Thursday, August 11, 2016

Ripples of Fate Reviews: The Guild



1.       The Printing Press: This is a pretty boss totem. It’s a mechanical press on arachnid limbs Nellie constructed and animated with a soulstone carried by her father. Its protectiveness has led her to suspect that it may have a portion of his soul inside. It has Arcane Reservoir+1, which is always a good thing. Df5 and WP6 are pretty strong for a totem, especially paired with Armor+2. Models that are pushed or placed in base contact with impassable terrain within 8” of it take a point of damage. Its melee attack hands out slow, which is awesome, and deals a little bit of damage if the target is already slow. And, for a (0), it can hand Nellie some evidence and let her go immediately after it as a chain activation. Very good. Don’t know why you would leave home without it.

2.       Phiona Gage: She’s a union worker who suffered a terrible accident, was denied work, and is now held up by Nellie as an example of the Union’s corruption (despite the fact that the Guild caused the accident that injured her in the first place.) She has ok defenses for a henchman, hard to kill, and goes up to 7 DF when she’s in terrain. Unimpeded helps make it so you’re essentially never going to want to walk her in the open if you can help it. She gets a smell-fear-esque free attack on enemies that fail a WP duel outside her activation. Her pick-axe does pretty solid damage and gets a + to attack versus models that have already activated (which Nellie can set up with Incite from one of her upgrades.) Probably one of her most defining abilities is calling up a 50mm stone pillar of hard cover blocking impassable terrain (we all know Adam likes summoning terrain.) And, finally, she has a Francisco-esque ability to jump into melee with someone who is engaging one of her friends and then push the friendlies away while gaining a free attack. She’s a pretty solid henchman who would be used all the time in some other faction. In this faction she has to contend with Ryle, Francisco, etc. in this point value slot so we’ll have to see how she measures up to them.

3.   Allison Dade: Hurray for Through the Breach characters in Malifaux! Dade is a reporter from the backwater contract town of Innocence who survived the chaos there and has relocated to Malifaux, joining the staff of the Tattler. She’s a monkeywrench henchman designed to basically screw up whatever the opponent is trying to do (very Lois Lane-ish.) Before she activates she penalizes enemy models for declaring attacks near her, and after she attacks she heals her friends when they attack, so deciding when to activate her will be important. She’s manipulative 12 and can gain fast by discarding a card whenever the opponent gains VP. Nice. Her attack hands out slow, deals damage if the target is near a guardsman, and has a trigger for each suit that hand out a variety of debuffs (Discard a scheme marker or take damage, push a target away, discard a card or take damage, or push a friendly into melee with the target.) She can put a condition on enemies for a (0) action that deals damage if they declare an attack action, and her tactical action forces an opponent to either discard a scheme marker or show you their hand. She seems incredibly annoying.

4.       Field Reporter: What can I say about these guys that Joel Henry and the Schemes and Stones folks haven’t already drooled about? 4SS earns you an unimpeded, disguised, manipulative 12 minion that can function as a scheme runner. They’re woes, which is odd since Pandora doesn’t get an upgrade to hire them (maybe some time in the future, fingers crossed.) Their attack action does nothing on its own but has an array of triggers including dealing damage every turn, slowing, giving a – to attack actions, or pushing the model 5” away. They can hop to enemy scheme markers and discard them with the same AP. And they can ditch a card for Reference the Field manual to let them choose the trigger on their attack. For the cost, these guys are pretty solid. Joel’s suggestion of taking Embedded on Nellie and hiring four ronin and three of these guys seems really aggravating, to be sure.

5.       Death Marshal Recruiter: These guys are basically what you think they are-Death Marshal veterans that go out into the world to find new Death Marshals. We need “Lady Justice Wants You” recruitment posters. They have DF/WP 6, 7 wounds each, and hard to wound 1 to help keep themselves alive. Apparently the soft life of a recruiter has caused them to forget how to finish the job, but they can now discard a card to keep friendly Guild Marshals within 4” from dying. If you can keep one of these near Lady J, they can keep her alive. Additionally, they can discard a card to target something that is buried. His recruiter’s sword has the ubiquitous critical strike built in to go with the 2/3/4 damage spread and can, with a tome trigger, use Glimpse the Void to bury the target. He also has a Peacebringer for…reasons. He can push 5” towards enemy targets with a (0) action and can, with a trigger, pass out attacks to another friendly model engaged with the target. Additionally, he can use a (0) to give a friendly non-leader model Guild Marshall for a turn. Shame it doesn’t last for the rest of the game like Shotgun Wedding, but there’s probably something exploitative about that. Still, I think they’re pretty solid, and the ability to keep Lady J or The Judge alive for the cost of a card means they should at least merit consideration.

6.       Witchling Thrall: These guys are rogue spellcasters that Sonnia gives…special attention. They’re 9ss minions that sit on a 40mm base and are essentially berserker dudes. They have 12 wounds and impossible to wound, so their defenses probably don’t matter (5/5 for reference.) They automatically pass Horror duels, regardless of the total and can, once per turn, take a melee action when a model places a scheme marker within 4” of them. Said melee attack does 3/4/6 damage and can choose between a pair of built in triggers to either heal the thrall for 2 if attacking someone with a WP 6 or more or force the opponent to discard a card if WP 5 or less. They have a range 8 Ca that adds a little more blast damage to a Sonnia crew and can push all damaged models with a trigger. Finally, they have a (0) action Yank the Chain to push into base contact with a friendly model. The last bit has a crow trigger you have to take if possible which results in your making a melee attack against the friendly model, so you have to be careful. They seem like they can do some hurting, so expect to see some play, particularly in strats like Collect the Bounty where high damage minions are at a priority.



Schemes


Nellie: Guild Funds give Nellie more things she can do with her evidence condition at the end of her turn, allowing her to dump evidence +2 for healing, Evidence+3 for giving a model Hard to Kill until the end of its next activation, or dropping Evidence+4 to gain 2 soulstones. The last will likely never happen and the third is only situationally useful, so the heal seems like the most frequent. You also gain a trigger to df/wp that gives her more evidence and gives her the ability to let you count a death from conditions near you as her kills for strat and scheme purposes. Embedded is the infamous “hire four mercs and don’t pay the merc tax” upgrade. It also puts a couple of triggers to add more utility to her Hot off the Presses attack. I like the Misleading Headlines upgrades, which gives her the very powerful Incite (0) action and lets her lower her evidence or discard cards to pass activations (no more out activating us, jerks.) Probably the upgrade I would use most frequently is Delegation, which gives her a Tactical Action to pass out Fast to friendly models and, at the cost of lowering her evidence, place a scheme marker in base to base with them or heal them. Finally, there’s a Journalist upgrade that makes all other journalists within aura 8 have an attack trigger, transparency, to drop scheme markers after succeeding.


