I stone for envelop and hit Hannah for 7.  And suddenly there were 2 less models.  (turns out he forgot a legend to live up to which is basically hard to kill.  The math as I see it is I would have killed both of those models with Lynch next activation if he skipped the librarian to get rid of Huggy and in the end of that turn he might have scored 2 less)  He jumps Schill into Huggy burying him.  The Librarian moves up to score.  Still no clue what Lazarus is doing.  I move Yin and the Illuminated up on the walk to go after Hans next turn.  Chiaki and the thunder bro came up to score the strat.  I score exhaust somewhere in there I think it was Yin on Lazarus.  Score 5-4

Turn 4 .Pick off the Librarian, exhaust Lazarus, and engage Hans.  Turn flew by pretty quick.  Score 8-4.  Called the game here 10-4 me.

With a +14 differential and at most 5 undefeateds barring ties (which there is very likely at least a few) means I'm probably playing for first place next game.  There were no table numbers and match ups just picked a table, set up, and go.  So outside of the final standings there is no way for me to tell at this point if I'm playing for 1st or the second place table (where 1st is possible if the the first place table ties and being in 5th at this point being highly unlikely but mathematically possible).


Game three:

This was the table my opponent suggested.  When you see his list it will be obvious why but someone beat us to it.  This is Shenlong, Hans, and two snipers all day.  I will gladly trade my 6 shot to his 3.  But instead of dwelling on what almost was a completely different game...

 

This table seemed relatively balanced.  More outcasts and 'kinda new player'.  I'm going to hedge against ratjoy and bring Aionus.  Somewhere in the chaos I put an element in my list for Reconnoiter and not Reckoning.

 Round three:
Strat: Reckoning.  Schemes: Convict Labor, Take Prisoner, Detonate the Charges, Covert Breakthrough, Hunting Party.  Deploy:  Standard

The lists: 10 Thunders Vs Outcasts
Lynch, Woke Up With a Hand, Rising Sun
Hungering Darkness, Recalled Training
Aionus, Recalled Training
Chiaki
Illuminated x 2
Torshiro, Command the Graves

Leveticus
2x Waif
Rusty Alyce
Hans
2x Trapper
2x Convict Gunslingers

I lost the deployment flip.  This wasn't as debilitating as it could have been considering he had 2 models with from the shadows I failed to account for in my set up.  I chose the corner with the small square building.  He deployed both Trappers together one one the ground behind the rectangle building on my side and one up on the roof in the corner as close to the corner of the board as you can get* (I'll touch back on this as I got cheated).  Hans was up on the building in the middle of the other side.

Instead of doing a play by play or turn by turn I'll just run the highlights.  Not taking any bros cut Convict out of contention.  So I went with Breakthrough and Detonate because Chiaki could probably score me 2 on that.  I tie up Hans with Huggy turn 2 after killing a Gunslinger to get him back.  I tied up Levi with Torshiro for a couple turns.  He scored the strat turn 2 and had I ran my Illuminated down the right flank and pretend it was dropping convict markers I could have stopped him from scoring 3 (for the game) on hunting party.

Where this game went sideways for me is when I tried to shoot the Trapper on the roof (who had move up turn one cause it was out of range or something but it was still more than 2 inches from the edge of the building facing my deployment zone)  He was running the other Trapper to do break through but he hadn't dropped any markers yet.  So he told me I'm pretty sure you can't shoot that guy because vantage point rules.  I didn't bother to check the rules at this point because this guy was slow playing me weather he intended to or not.  So I just changed target to the scheme runner and cheat to what would have been a tie unless he cheated the red joker and he cheated the joker.  I had the red joker in hand and I tie/win the game had I played it there.  I was saving it to one shot a buried Levi with Aionus.

So there is this last round call at 15 mins and we are seconds from the end of 4. score going into 5 is 4-6.  And he calls the game with some lame excuse of I have to be ready to drive 3 hours after this.  If that's the only way you can win buddy have at it.  Top of 5 I have Lynch w/ 5 wds, huggy full and in charge range for Levi, unwounded Aionus, and Chiaki.  Levi had one wound, 2 Waifs hiding in a puddle of piss and the Trapper on the roof who at this point had been cheating the entire game to shoot at me as it turns out that the vantage point rule runs both ways.  Chiaki could still score me detonate for 2 or 3, Lynch could pick up a marker. And I would have scored strat for killing Levi twice that turn.  I turned in the sheets with 12 minutes left and there is no way we would have not finished with 8 models on the table.  But whatever.

So what did I learn from all that?  Take models to do the schemes I chose, have a fall back model, and score a fast as possible.  I don't mean for this to sound salty but I'm sure it does.  I learned several things from all three games, generally had fun (I can't prove the last guy meant to cheat me but you can be for certain I have vantage point seared into my brain and that won't happen again).  I need to slow down and focus at the selection step because this is not the first time I made this type of error.

And a week from this tournament is BKFuax (last weekend at the time of posting this).  So more tournament reports to come.

Adepticon Field Report

Editor's Note: Last weekend my friend Jon (you'll remember his name from numerous battle reports on the blog) went up to Chicago to test out his Ten Thunders might versus the wider Malifaux field. He lives in Atlanta, which is sort of the birthplace of Wyrd anyways, and he's played at Gencon basically every year since becoming a Malifaux player, but this was his first trip to Adepticon. He was texting me the results from his game, and I said "Hey, how would you feel about writing up a report on the con for Malifaux Musings? He said yes, and this was the result. I look forward to doing more of these in the future, as a bachelor man like Jon is much more free to travel and compete than I am. So, this will be our first field report from roving reporter, Jon. Hope you enjoy!

Pictured: Not Jon. But definitely the image of him I'll be using in this article.

***

So where to begin…  for me this was more a spur of the moment type trip I was fully unprepared to take.  I logged into the Adepticon site a couple weeks ago for giggles to see what in all was going on.  The draw was they had an X wing worldwide event in 8 cities in 8 different countries and I was going to try to get a game in before I went. I have lots of ships but haven't played anyone, and I don’t want to be the guy that shows up to a tournament who has never played even.  I would play X wing on Friday and Malifaux on Saturday and maybe the story encounter Sunday.  So I found someone on facebook to split the expenses with me (who just so happens to be Wyrd's studio painter) and the plan was in motion.

So then the Easter sale dropped.  Now I have models to paint!  And anyone who knows me knows this is kind of an Achilles’ heel of mine.  So I spent almost all my free time the week before assembling and painting (skipping that x wing game I wanted to get in but it wouldn’t matter because I probably needed all day Friday to paint as well).  I ordered bases and they came in Tuesday (I was lucky to keep refreshing the Easter sale every 10 min until it went live so my order was close to first in the queue.)  My label generated Tuesday at 4, so I thought it would go out that day. Turns out Fail-Ex had different plans. Left Wyrd on Wednesday at 2 and I got it Thursday during work hours before I was set to hit the road. So thus began the comedy of set backs.  First up I get a call at 2 (estimated time of departure) ‘I have a flat’… so this set us back an hour.  Between rush hour and the rain we lost probably 2 hours in the commute.  Got in at 2.30am. We didn’t reserve Thursday because when we made the plan he was gonna drive Friday morning, but this changed because of his crystal brush contest.  So that hotel did not have a room for us.  We went over to the convention center to see if registration might be open because the swag bag was suppose to be worth it.  No such luck.  So he made the suggestion we could just nap in the car which I can totally do.  Turned out he cannot.  So after an hour we went in search of a hotel room.  We get that sorted and Friday was bearable.  Got there about 11 after the swag was gone.  Then we set up shop and paint.  Usually I do ok on 6 hours sleep so I paint until 2 am.  Then the fire alarm goes off at 4.30 am…  When I wake up I’m so tired and kinda in a hurry I couldn’t figure out how the coffee dispensers work so I left the hotel without and it was snowing.   How many signs of the apocalypse do I half to encounter just to play some Malifaux? So now that you have an understanding of where I started Saturday morning and that I don’t normally record games in any way to do battle reports, take this with a grain of salt.  And I didn’t bother to take any pictures because my camera is blurry and I need a new phone.

Editor's Note: I like to imagine it looked something this.

I declare 10 thunders
Game 1:  Lynch v Ramos Woke up                                                       upgrades for Ramos that probably did nothing Rising sun Expert Cheater Huggy w addict and recall training         Joss w Imbued Kang w recall training                               Howard w imbued Yu w wandering river style                      Johan Depleted                                                     Brass arachnid

Low river monk                                          mobile tool kit

2x 10 t brothers

I don’t know if anyone snapped any pictures of any of the tables but this one was a wrecked rail yard.

Stat and schemes: recon, convict labor, detonate the charges, exhaust forces, neutralize leader, take prisoner.