Generals: Phiona’s upgrade gives her a + to damage flips when hitting models which have already activated, emphasizing her “activate me late” modus operandi. Captain Dashel gains a (1) ap cast action resisted by Wk to summon a Guild Guard in base to base with the model (a resisted summon spell? Weird) and puts a couple of triggers onto his pistol for critical strike or a tome trigger to discard an enemy scheme marker and push the target. The Executioner gains Ready to Work which gives him +1 wk and the ability to discard the upgrade when it declares a charge and take it for (1) ap. Curfew may as well say “take this when playing Gremlins,” as it allows you to give slow to all enemy models which haven’t activated when your crew has no one left to activate. It costs you the upgrade and a soulstone, but taking away that advantage for a turn could be pretty helpful I’m thinking. Numb to the World may as well be a Papa Loco upgrade, as getting to ignore conditions and being able to discard a card to keep your opponent from Obeying him to explode would be very valuable to him. Otherwise you'll have to chose if its worth the cost to protect your big beaters from these. Finally, A Debt to the Guild is the Guild’s answer to Show of Force. If the model with the upgrade is killed or sacrificed, you add a Soulstone to its pool. Also, once per game the model can draw a card at the start of its activation and deal an additional point of damage with all of their attacks. You don’t discard the upgrade, so it stays in play for the game. Nice. 

Ripples of Fate Review: Arcanists

Hello all.  I figured I would give Adam a hand with a couple of these so you can get them faster.  And seeing as how I already faced Sandeep at Gen Con Avatars I may (but probably not) have better insight.



I will start with Sandeeps upgrades.  Sandeep has two limited upgrades available both of which allow him to summon gamin.  The difference between the two is that one lets you paralyze your target if you do moderate or severe damage, and the other increases his damage profile to 3/4/5. His summoning mechanic involves attaching upgrades to the gamin that are summoned.  There are six rare 1 gamin upgrades tied to each of the limited master upgrade.  Sandeep must attach an upgrade to summon so he can only have plus 3 models over what he started with at any given time.  All six upgrades buff and debuff the summoned gamin in different various ways.  One set of three are scheme and interact related and the other three are combat oriented.  An example would be this gamin may not be moved or pushed (which I assume includes walk and charge actions along with effects from other models) but gains an aura that makes the enemy discard 2 cards to interact or the action fails.  If you only use the upgrade to summon Banasuva I still don't think you put Sandeep on the table without one of the two.

He has two other upgrades.  Enlightened Soul allows Sandeep to draw a card once per turn if he kills an enemy model.  And there is a cast that hands out incorporeal to other models until the end of that models next activation. Just what a nimble Howard needed...  The other Unaligned Sage allows him to hire in model with the academics keyword from other factions.  And there are two 1 AP tactical actions.  One will let you draw a card once per activation if an academic discards a card (so things like flurry but there is a call out it doesn't work for cheated cards).  The other turns on a 6" aura that make academics not randomize.  Both seem useful depending on the crew build but not auto include by any means.



1. Banasuva.  An 8SS rare 1 minion totem that is summon only (cost is there to set the summon TN).  This thing has melee expert and hits like a truck (3/4/5).  It has the Ice Golems toss ability and a zero action to copy an ability or action from close by friendly gamin (editor's note: see also Armor +2 on Iron Gamin.)  It has 8 Wd's, Df 6, and Wp 4 and no other defenses so it can be a liability for hunting party but outside of that I don't see this master without this guy on the table at least once.

2. Kudra.  A 7 SS rare 1 academic henchman.  She has a few neat abilities on the front of her card.  Butterfly Jump, a Df/Wp (built in) trigger to draw a card once a turn if hit, once a turn spend a SS and discard a card to add the SS back, and 4 melee attacks on a charge (too bad the spread is 1/2/3 and 1 poison or this might be awesome, but I do see it being good against high armor or something with high Df with 1 wound left).  She has a ranged cast with a gun icon, Elemental Bolt that has a few triggers.  She also has an upgrade that give her various buffs if the elemental gamin are in range, and a 0 action to sac a gamin (I assume to free up an upgrade of kill denial ((Editor's Note: Also, to sac and resummon Banasuva with a different one of the negative upgrades attached or in a different position.))).

3. Amina Naidu.  A 9 SS rare 1 M&SU, academic henchman who is essentially the M&SU's injury lawyer.  If she suffers damage from an enemy attack action she can push it 2 inches (potentially out of range or LOS) by discarding a card. She has a 6" aura if an enemy interacts she may discard to add 1 SS.  Another aura of the same radius allows her to put an attack at negative if its targeting another wounded friendly model by Amina suffering 1 Wd.  A cast that hands out slow with a taunt like trigger.  A collier pistol.  A 12" pseudo lure with a trigger that prevent the target from attacking things with less Wds then the models Wd stat.  She also has 2 zero actions.  One is Ca v Wp take 4 damage and may reduce by 2 for each card discarded with a trigger to take the next 0 action.  Ca v Wp of gain Peon and may not take interacts action for the rest of the game or until Amina is killed or sacrificed.  She seems like a very annoying control piece and to get the most work out of her you are going to have to understand what she is in the list for and remember her auras.  She is definitely not a model to just drop in a list and go.  I would recommend playing some small friendly games to learn what she can and can not do.  Models with a lot of text will slow down a game if you don't have a decent grasp on all of the various interactions.  But once you unlock her she might turn out to be a cross between a lawyer and brewmaster.

4. Carlos Vasquez.  A 9SS rare 1 showgirl henchman.  He comes with smoldering heart.  An ability to treat burning like armor (up to +2), may push pyre markers after a walk action to cause Wk duels and avoid the damage.  And he gains burning +1 after resolving initiative.  He comes with a decent 3" melee with built in triggers (all 3 need 1 tome).  Give burning +1, do extra damage equal to the burning on Carlos (up to 3 damage and ending the condition), or add burning to Carlos.  Zero action to place a 50mm pyre marker until end of turn, or a zero action 4" push and add burning +1 or trigger to remove it.  An interesting model and probably play fine as a solo model but he will probably do better if there is more burning in the crew.  He also has an upgrade to heal from burning at the end of the turn.  And it also has a 1 AP blow up a scheme marker to pulse burning +2.