Deploy: Standard

I took convict labor and detonate. He took exhaust and take prisoner on Yu.

The game didn’t really go as expected.  He used his beaters to guard Ramos behind cover and sent spiders to contest recon.  Me not being awake at this point in the morning was too slow to counter this.  And I should’ve taken Torshiro.  And while I understand the function of depleted, getting them to work is another animal.  I score one for strat and 3 for convict labor.  Lose 9-4.  I go grab a soda for some much needed caffeine.

Game 2: Lynch vs Ironsides

Woke up                                                   upgrades

Endless hunger

Huggy w RT                                              captain w/ imbuded

Yin w/ smoke grenades                         envy with imbued

Pathfinder                                               mouse

Low river monk                                      Johan

2x illuminated                                         2x gunsmiths

2x 10 t brothers

This was table 18 with carnival terrain.

Strat and schemes: Extraction, convict labor, catch and release, hunting party, leave your mark, and search ruins.

Deploy: Standard

I took convict labor and search ruins.  I think he had hunting party and I know he had ruins.  This one was kinda meh.  We traded pieces until I had yin, both brothers, the pathfinder and lynch and he had captain and mouse.  And this is where I misread and thought center line is where the markers needed to be.  So I won 7-4.  I had a ton of unmolested AP to score 10 and this cost me at the end of the tournament.

Editor's Note: Jon's models when he told them where to put the scheme markers.

Game 3: Lynch V Levi (Kyle from Schemes and Stones podcast)

Woke up                                                   iron

Endless hunger                                       I think there were other upgrades

Huggy w RT                                              2x waif

Yin w/ smoke grenades                         Strongarm w/ oathkeeper

Pathfinder                                               peace keeper w/ oathkeeper

2x illuminated                                         taelor w/ oathkeeper

2x 10 t brothers                                      necro punk

Table 13 was kinda like a valley with a few pockets of trees.

Strat and Schemes: collect the bounty, convict labor, quick murder, occupy turf, show force, leave mark.  

Close deploy.

I took convict labor and mark.  I think he had show and mark.  He sent the strongarm and a waif up one flank, necro up the other and everything else up the center.  I sent a bro up each side and sent yin and huggy to deal with the strongarm and the rest move up to deal with the host.  Yin put the minus wp debuff on the strong arm and then locked down his walk/charge.  Huggy came along and caressed him once to give brilliance and then the rest of the tentacles sodomized him for red joker 11 at the top of round 2.  Managed to kill the PK relatively easy.  The necro got 3 for mark.  Levi shot one bro, buried, then reversed field and killed the other one.  I scored bounty twice and got 3 from labor.  I think this ended 5-7 or 8 bad guys (this ran up to the timer and I was still kinda in zombie mode).  If taelor didn’t joker an Illuminated last turn I could’ve sprung her to tie this game but it was well played on his side.  I should have ignored the necro and used the pathfinder on the main host.  That might have made the difference in killing stuff to get me the win.

Game 4: Lynch V Ironsides (again ) (Tyler? from Malifaux's Most Wanted podcast I think (could be wrong))

Woke up                                                   

Endless hunger                                       upgrades

Huggy w RT                                              Johan

Yin w/ smoke grenades                        mouse

Kang w RT                                                2x gunsmith

2x illuminated                                         2x oxford mage

2x 10 t brothers                                      firestarter

Table 13 was kinda like a valley with a few pockets of trees.

Strat and Schemes: reckoning, convict labor, exhaust, frame, public demo, show of force. 

Corner deploy.

I took convict and exhaust.  He took exhaust and ? (this game was before the dinner break so hunger and fatigue made this game a blur but I remember both of us were laughing most of the time and he had Kang down to 1 wound for the entire turn 3 and could not get the last wound to score reckoning.  I may have cheated and red joker and told him got to work harder than that. I more or less rolled his forces as I advanced behind Yin with his double – to hit.  I think I won 8-3

Game 5: Lynch V guild mcmourning

Woke up                                                   

Endless hunger                                       upgrades

Huggy w RT                                              frank

Yin w/ smoke grenades                        sebastain

swordsman w RT                                   chihuahua

2x illuminated                                         abuela

2x 10 t brothers                                      nurse

                                                                  Watcher

                                                                 2x austringer

Table 7  town square

Strat and Schemes: Guard stash, convict labor, hunting party, inspection, set up, take prisoner.  

Standard deploy.