5. Poison Gamin.  A 5SS minion.  1 more wound than the typical gamin but more or less function like the rest of the gamin.Melee attack to deal 1/2/5 and grant them Poison+1 with a built-in trigger to do additional damage to targets that are already poisoned. It pushed 3" at the end of its turn if it took an attack action and heals a point of damage instead of taking damage from poison. Their ranged attack does not that impressive damage and has the infect trigger, but not built in (odd.) As a (0) action they can turn on a version of McMourning/Sebastian's ability to tick a point of poison off if they activate within 4" of a poison gamin. I'm not confident enough in the rules to know for sure, but I suppose you could put multiple poison gamin together to tick multiple poison damage on a turn. It's resource intensive and easy to disrupt, but I know that one criticism of Kudra was that her poison is less effective without these mechanics in place in the faction, so that's not ENTIRELY true.

6. Shastar Vidiya Guard.  An 8SS enforcer.  The model can draw a card if it cheats a Df duel once per turn.  When it activates it may discard for focus +1. and comes with hard to kill.  Also comes with a 2/4/6 melee with a trigger on every suit. A weak Rg 10" attack with a built in trigger to hit other targets (that were not targeted by this attack once per activation) in range and Los. ( I see this working good with Raspy.)  and a zero action to push another friendly model within 6" up to 2".

The generic upgrades seem kinda meh to me but I'll cover them and let you decide.
-Circus Bear.  0 SS - Gives the slate ridge mauler +1 Wk and +1 Ml and a 0 action Ca to push 2"  with a trigger to use a second 0 action.
-Temporary Shielding  0 SS - makes 3 Oxfordian Mages cost 15 ss instead of 18 and you can discard the upgrade and a card to reduce damage it suffers by 2.
-Well Rehearsed. 1 SS rare 1, enforcer - when a scheme marker is placed within 3" the model may push 2".  When a friendly living model within 3" is killed, you may discard the upgrade to leave the model alive with 1 wound.  (I don't see this replacing imbued energies unless you somehow have 3 on other models and an enforcer with an upgrade slot and SS left over during hiring... so not likely).
-Blade and Claw.  1 SS rare 1.  requires you hire a beast and a construct in the same list and it lets them swap places as a 0 action.  (I'm not sure this is worth the ink used to print the words on this upgrade.  But I'm certain there will be one person who thinks its the coolest thing since sliced bread.).

I have the ten thunders review and then I will have an origins/gencon super tournament report (including my match verse Sandeep).  I didn't snap pics of the posters so maybe Adam will edit it in and post it to the guild one he is doing next.  I hope to have the thunders done tonight. (Editor's Note: Done and Done.)

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Ripples of Fate Reviews: Outcasts


1: Doc Mitchell: A failed doctor and alcoholic who Parker kidnaps in his fictional story, he’s a 3SS insignificant minion totem. At the start of his activation he can discard a card to push up to 5” towards a friendly Bandit within 12”, so that’s a nice little movement boost. His best ability is probably his Stitch Up heal for 1/2/3 and a trigger to give the healed model Hard to Wound. Offensively, he isn’t particularly effective, as his melee attack isn’t very good and his ranged attack ends with him dying if Parker can see him use it. 3ss is a pretty good cheap activation and some nice healing, so I imagine you’ll use him.

2: Mad Dog Brackett: A 9ss henchman, he’s Parker’s right hand man. The weapon is a shotgun, for those who weren’t sure, and it’s a good source of damage and blasts that pushes damaged models back with a built in trigger. All enemy scheme markers within 2” of him become friendly at the end of the game. He drops a friendly scheme marker in base to base with a model after he kills them. And, finally, he gets a Santiago-esque bonus to attack and damage flips when he has four or fewer wounds remaining. He can Rapid Fire, so he’s definitely built around ranged attacks. He doesn’t really have a melee attack, as his main one involves putting his cigar out on people. It does Burning+2 and, with the appropriate triggers, can do a little more damage or give him a melee attack with his shotgun (to push the enemy out of melee, if it hits.) Finally, probably the most interesting ability is his Blow it to Hell (0) ap action. He needs a ram to cast it, but it places a 30 mm Blown Apart Marker within 8” and LoS. Any models within 3” of a marker is unable to use cover. I think that could be pretty effective for a ranged crew, though it might be better if you could also ignore LoS. Still, I think he’s a pretty effective damage dealer, but he’s in the Outcasts so he’s going to have a lot of competition for this slot.

3: Aionus: You know what he does. Moving on.

4: Bandido: These are the minions that come in Parker’s boxed set. They’re 5ss fragile minions, as Bulletproof+1 is probably one of the least useful of the situational defense abilities. They only have 5 Df and 5 Wds, so I don’t think they’re going to get to use Life of Crime to convert enemy scheme markers into Friendly at the end of the game. I guess it’s a good thing they have Finish the Job. Their gun deals 2/3/5 damage and can force the enemy to drop an enemy scheme marker with a trigger. Finally, they can Run and Gun for 2 ap to let them move, shoot with a + flip, then move again. I don’t know, they just look fragile to me. Run and gun will protect them somewhat, but who knows.

5: Dead Outlaw: Where I’m not crazy about Bandidos, Dead Outlaws look a lot tastier. They’re just what the title says, dead bandits that wake up and then resume banditry. They count as undead/tormented/bandit minions. For 6ss they’re a point higher defense, one more wound, hard to wound, and get a heal every time an enemy scheme marker is placed within 6” of him (which should be fairly frequent in a Parker crew.) Their ranged attacks have a better attack value, deal extra damage to targets which have upgrades attached from a built in trigger or can reposition with the same suit. For a tome you can either use Drop It! to force the enemy to drop an enemy marker (and heal the Dead Outlaw, presumably) or ignore Armor, Hard to Wound, and Hard to Kill. Their melee has an odd damage spread (1/1/5) but has some useful triggers built in that can give the enemy slow or push the outlaw out of melee. Finally, they can cast a spell to give an enemy a condition “Curse of the Covetous” which makes it so they can’t take any actions besides walk and interact. The model can choose to take 3 damage at the beginning of its turn to remove the condition, but it could be useful to lock a melee model on low wounds out of attacking. Altogether, I don’t know why you would take a Bandido over these.