I took convict and Take Prisoner Frank,  He took set up and ? (I honestly don’t know).  This game started well enough.  I move up using building for cover.  He had abuela, nurse austringer and a watcher on 1 side, and the rest to the other side.  Turn 2 he shoots at the approaching swordsman only to faceplam when he remember I had bulletproof 3.  Huggy then told her to shoot the austringer and she said sure thing and smoked him.  He manages to throw mcmourning in lynches face then huggy, yin, and illuminate counter charge and remove him.  Then frank and Sebastian come up and try to avenge their master and this is where the game went sour.  He had sebastain behind frank but I still had line of effect to sebastain (I will concede he was very close to being hidden but he was not) So I attacked sebastain and he didn’t hear me and assumed I was going after frank.  When I get this sorted when he had frank on one wound, I had him move all those wound over to sebastain.  Then I thought he was gonna flip the table on me.  He was throwing his pieces and everything. At this point all I did was pass with all my models but only to take bare minimum to score 10.  I won 10- not 10(I think 5).  I think he was kinda ok after the game after I showed him I had take frank and that why I didn’t want the wounds on him.  But that was a sour game.  But I learned I need to be rested and pay more attention to what my opponent is doing.  I should’ve caught that before it became an issue.

Editor's Note: Or, just follow this advice.

But I am happy with my 10 (should have been 8^th) place finish.  I had fun for 4 ½ games.  And I can’t wait for gen con and to go back next year.

Wave 2 Beta: Ten Thunders

So, last Friday the Open Beta ended and the files reverted to internal playtest, prior to being released officially so we can move on to the Avatars. I thought, in lieu of other meaningful content, that I’d do a series of articles passing through the factions' upcoming models, looking closely at the minions and enforcers with an eye to their generic utility for the faction as a whole, shying away from things related to the new masters or which is obviously pointed at facilitating a specific crew. I don't consider myself enough of an expert on any of the new stuff to really speak with any authority on them, so I'll leave that off for the time being. Also, all of this may change in a couple weeks when the files come out, but if past experience is to be believed most of the final internal changes will be more of the fine-tuning variety than major overhauls.Now, given the fact that I thought The Illuminated were just “ok” when I first reviewed them, there’s a very strong possibility I’m flat-out wrong about a lot of this. But this is my blog, and you clicked on it and read it, so frankly I think you share just as much of the blame as I do for spreading this ridiculous misinformation.

You should be ashamed of yourself. 

Wastrels: Introduced as the answer to the 1.5 Guild problem of having no cheap, fast, objective runners, Wastrels were undeniably overtuned because they were designed to fill a void. I liked them quite a lot, and not just because one of their sculpts reminded me of Alex from Clockwork Orange. Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t quite keep the same level of power in 2^nd edition. Wastrels now gain Defensive+1 at the end of their activation if all they do is take walk actions. They don’t have their back alley teleportation thing anymore (apparently Seamus stole it) outside of a (2) action that lets you jump to friendly scheme markers. Their gang weapons also no longer gain positive flips, mostly to keep them from being better with McCabe’s sword than he is. Their “Bravado” ability to discard cards and gain suits for their duels (useful for the Castoffs (2) action which gives them various buffs and abilities) is nowhere near as effective outside of McCabe (they get to draw after they discard when they have an upgrade attached) or with Lynch (discard your aces, pick them back up, repeat) but could be useful in certain situations for other crews. I don’t think it was intentional design symmetry with Lynch, particularly since he's already pretty good anyways, but I like it all the same. After all, where else would you expect to find a Wastrel if not in a brothel like the Honeypot?

Chiaki: The faction had condition removal with the Low River monks already, but she packages it with an interesting utility offensive ability to force enemy models to become insignificant for a turn. She has Manipulative and incorporeal to improve her survivability. A solid mid-point value model.

Izamu: The 1.5 terror that was Izamu the Armor obviously couldn’t stay as nuts as he was after a reset, so perhaps it's no surprise that he managed to stay controversial throughout much of the beta process, with threads of malcontents griping about him all the way to the final day. I have to say, I don’t get what people were expecting. He’s tough. He hits hard. He has a self-heal on a (0) action and, if an enemy manages to kill him in melee, he gets a free swing at them, which is as close to “Slow to Die” as any model in M2E has at this point. I know much of the dispute ranged around whether to focus him on being "tanky" versus "hitty," but I think the model landed in a place where it can do both relatively well. What else are you looking for, unless of course it’s just for him to be the no-brainer beatstick he was previously? He’s still good, just not quasi-broken anymore.

Ten Thunders Brother: These are in a weird place, and I’m hoping to see some modifications before they come out. Maybe I’m missing it, but these rules don’t do anything for me. Companion isn’t as good as it used to be, and that was the main purpose for these guys previously. I'm probably underwhelmed due in large part to not liking their (0) action, due to my not generally caring for abilities which you can’t control. Maybe it’s just that I’m a control freak, but I hate being subject to the vagaries of the deck or your control hand to catch suits for an ability that is this situational. Also, I have a minor gripe that they aren’t Last Blossom anymore, which bums me out as it means they no longer have a way to be played in their original faction, the Outcasts.

Mr. Graves and Mr. Tannen-I’ve written about an earlier iteration of them previously. Since then they’ve made some good changes to make them play nicer together and to give Tannen some much better abilities (his objective is to bore the opponent’s models, not the player controlling him). “Show ya the door” makes Graves play kind of like an offensive linemen for your crew, which appeals to me on an instinctual level. Tannen can take a (1) to gain chatty, which I think was a good compromise from the discussion people were engaged in during heavy testing earlier on and improves his utility significantly. I'm looking forward to giving them some more test runs.

Shadow Effigy- Effigies changed a lot during the tests, due in large part to Collodi also undergoing a lot of fluctuation. All of them follow a general scheme of doing something good for the crew and having a powerful (0) that buffs the master. I’m interested in “Remember the Mission” as it lets minions put more scheme markers on the board without spending their own AP. This is useful for completing schemes and also for abilities like the Wastrel and the Tengu that gain mobility off of them.

Lone Swordsman-This guy follows the Ten Thunders tradition of being a stat brick. He can walk 12” or have an 11” threat range off of his charge due to “Walk the Earth” (0) action giving him a 2” push. The “You will not see another sunrise” ability is very high risk/high reward, but I can see it being a game winner under the right circumstances. Also, I just want one so I can paint him to look like Samurai Jack

.

Kamaitachi-Ten Thunders gains a generic totem *applause*. The model should be interesting, as a quick Google search of the name indicates it refers to three weasels blowing in a windstorm, apparently.

Truly the face of fear.

Their Howling Thunder ability is probably the thing that is going to raise the most eyebrows, as it effectively lets Ten Thunders models pass Recalled Training back and forth rather than discard them, at the cost of a temporary (in most cases) 2 wounds. One imagines Ototo and, say, Sidir passing it back and forth and being on positive flips for the whole game, presuming you can defend the totem (I imagine he will be a high priority target.) Could be a bit strong, and I know Justin was watching this pretty closely at the end of the testing cycle, so don’t be surprised if this sees some changes. I also like the 0 action for pushing models their walk value, as more movement is always good.

Tengu-Aha, here are the generic objective grabbers we’ve all been clamoring for. These, at first blush, remind me of M1E Night Terrors with their low cost, flight, and teleportation tricks. In a vacuum you can imagine a group of them where one moves forward, drops a marker, and the others jump off of it to gain more movement on round one. Other scheme marking tricksters like the Shadow Effigy could facilitate this further. Toss in some healing abilities and a (0) to discard enemy scheme markers, and you’ve got a pretty solid model for 4 stones. Also, in Japanese folklore they look like Skeksis (or dudes with long noses. Depends on the interpretation.) So you’ve got that to look forward to.

Ansatsu Sha- Oh, Sha. What do you say about this model? It was made Rare 2 partway through the Beta, which should probably give you an idea of how crazy strong they used to be. Ten Thunders gets a sniper model, with the always popular “Focus for longer range” rifles that we’ve come to love in this edition. Also, he has “From the Shadows.” Also, they have a + to attack flips Katana attack. Oh, and Hard to Kill. And if your leader dies in their LoS, they get reactivate. And they can hand out Slow to enemy models with a (0) action. Expect to see lots of these being proxied (if anyone has suggestions, they'd be welcome) once the rules become legal. Apparently Justin doesn’t like their name, though, so that may be different when the final cards are released. Let’s all hope that’s the only thing that changes, as these guys are awesome.

 So these are the models that jumped out at me from the first wave of beta files. Next up is going to be a pass through the Guild, so see you for that one. As usual, comments are welcome and encouraged. 