6: Wokou Raider: These are oriental pirates who sailed the waters of the Three Kingdoms and were imported by Malifaux to try their skills on its rivers. They haven’t had as much success with this, but they’re still effective combatants so the Ten Thunders keep using them. They’re Bandits and Last-Blossom minions which cost 8ss, so on the pricey side. Bulletproof is a lot better, in my opinion, when paired up with Combat Finesse which makes it so enemy models can’t cheat fate on attack actions which target Df. Every time an enemy scheme marker is placed within 6 of them they can push 3” in any direction, so they could have a lot of added mobility in the Parker crew and can potentially dodge away from Detonate the Charges. Their 2/4/5 with plus flips melee attacks are pretty strong and can hit the Drop It! Trigger from a built-in tome. With a mask they can give a free attack to another friendly model engaged with the same target. And, of course, they have critical strike. I doubt you’ll use their gun much, as it’s pretty standard. And, they have a (0) action to reposition a scheme marker. They’ve got some interesting abilities, and I think they’ll see some use for Parker and Misaki, at least.

Upgrades: Parker has a ton of upgrades, so buckle in for this one. The two limited actions both give Parker Bulletproof. One lets him add a soulstone to his pool whenever a friendly model takes an action to remove an enemy scheme marker and can hand out free interact actions to friendly models as a (0). The other lets him draw cards when friendlies remove scheme markers and can hand out (1) ap attack actions. So, essentially, you’ll probably want one of those attached most of the time. To rapid fire through the rest: Crate of dynamite lets you blow up a scheme marker to deal damage, Hail of Bullets lets you place two 50mm Ht 0 Hail of Bullet markers which are hazardous terrain and can provide cover as well as adding a trigger to “Hands in the Air.” Stick Up gives him a WP attack that will either deal 4 damage to an Enforcer, Henchman, or Master or will steal one of their soulstones for you. Human Shield gives you soft cover and lets you pass one attack off to a friendly model within 2,” and finally Coordinated heist gives all bandits within 8" of Parker Scout the Field and a cool ability, “You were told to duck…,” which lets him fire into an engagement involving a friendly model and get an attack on every model involved. You have to discard the upgrade at that point, but you can reattach it to him and take the action again if you’ve got a particularly good pile of enemies in the combat. Phew. As I’ve said several times, Parker’s concept is pretty easy to learn, but you’re going to have to learn when to attach each upgrade to play him effectively.


Mad Dog’s Lucky Poncho gives him Hard to Kill and can grant him Focused+1 if you discard it when he has 1 wd at the start of his activation. Hans gets an upgrade that gives him +1 Wk and a (0) action to give him Focused. Pretty good for a sniper. Montresor gets one of the best “Fix Me” upgrades, I think, as it forces enemies in base contact with him to discard a card to attack and gives him Hard to Wound+1, effectively turning him into the tarpit/tank that he was supposed to be in the first place. One of the generic upgrades, Return Fire, gives the enforcer it’s attached to a Df/Wp trigger on a crow to let them shoot back at the attacking model after resolving. And, finally, “The Bigger They Are” make their melee attacks deal an extra point of damage to non-master models with upgrades attached, and so it is a good anti-Show of Force upgrade. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Ripples of Fate Review: Resurrectionists


1.       Corpse Candle: There’s actually some cool fluff behind these, where they’re the souls of a pair of zombies Reva took in and sheltered who feel so loyal to her that, even with their physical forms gone, the spirits move from body to body animating them and burning their energy out to help her. They can count as a corpse counter for friendly models and must be summoned by Reva, not hired. They have a pitiful melee attack which you will never use for anything besides perhaps disengaging strikes. They have two abilities that will see any use. One is Light the Way which pushes all corpse markers within (3) of her up to 3” in any direction.  The other is The Essence Remains, wherein you sacrifice the corpse candle to either give a friendly target Disguised, give you + flips to attack against an enemy model, or allows a friendly model within 8” to draw a card then immediately activate as a chain. You'll use them with Reva, obviously.

2.       Vincent St. Clair: Reva’s henchman is the exorcist that rescued her from her parents’ house, where they had her sedated and restrained. He believes in her, but has begun to question whether that belief is real or just another byproduct of the devotion he’s seen her inspire in others. He is a 9ss living/revenant henchman. He heals a point whenever a model is killed within 8” and draws a card every time a corpse counter is discarded within 6”. He has abilities to do those things on his own, but will also definitely make certain other Rezzer masters have a bad day with those two abilities. He is himself able to burn corpse counters to add a suit to his flips during his turns (only one specific suit per turn.) Finally, he can push 3” in any direction after resolving a defense or willpower flip with a trigger. It’s built in for defense, but not for WP. So yeah, the front of his card is pretty hefty. His profane crossbow doesn’t include spirits when randomizing into melee combat. Its built in trigger adds damage for corpse counters within 3” of the target, or he can repeat the attack with a tome or add 1 soulstone after killing a model with a ram trigger. He can attach a condition to models to make his damage unpreventable with a (0) action. Finally, he can blow up a corpse counter and place blast markers off of it to force models beneath the blast to take a Wk duel or take damage. Vincent has a lot of cool abilities, but you’ll have to be careful to keep him protected from ranged attacks from which your defense trigger can’t protect you. He's sort of the uncola of Rezzer henches, which makes sense as he is still alive and up to recently was employed by the Guild. 

3.       Archie: This guy is hilarious. He was made by McMourning to be a companion for Mollie. As such, he’s a henchman Horror. You have to compare him to Nekima because he has a 13ss cost, and I think he does well side to side with her. 12 wounds, terrifying all 12, and hard to wound 1 means he won’t be falling down nearly as easily as she does. He can only heal 4 wounds per turn from the humorous ability "He's dropped his ice cream", the reason for which will become apparent shortly. Thankfully he also has Attack Expert to get an extra AP for melee, as his walk is not very good off the base card (though this is fixable). I’m going to break from format and point out his upgrades, as they’re vital to understanding how Archie works. He has 3 upgrades which represent odd…augmentations to his body. One can grant him +1 armor. Another can give him leap, which will help add some mobility to get him into the thick of things. The last is Doc found a tentacle, which will give him a (0) action to pull an enemy into melee and gives him Focused when its discarded. How do things get added and removed? Well, his ranged attack requires him to discard an upgrade or a corpse marker within 3", effectively reflecting him picking up a dead body or pulling bits off of himself and throwing them at the target. It does reasonably good damage and places a corpse counter in base contact with the target (Nicodem will then likely turn that into a punk zombie and mince you.) He can reattach a new upgrade specific to him with a (0) action. Doing so damages Archie unless you discard corpse markers. That’s a mouthful, but there’s also always his brutal 4/5/6 damage melee attack as a baseline, so I think he’ll see some definite use.

I don’t know why all these henchmen are so much more complicated in this faction. The write-ups will be shorter from here, I promise.