Mixed Ten Thunders Musing

The UK Masters tournament was this weekend, making it probably the highest level competitive tournament of the M2E era thus far. The UK meta is, reportedly, quite different from the US, but regardless this tournament is probably one of the best pieces of hard data we have on what competitive M2E will ultimately look like (at least for a few more months until Wave 2 comes out, but I digress.) It’s always funny to see what people are afraid will be totally broken during the theory phases of the game versus what actually ends up being strong competitively. These two things tend to only meet up rarely, particularly in a game as intricate and balanced as Malifaux M2E. The Drowned from M1.5 were a great example of this, as I have yet to meet anyone who saw those rules on paper and thought “Yep, that’s a solid model right there.” Personally, I thought they were garbage and filed them with the Latigo Pistolero after my first reading (though I didn’t think Tuco was that great either, so I’m clearly an idiot.) Instead, it turned out that they were a tough, cheap, fast model that the enemy couldn't afford to ignore and punished the enemy harshly for killing them.

This has something to do with the Masters, I promise. Stay with me.

For weeks now on the Bayou Broadcast (http://bayoubroadcast.podbean.com/), Craig Johnson (UKRocky) has slammed the hell out of Ten Thunders. When asked to rank the M2E factions competitively, Craig’s list was effectively “In last, Ten Thunders. Above that, all the others in a tie.” Most of this concern came from the lack of a cheap objective grabbing model in the crew, which is a big deal in the current environment and definitely puts them at a handicap. Every faction in the game can out-activate Ten Thunders if they want to, unless you’re going to take lots of Monks of the Low River, who Craig has openly panned. It’s easy to see why, given that the Monk has no attack actions and doesn’t move that quickly (their function is primarily to remove conditions.) The Torekage (ostensibly the “objective grabber” of the faction due to their ability to walk out of engagement as well as teleport off of other friendly models) is much more expensive than what you can find in other crews. This is a struggle for the faction as a whole and led to Craig’s dismissal of them as a competitive option (at least publicly. Craig is infamous for underselling his own abilities and the abilities of his crews.)

This, of course, leads inevitably to Craig winning the Masters using Ten Thunders Jacob Lynch.

Pictured: Not Craig Johnson.

Now, I’ve already stated how much I love Jacob (http://midwestmalifaux.blogspot.com/2013/09/breaking-lynch.html), and I’d be lying to say I wasn’t gratified to see some of the strengths I was promoting coming to light. As they discussed on today’s Fools Daily (http://malifools.podbean.com/), the obvious reason for his power is the free face-smashy model (pictured above) that you get just as a reward for playing him, while the less obvious power comes from his card advantage and ace-discarding shenanigans. Now that the Neverborn upgrades have been toned down, the choice of faction for Lynch becomes much less of an auto-select than it used to be. I still tend to favor him as Neverborn, but I think Craig has demonstrated pretty effectively that the other side works well. Also, on his twitter feed today he’s mentioned that removal of conditions is a much more important part of the game than he had given credit, so now the much maligned Monk of Low River is beginning to come up a bit in his perception. I myself need to get him (the Monk, not Craig) out onto the field to battle-test them, but I’m pleased to see the success for both the faction in general and Lynch specifically. And, of course, much congratulations to Fat Craig for his victory. I look forward to his humble-bragging about it on the next Bayou Broadcast episode.

So as not to make this just a minifaux post (ooo, I just coined a new term,) I’ll talk about a game I played recently. This is really a re-visiting of an earlier topic (http://midwestmalifaux.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-misaki-switch.html) wherein I discussed Misaki tactics and another post (http://midwestmalifaux.blogspot.com/2013/09/raw-deal-card-access-and-my-concerns.html) wherein I slammed all over Tara for being ugly and bad (still my most popular post to date.) This was of course played over Vassal, as I still live in the Malifaux dessert of Western Virginia. My opponent was Jon, and he wanted to see what he could do with the Nothingness. The best part, of course, is I get to reuse one of my graphics.

Misaki – Defensive Upgrades, Training, 6SS

Yamaziko-Training, Last Blossom Upgrade

3xTorekage

2xRail Worker

1xOiran

Tara-Upgrades of some kind, SSs

Hannah

Hans

Karina

Nothing Beast

3xVoid Wretch

The game was played a couple of weeks ago, so I’ll stick to the highlights and then move on to analysis. I hadn’t played Misaki in a while (as a matter of fact I have played exactly 2 games with Misaki in M2E, coincidentally both versus Tara,) but I decided to put my money where my mouth was and try out my defensive build for the mistress of the Ten Thunders. We were playing Reckoning with a very passive scheme-marker-based pool, so I wanted to try out Oiran for Lure tactics, Rail Workers to get my model count up, and see if I could just plant Misaki in the middle of a quadrant and say “Come on if you think you’re tough enough.” Jon was learning to play Tara and wanted to get the box set on the (virtual) board along with some other stuff he wasn’t familiar with, namely Hannah and Hans. I joked afterwards that Jon loves Killjoy and will bend over backwards to fit him into any list he builds, yet for whatever reason he made the decision not to include Killjoy in the crew that he probably works best with!

Weeeelll, you know what Mike Tyson says about plans, namely that everybody has one till you get punched in the face.  I had protect territory and frame for murder on one of the rail workers for my schemes, and was basically planning on turtleing up with Yamaziko and the Rail Workers in one quadrant and using Misaki to go control somewhere else, with the Torekage’s burying tricks to move them to where they need to be at the end of a turn for control. Since you don't need to prevent your opponent from scoring in M2E Reckoning, all I needed was to control my two quarters and deny him some scheme points and I would be set. And did I mention how smart I felt about the thought of burying my Torekage to move them around the board to control quarters?

Yeah.

Those of you with brains who remembered that I’m playing Tara probably see the flaw in this strategy right away, as the one time I was foolish enough to try it my Torekage emerged back into the field of play with 3 wounds and some burning tokens. Also, Hans was sitting on the other side of the board, picking at anybody who stuck their face out and laughing at my Torekage’s silly smoke bombs. Also, Hannah had shut my Oiran’s Lure down because of her counterspell. Also…ok, look, you get the idea. My plan was dumb. Even the part that did work, the turtle with Yamaziko to prevent charges on my crew, ended up biting me since it meant the Rail Worker didn’t get murdered until we were past where I could get the bonus points for the scheme.

So, knowing that the plan had failed, I changed to aggressive Misaki without the proper upgrades, if only to shut Hans and Tara down. Jon did a fantastic job of saving Hans from me by burying him with Tara, but in doing so left Tara in position to be Assassinated (a weakness for this crew's low hand size that I had noticed when playing her previously.) I was still rather impressed with the Last Blossom related mobility during the game, as much of the Torekage and Oiran’s jobs for the remaining turns became “dash between quarters to avoid the Nothing Beast and ensure we score.” The Nothing Beast (his name must always be capitalized) with movement 7 from an Outcast Upgrade was pretty tough to get away from, but there was no other option since the crew wasn’t tough enough outside of Misaki to deal with him, and she was busy elsewhere.

In the end the game finished up with an 8-9 loss for me. I have a new appreciation for what Tara can do when she is rolling, given that Jon had never touched her before and basically had me beaten from the first turn of the game. I still don’t really LIKE her, as I detest having no hand and being reliant on what the fate deck feels like giving me. But, I am willing to acknowledge that there is much more to her than perhaps I had previously implied. I l look forward with some trepidation to seeing what Jon’s going to do with her, as he had never heard about using Killjoy or *shudder* Bishop in this crew, with Tara functioning almost like an old-school Dreamer that floats around and drops a big bag of pain in the middle of the enemy. 

In the meantime, my impression of the defensive Misaki build was a bit mixed. I don’t think I gave it a very fair shot here, as I basically had to abandon the plan on turn one to prevent Hans picking us apart. It would have been difficult to use in this particular game regardless, as the Nothing Beast and Hannah all have large melee ranges to prevent her dancing away from combat. Moreover, I’m not sure it really fits my play style that well. My natural inclination is to attempt to dictate the terms of the engagement to my opponent rather than sit back and wait for them, but I consider this more of an opportunity than a liability. I need to learn how to play this way for my own benefit, so handcuffing myself into it like this may be a good way of accomplishing that. 

Also, I found this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwacha). Justin needs to make this for Ten Thunders.

Like, now. 

The Misaki Switch

Just a couple of quick mini-muses today, as it’s been a bit since I trashed Tara and got the most pageviews and comments of any blog post I’ve ever done (this is an unfortunate message that you’re sending me, internet world.) Fortunately today’s work is going to be somewhat more positive.