4.       Shieldbearer: These guys are the frontline fanatics that serve Reva. Their gimmick revolves around, when they are killed, attaching one of three soulbound upgrades to them, healing all damage, and dropping a corpse counter. Effectively, this is meant to reflect their instantly reanimating as a murder ghost and flying off to attack the enemy. This essentially means you have to kill them twice, which explains why they only have 4 wds. Cool. You actually want these guys to eat a red joker flip for your crew, as there is effectively no cost (the soulbound upgrades are also minor buffs for the models.) Their shields and swords are so ridiculously big because, in the fluff, they’ve looted them from Guild Guardians and are able to wield them because their fanatic devotion gives them supernatural strength. They gain fast whenever a friendly model near them uses a soulstone, and they have armor+1. Their salvaged sword has a reasonable minion damage track and triggers to drop corpse markers or deal a point of damage on a miss. They can also push enemy models with the shield slam. And on top of that, they can spend their (0) every turn to give themselves either a + to damage flips or a +2 bonus to DF. If you want to use them to hold a point you’ll want to do that early to take the most advantage, but I like these models. They seem fairly solid, particularly with Reva's ability to push them with one of her upgrades adding mobility.

5.       Draugr: Some people who come through the breach have a magical ability that doesn’t awaken until after they die. These are Draugrs, which are reflected in the game by an 8ss minion/revenant/horror. At the start of their turn they choose their Ht (1,2, or 3) and gain a variation of abilities based on which they choose. At ht. 3 they have Hard to Wound, can hand out soulbound upgrades to non-leader non-peons if they’re ht. 1, or can take their Trollskap ranged (0) ap casting action if they’re ht. 2. Trollskap forces the opponent to discard a card and applies a debuff based on the suit (which I don’t love, since your opponent gets to choose.) Draugr give a + to attack flips of models within 6” with soulbound upgrades, so they’re a decent anchor model in Reva’s lines, and they heal a damage whenever any non-peon dies within 8”. The damage track for their melee axe is interesting, as its damage flip is 0/1/2, but you add your ht. to the damage. So yeah, weird. I can’t tell if they’re good, if I’m being honest, but they are definitely interesting.

6.       Goryo: These are strong willed warriors or lords who martyr themselves in battle. It’s a spirit/retainer minion. Incorporeal as expected, and a pair of new abilities on the front. When another friendly model dies within 3” he gains Fast and he can charge for 1 AP versus models with Adversary. I think Kirai will like them for that, though a 7ss minion is a bit of a pricey summon. Their sword ignores armor with a decent damage track and can hand out slow with a trigger. They get a final little sting attack as a (0) ap action to help you polish off hard to kill models which can, if the thing lives through it, give them adversary with a trigger (so you could also use it to set up a 1ap charge.) Also, as a 1 ap action, they can do 2 damage to themselves and summon a seishin in base to base. I don’t know Kirai crews from personal experience, but this seems like it would be a pretty strong summon minion for her. Wk 6 incorporeal means it can get where it needs to, I suppose, but we’ll have to see if its good enough to get into other crews.

Upgrades: Reva-She has two limited upgrades. One lets her attack out of corpse counters even when she’s engaged and lets her summon a corpse candle on the opponent’s half of the board (not within 8” of an enemy model) at the beginning of the game. The other helps her melee abilities, granting her regeneration+1 and a trigger for her melee that lets her deal no damage and then charge a different legal target. I prefer the ranged upgrade for its flexibility, personally, but time will tell. One of her other upgrades, Blood Mark, gives her a ranged push for friendly models that grants them a free (0) ap action (useful to get both of the buffs on shieldbearers, among other things) at the end of the push. With a trigger, she can also count them as corpse markers for her abilities. Finally, her Litany of the Fallen puts a built-in trigger on her melee attack to make the damage irreducible. Usually useful. I don’t know why you would take Vincent without his upgrade, as it grants him From the Shadows and a (0) ap push action to get him out of melee. Maybe you might decide he has too many things to keep track of already and he makes your head hurt. Finally, the soulbound upgrades can either make the model explode when it dies, gives them finish the job, or gives you a refund to grant you a soulstone if the model dies in exchange for a card in hand.


General: I already discussed Archie’s upgrades, so we’ll skip along. Wronged Spirits is a rare 1 upgrade which makes all friendly Onryo within aura 12 gain +1 wk and cg. The model carrying it can discard it to give all Onryo in play Focused+1. Not sure this is enough to make the Onryo playable, but I don’t have firsthand experience to know for sure. I was personally surprised to see Phillip and the Nanny getting a free buff upgrade, as I know lots of people use them, but perhaps the idea was to give them some abilities besides “walk down the board, eat scheme markers, draw cards.” The upgrade in question gives him Haunting Cries, a range 12 Ca v. Wp action that does 2/3/4blast damage. A tome trigger grants a TN 10 horror duel. Again, Phillip players can tell me whether they’ll actually use this or just keep drawing cards with them, but I suppose it’s a free upgrade so why not take it. One of the Rezzer generics is Admiration, which allows a model to push to any summoned models that arrive within aura 6 of them for the cost of a card from hand. It’s costly, but I could see putting this on a slower model like Izamu to give it some added mobility in a summoning crew. The other is My Little Helper, which allows you to summon a Mindless Zombie off of the upgraded model if/when it dies and, once per game, makes the model untargetable by any actions more than 3” away and lets them use two (0) actions for that turn only. 


Monday, August 8, 2016

Ripples of Fate Review: Neverborn

     


      I'm back home from the convention, so I should be able to crank these out sooner. If you want to order a copy of the book, make sure to get it done today before the webstore closes pre-orders. 

1.   The Gorar: Titania’s totem is a symbol of death and rebirth among the Fae (note the egg that the snake is cradling in its coils.) Its main function is to get to the center of the board (within 6”) so that, if a minion you care about is killed, you can sacrifice the Gorar to resummon it. This is important, as the knights and Rougarou are all minions and this is a way to protect them from being killed. It has unimpeded to help it get there through terrain, which is good because it doesn’t have much else in the way of defense. Its melee attack creates a scheme marker and does a little damage and its ranged turns a slow condition into paralyzed (this will make more sense in a moment,) but that’s not why you would be taking it. It’s going to attract a lot of fire and you'll have to work pretty hard to protect it, so I’m a little worried how much use this model will see when Primordial Magic exists.

2.       Aeslin is the Dryw (old English for Druid) that serves as a sort of major domo for Titania. She has Curse of Autumn (as do the knights) which force targets that begin their turn engaged with Aeslin to make a TN 13 WP duel or become Slow. She will get less use out of this than they will, I would assume. She’s a spellcaster with casting expert and the ability to dump a scheme marker to fire into combat without randomizing. Her two attack actions are the same A Wicked Silence melee as the Gorar, but you’ll more often use the Rot and Rend ranged spell. It has no TN, Ca 6, and a pedestrian 2/3/4 damage spread. The real strength of this spell comes from triggers, which can discard scheme markers to do more damage, drop another scheme marker with the ubiquitous A Trophy for the Queen trigger, push a model, or hand out slow. Her (0) actions can either inhibit the opponent’s casting flips or prevent them from moving, pushing, or being placed within a short range. Overall, Aeslin is a short range caster with ok damage and some interesting triggers. I question how much staying power it will have in the crew, but Titania’s ability to tank for her should help.

3.       Tooth, Claw, and Thorn: The three autumn knights are essentially the same theme with variation. The front of their cards are the same, with ok defenses and stats, hard to wound, armor+1, and curse of autumn. All of them also have the (0)AP tactical action A Clear Path to push towards scheme markers within 4”. The differences come with their attacks and their challenge actions. The tooth has a melee sword which automatically drops a scheme marker as a trigger and can hit a different one to get a + flip to damage. Her challenge forces an opponent to move into base to base with the tooth, gives them a free attack at a -, and then gives her a free attack back. The claw (possibly my favorite) has a spear which works as a ranged or melee attack, has the same triggers as the tooth but with the other trigger built in instead, and has a challenge which pushes an enemy model into base to base and can, with a trigger, give them a – flip to defense for the rest of the turn. Finally, the Thorn lashes you with vines that do slightly worse damage but has the + flip to damage trigger built in as well as a separate trigger to let you draw a card if the enemy is close to a scheme marker. They seem tough but not quite as tough as Illuminated, but they’ll probably be necessary to get scheme markers out for Titania.

4.       Bandersnatch: This creature is cool. It’s a Rare 1 Nightmare minion that jumps into your shadow and can attack others from there. This is represented mechanically by the (0) Crawl Into Shadow. If successfully cast against a target, the Bandersnatch buries itself and places an “upgrade” on the target which does damage to it every turn and allows the buried Bandersnatch to use it as the origin point for its attacks. In effect, it acts like the Bandersnatch is attacking out of the shadow at other enemy models, which then allows it to drag the enemy models into melee with the poor sucker and even has a trigger where the second model might attack the first one out of confusion. The 2” melee range of the Snatch is increased by the height of the model. The “upgrade” falls off after the second time it ticks on the original target for damage, so it will be important to activate the Bandersnatch right away to jump back into a shadow and avoid getting hit back, but I think this model is very cool and thematic.

5.       Will o’ the Wisp: These guys are rare 3 spirit swampfiend minions that are incorporeal but also insignificant. Any model that fails a WP duel within 3” of them lets them place a scheme marker in base to base with the enemy. Their attack isn’t very good, but with a cost of 3 they’re not really expected to hit hard. You’re really taking them for 2 reasons. One is The Wisp’s Call, a ranged spell that places a condition on the target which forces them to take walk actions toward the wisp with one of their AP and prevents charging. It has a possibility to disrupt enemy movements, but seems somewhat situational. They also have a tactical action to use a (2) action off of another Neverborn model within 10” for (1) AP. The immediately obvious use is to summon Voodoo dolls for Zoraida, which allows her to use her AP for other things. There is a lot of careful wording to make sure you can’t abuse this (you can only target a single model one time with this per turn and can only be taken once by turn by the Wisps) but could, over time, end up becoming even more useful as new models are released. I'm interested to see these guys in action with Pandora, Zoraida, or Titania for three entirely different reasons. 

6.       Rougarou: If you watch Supernatural you already know that this is a sort of wolf creature which, inexplicably, all the recurring characters are always off hunting to explain why they aren’t in the episode. They’re 8ss fae/beast/undead minions (so hurray for Marcus, I guess.) They’re melee beaters that don’t have a ton of resilience off the card. Hard to Kill is decent, but they could really be scary if they had been given Hard to Wound as well like the rest of the knights. Instead, they have the ability to eat a scheme marker within 3” at the start of their turn to either heal 2 wounds or push 3”. Their claws have a high severe damage and a ram trigger that gives the damage flip a + so its more likely you can cheat for it. Its tactical actions are a pair of (0) actions that either force a target to make a TN 13 WP duel and, if it fails, gives the Rougarou a free melee attack or can push all enemies with pulse 4 into base to base with the Rougarou if they fail the same WP duel. There’s also a fun trigger on this action which lets it jump into base to base with one of the model who succeeds the WP duel after the others push in. Not sure how strong this one is, since it may be a bit too fragile to stick around. There are probably better options at 8 points.

Upgrades: Titania-The Queen has no limited upgrades, so they can be used in whatever combination you prefer. One puts a mask trigger on all of her attacks which forces an enemy to discard cards to target anyone besides Titania. Another gives her the ability to place an enemy model into base contact with her and can place a scheme marker with a trigger. Both of these add to her ability to tank for her crew. The Forest Claims All seems like one which should be used in most games, as it allows her to change all corpse or scrap markers placed within 4” of her into scheme markers unless the opponent discards a card. This seems good for not just disrupting Rezzer, Ten Thunders, and Aracanist summoner crews, but also for getting scheme markers for Titania when the opponent doesn’t care about those markers at all. Finally, The Queen’s Champion is an upgrade which you place on Titania until one of her models kills something. The upgrade then jumps to the new model and grants them Armor+1, a + flip to attacks, and placing a scheme marker every time they damage an enemy. This one seems most likely for me to leave off simply because the cost of controlling which model gets the upgrade (discarding a soulstone if you don’t want it to jump) is pretty high, and I don’t like things I can’t control directly. The general Fae upgrade gives them a 10” aura which grants all Fae the ability to, with a trigger that is built in for the knights, discard a scheme marker and push 3”. This one might also get left behind unless the knights really get a lot more use out of it in play than I'm imagining.


Generalist-Lelu gets Satisfying Punishment, which increases his DF+1 and gives him an ability to deal itself 1 damage at the end of its turn to cycle a card. Iggy gains a melee attack with a 2/3/4 damage spread and the Hide in Shadows trigger. The generic upgrade A Thousand Faces has to be used on a Non-Master and is Rare 2 but allows a leader to take a (1) action if the model with the upgrade dies and may be swapped out for a different upgrade at the start of its activation (paying the difference in soulstone cost, if its higher.) If you choose to switch to Pact, you also get to draw a card. I think I like the other upgrade, Malifaux Provides, better (although I suppose you could always start out with the first one and then switch to the second one when you need it.) It allows a model to discard a scheme marker within 3” to heal 2 and, when the model would gain a condition, allows the model to ditch the upgrade and ignore it as well as drawing another card. Now that I think about it, you may as well start with the first one in case the enemy does something you don’t expect and kills a model early on, but then later switch to the second or any of the other Neverborn upgrades as you feel necessary. 