One of the significant differences between the previous iteration of the game and current Malifaux was the introduction of the upgrade system as a means of adding complexity to crew selection and allow people who are playing the same masters to come up with completely different looking and feeling crews on the tabletop. The promise of this comes in the form of very different upgrade packages, particularly upgrade cards with the “Limited” designation. I think the general consensus is that the success of this effort has been mixed. On one hand, there are masters who very clearly have a couple of different modes of action depending on their upgrade suite. Seamus jumps out as probably the marquis example, as selecting between his two limited upgrades (I’m at work, so can’t look the names up at the moment) results in a master who either focuses on terrifying and more of the ranged aspect or transforms nto a full-on melee beast by adding the Bag o’ Tricks (discussed well on the most recent Cheated Fates Radio). On the other hand, other masters don’t really seem to have this. I like Sonnia, but in my opinion there are only a handful of upgrades that are worth taking on her, and I don’t think any of them significantly alter what you’re doing with her on the board (namely, standing back and blowing enemy models right the hell up.) When I was doing crew construction for the game mentioned in my last post, it occurred to me that Misaki seems to me to be a fine example of the upgrade system working the way it is supposed to work, giving you an ability to build two very distinctly flavored crews depending on which of her two limited upgrades you attach during the pre-game.

The “Typical” Build

This crew is the much more aggressive of the two builds, and it seems to be the one that I see most often in discussions of how to play Misaki, namely an attack oriented, aggressive build focused around attacking with Misaki and tearing up the enemy crew. The reasons for this are pretty obvious, as Misaki’s high combat rating, long melee range, and good defenses (particularly after burning out her soulstone reserve) make her very well suited either for minion sniping or going after Assassination targets. The upgrade you use for this is the Stalking Bisento, giving her the ability to, as a 0 action, attach the “Stalked” condition to any model in line of site. The now unfortunately “stalked” model triggers a move from Misaki every time they take a walk action and, on subsequent turns, will allow Misaki to use her Bisento attack action as a 0 action against it. This makes an already very aggressive master even more dangerous. I enjoyed Mike Marshall’s discussion of how to run versions of this on this week’s Malifools podcast, particularly the combination of recalled training and utilizing Misaki to go attack the enemy leaders and basically just tie them up during the game, freeing the rest of the crew to go claim objectives, kill enemy minions, and do other things that generally result in winning the game. Currently, my agro Misaki build looks a little something like this:

50SS Aggressive Build

Misaki-Stalking Bisento, Recalled Training, Misdirection, 3(ish) SS

Torekage x2

Ototo (or Yamaziko, your henchman of choice can be here)-Smoke and Shadows, Recalled Training

Ten Thunders Archer

Oiran

Dawn Serpent

This crew has a couple of effective hitters outside of the master. Ototo and the Dawn Serpent can chew through most of what your opponent brings for minions. The archer can back up either Misaki or the other hitters since they can fire into melee. Dawn Serpent is one I haven’t had a chance to use and could be subbed out for Ronin, particularly if you think you’re going to be up against an armor heavy crew.

The Switch Build

On the other hand, it occurred to me that you could build a very effective defensive build with Misaki by utilizing the other limited upgrade, Disguise. This upgrade makes it so that Misaki can’t be made the target of a charge action. I would pair this particular upgrade with another, Untouchable, which lets her use the defensive stance action without discarding a card. This becomes particularly rude when you activate her Deadly Dance ability, leaving you in a situation where you can engage enemy models with 1” melee ranges while denying them the ability to hit you back, since you can dance away before they can make a strike against you. Thus, you now have traded some of her melee ability to create a soft control model that is extremely difficult to get away from and could potentially be very disruptive to the enemy force. I went on to build a theory-faux crew to go with this that is much more objective oriented than the previous:

50SS Misaki In Disguise…with Glasses

Misaki-Untouchable, Disguised, Misdirection, 6(ish)SS

Yamaziko-Smoke and Shadows, Recalled Training

3x Torekage

2x Oiran

Monk of the Low River

I’m not sure this crew could really kill anything (at all), but I have to think it would be damned annoying to the opposing crew and quite good at objective based scenarios. I like using Yamaziko’s Brace Yari ability to fend off opposing chargers. The Torekage can get a ton of movement out of burying for Smoke and Shadows first turn and then either popping out of Misaki or Yamaziko at the end of the turn, leaving them free to walk out of melee and not be subjected to disengaging strikes. I’m not amazed with the Monk of the Low River, but being able to remove conditions is huge and he’s cheap and resilient, so he matches fairly well with the crew. It’s a very passive crew, to be sure, but I’d be interested to see how it would actually do on the tabletop.