Saturday, August 6, 2016

Ripples of Fate Review: Gremlins (and some stuff from Gencon)


I haven’t had the time I expected to sit down and crank these out, but a promise is a promise so here’s the Gremlins crew from Ripples of Fate. More to come, as you would expect. Enjoy!

 1.Earl Burns: Burns was the lead engineer on the Infamy (before that became its name) but has now been forced into slavery by Zipp and his crew, since they don’t know how to fly it properly and would likely have ignited the hydrogen inside and killed them all by now if he didn’t stop them. Earl is a significant minion totem which can be towed along by a friendly pirate similar to Hoffman. He has decent ability to heal constructs with his melee attack or smack enemies, but I think his best ability is Regular Maintenance. For an easy cast and a discard, you can add a suit to all duels for friendly leaders and constructs within 6” of him and, with the right trigger, grant them + to their attack actions. Pretty good totem. He also can grant some mobility to pigs or swampfiends in the list, at the potential cost of a wound to himself.

        2.The First Mate: As advertised, he is a Silurid that ate the previous first mate and earned himself the job. He’s a 9ss hench with ok defenses and no defensive abilities to keep himself upright, so he’s going to be a bit fragile. This seems odd, as he seems to want to get in and mix it up in combat. He has a pretty standard melee attack that can poison or turn slow into paralyzed, which comes in handy for his next ability, swallow you whole. If you discard enemy scheme markers within 8” of him he cycles a card.He also has a pretty good maneuvering ability called Menacing Croak that lets you push enemies up to 6” and has some good triggers, including the ability to hand out slow (unless you give the Mate fast, he can’t slow, paralyze, and swallow whole in one turn.) And, of course, he has leap. He seems to be better at maneuvering and positioning than combat, but he still seems a little fragile to me. (Correction: the Mate can slow with a trigger from leap, paralyze, then eat. Card intensive, but possible.) 

        3.Iron Skeeter: These guys seem pretty good. They’re 6ss enforcers that count as living and construct, so Earl gets to tag along with them. When they take walk actions, they can choose to flip a card and, on anything but a crow, place a ht 5 blocking terrain smoke counter adjacent to them. With Zipp throwing around his terrain counters too, a sky pirate crew might be pretty rough on enemy shooting attacks. Their ranged attack has some interesting triggers that can push the enemy or give them slow, and their melee can throw out some poison or, with a different trigger, attack twice if you’re hitting someone who is slow. I’m getting the impression that getting some reliable slowers into a Skeeter crew will be money. Probably most memorable for them is the (0) action “Hop Aboard” wherein they can designate a ht. 1 model near them and then let them move along with their flight for the rest of the turn. The caveat is that you have to declare a trigger for the ability, and half of them are bad. So you’re taking a risk, but Iron Skeeters can bring some real mobility and utility to even non-Zipp crews.

      4. Akaname: Your token brewmaster minion is essentially a filth demon that is an Oni and Tri-Chi and lives in gremlin communities, wherein they eat the pig mess and help defend the town. They have the ability to transfer poison from models around them to themselves once per turn, gain a point from the uncomfortably named “Lick their Corpses” ability when someone drops a corpse or scrap marker, and don’t tick damage every round or reduce their poison condition normally. They gain a bonus to their Ml equal to their poison value (up to +3), can spray poison onto other models by transferring it from himself, and can turn poison on itself into scheme markers as a 0. I don’t know brewy well enough to say whether this plugs a hole for him, but the fact that it doesn’t have a Sebastian or McMourning-esque extra poison effect, so it seems like the most effective use for them.

       5. Banjonista: Is what it says on the tin: gremlins that specialize in playing the banjo. They have a ranged attack that ignores armor, which is probably something gremlins need. They are, however, fairly squishy with 5 df and wp and 6 wounds. Probably the most interesting ability is “Pluck the Strings” which lets them apply a Paranoid condition which forces discards or damage in a sort of pseudo-AoE effect and can trigger to allow other Banjonistas to perform their own Dueling Banjos action. Not sure at first blush how much use these will get, as Arcanists can probably squish them before the armor negation becomes a problem, but I could be wrong.

      6. Swine-Cursed: So…these are a failed experiment by Wong to combine the strength of pigs with the…intelligence of Gremlins? In actual effect, you get a werepig version of gremlins that can switch back and forth between being either type gremlin or type pig as a (0) action. Which state they’re in changes a trigger on their melee attack. The crow trigger when they’re a gremlin makes it so the target can’t declare walks while engaged, while the ram trigger when they’re a pig lets you get a free charge on another target nearby. Every time they switch states they get a healing flip. And, of course, there’s the fact that they gain the Magical condition at the start of the game which lets them ignore armor, hard to kill, and incorporeal. I think there’s some potential here, but they can get knocked down with a concerted effort from the opponent, so they may not be too dangerous.

Upgrades: Zipp’s upgrades: His two limited upgrades alternate in theme for what you want to punish the other crew for doing. One makes them discard to use soulstones. The other makes them discard to use 0 actions with their master or henchman. They both give an ability to clear conditions off of Zipp, though one requires a card and a soulstone so that would take some decision making in game. And, both let you attach one sky pirate upgrade to an enforcer for free. His rambling diatribe upgrade could be crippling against certain crews, as it lets you name a suit and then force your opponent to discard all cards of that suit and redraw them. They sky pirates seem to have a sub-theme of benefitting from discarding opponent scheme markers (fitting, they are pirates after all.) Treasure map is another example of this, as you get to do a draw and discard to get a bonus from which suit you pitch. There are two upgrades that represent the airship getting involved, one with pianos dropping from the sky and the other with a very bright spotlight. Both have a number of amusing triggers. And, finally, the First Mate can give himself armor by removing enemy scheme markers, and gains a trigger to his leap ability which lets him do that for free.

Gremlin Upgrades: The two “fix old models” upgrades are for the Whiskey Golem and the Warpig. The former gives the Barrel to the Face action a ram or tome trigger to follow up with a free Smokey Finish. The Warpig upgrade A) lets the warpig attach the upgrade like it were an enforcer and B) acts like a super recalled training, letting it ignore Set’er off, gain +2 wp, and a + to all flips for the turn. Scary. The two new generics can make certain gremlins more useful for a pig style crew by giving them pork whisperin. The other lets you reflip for random targeting when shooting into a melee once per turn or, if that doesn’t end up being useful, can be pitched to draw two cards.

Bad Blood Statistics

                At this point, I’ve run the module 3 times, once as a shakedown cruise with my friends on Wednesday night and twice with players here at the convention. It’s gone pretty well, I have to say, and it’s been cool running it at a table adjacent to Mason, the head writer for TTB, as he comes over after the game and asks how the players did and looks for cool moments. The shakedown cruise was a darned good idea, because I found a couple of things about encounters which I had misinterpreted while reading (which unfortunately led to a party wipe, but c’est la vie.) Some stats from the game thus far:

Players killed: 1
NPC Mercs killed: 16
Peacekeepers Fixed: 2
Peacekeepers Subsequently Destroyed: 1
Mature Nephilim Evolved: 1
Average length of survival for hooded rider: 4 turns.
Times Mary Finnegan has been stabbed by a doppelganger: 2 (nobody was playing her the third time)

                This adventure rewards players who make good use of the (1) Order action to better utilize the mercs, which I also discovered the first time through. The 1st convention group managed to keep the Peacekeeper alive through to the fight with the Hooded Rider and then use its chain harpoon to keep it from escaping in combat, and it’s so beefy that not fixing it is definitely a mi

Monday, August 1, 2016

Gencon Countdown

               About a year ago, my darling wife was in Indianapolis for non-Gencon related reasons during the convention, and went to dinner with some of my friends form Nebraska. We used to go all the time, but budgets had prevented it from being a possibility in more recent years. Meanwhile, I was at home watching the BoardGameGeek livestream showing stuff that was premiering at the show with the sad Incredible Hulk music playing in the background. I was fine with this. I wanted to go to Gencon, but as a younger professional with a family sometimes sacrifices have to be made. However, my wife decided while she was in Indy that next year I was going, no matter what. And, as it is now the week of Gencon, I am excited and incredibly grateful that its almost time to make it happen.
                Part of why I can do this is because I volunteer with Wyrd whenever I’m there. I recommend doing this for people that want to attend but can’t afford it, as they cover the cost of my badge and let you work for booth credit and goodies as part of helping. In previous years, I had run demos of Malifaux in the event hall and the exhibit hall as well as working on the floor of the Wyrd booth, but this year I’m in for something quite a bit cooler: running a Through the Breach Penny Dreadful for convention-goers! I’m very excited, as GMing for RPGs is probably my favorite form of gaming and I've never gotten a chance to run at a convention before. I’ve even been fortunate enough to be able to help design the pre-generated characters that I’m then going to do my damndest to kill horribly.

Try to read the title and not start a CCR song in your head. I dare you.

                The module I’m running is called Bad Moon Rising. It was written in response to some feedback that combat wasn’t dangerous enough in the game, and as such this is a module designed to be quite deadly. I thought that it was a fine choice for a convention game in that the original convention games of Dungeons and Dragons were designed by E. Gary Gygax for tournaments and were intentionally designed to be treacherous, deadly, and sometimes borderline unfair (I’m looking at you, Tomb of Horrors.)

Pictured: Just a door. Probably.
                If any of my readers happen to be players in my games, I look forward to meeting you and then trying to murder you. Please be sure to introduce yourself as a Malifaux Musings follower, and maybe you might get a little boon in exchange. I want this to be a no-holds barred, Fatemaster versus the Fated throwdown. If you survive to escape, I want you to feel like you've really done something. So bring your A-game kids, because I'll have mine.
               The characters I’ve built are a mercenary company from a contract town who are responding to a call from the Guild to disrupt a Neverborn invasion of one of the Quarantine Zones in Malifaux. Their leader is an overseer of a failed contract town, trying to rebuild his fortune and make remake his name. His long-time companion is an old campaigner, son of a Texas Ranger, and adventurer with arthritic hands who is looking for one more big score before he retires. One is a convict laborer with a power for channeling sorcerous fire. One is a deadly lady bandit and gunslinger with an old connection to a member of the party. And the last is a gravedigger who occasionally speaks with his very special shovel.  This group of misfits, plus a handful of other nameless mercs (the redshirt company) will venture into what they think is a simple sweep and clear operation, and will rapidly find themselves in over their heads trying to save their skins and protect Malifaux from an ancient evil. I've been painting frantically to get the crew (and one of their antagonists)  ready as well as a few Malifaux models to play with Titania. Right now all of the slots in my games are full, but its always possible that people will drop or fail to show up so feel free to check in with me at the Marriott Utah room to see if a slot opens up or, if I got a group of five people, I could possibly be convinced to run it for you off the clock (bribes are always appreciated.) I’ll be keeping tabs on the blog of various statistics from the game (number of people killed in a particular encounter, number of times I’m cursed out by my players, number of times I make someone cry, etc.) So, look forward to that. Or, you know, look forward to posts about what’s in Ripples of Fate.

*walks away*

                What was that? Oh, yeah, the other Malifaux Musings news from Gencon. You might not have seen my various posts on the topic, but there’s this new Malifaux book coming out. Ripples of Fate? You may have heard of it. Anyways, we know who the new masters are and what they can do, but we only know the names of what comes in their crew box, and we know nothing of the rest of the new models in RoF. I’m going to do my best to change that (and, perhaps, drive a few online book sales for Wyrd in the process) by going through the factions individually (ok, probably in pairs) and discussing the models. I’m not going to tell you everything about them (because otherwise why would you buy the book) but I’ll give you the general idea of what’s coming and my quick (probably inaccurate) take on what they’ll do on the tabletop. And the best part is: YOU GET TO DECIDE THE ORDER! Just go here and vote in this poll. The leaders at the times when I’m writing the post get spoiled first, the rest have to wait for the next day (I do occasionally want to go do things at the convention, guys. Games won’t play themselves.)
                Finally, the contest. Who knows if anyone remembers, but I mentioned in my last post that I was going to give people the chance to win some prizes from Malifaux Musings! To do it, all you have to do is find one of the writers from the blog (myself, Mr. Adam Rogers, or the roving reporter Jon Goulbourne) and play us in a game of Malifaux or Through the Breach. If you mention that you’re a blog reader and we write down your name and email address, congratulations! You’re in the drawing! You have a shot to win…something that we get from the con. I don’t know for sure what it’ll be yet, and it’ll probably depend on how many entries I receive, but I have a strong inclination to include this year’s Miss Model since I don’t play Arcanists. We’ll see, but it doesn’t cost you anything to enter and you get a game out of it, so come and find us!

                Until later this week, happy playing and rejoice! For the Queen is risen!

She is risen indeed!