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Enjoyed the game I played last night but still getting my head around some of the changes and reductions.

Really don't like the new art direction and designs. Viktorias? Whats that all about.

 spiralingcadaver wrote:
Very good point, Gymnogyps, re: soulstones.

Re: minis, yeah, there are definitely some I prefer the old versions of (ronin were some of my favorites- went from alternate west badasses with swords to kind of a cosplay thing?), but there are enough improvements in the line that I don't have a serious issue with it- mostlyu just pick and choose from the two lines now.

The new ronin are really an exception to the rule. The new perdita and lady j are much less cheesecakey than the original sculpts. There is nothing stripper-like with Tara or Katarina. Even if you look back to the pre-M2E plastics, most of females (Veronica, Misaki, Mei Feng, Chiaki) are pretty tame (beckoners excluded, as they should look slutty). For the most part they are moving in the right direction.

I found that in the new art direction there is one model I really dislike and that is the new Nicrodem.

Before he looked like Ozzy Osborn, prince of darkness.

Now he just looks like old man Willy Wonker gone all emo and necrophilic...

Just my opinion but I did like the whole "Halloween Town" vibe they had before this new art direction..

I feel like the M2E art for Lady J is far more cheesecakey than the first edition art. There is a reason why she was called "stripper heels Lady J" early on

Perdita is showing less skin than her 1st Ed art, but she's a little bustier than she was, but overall less cheesecakey, so I agree with you on that point.

Oh, yeah, LJ is probably the biggest offender when it comes to masters. decent model, but they should have used it for something else. Very happy I kept the original, odd proportions, giant scale, and all- still better than the weird tiny ninja girl.

And I'm surprised about nicodem- first version of his model I liked.

Best game out there! In fact it's the only one I play anymore, masters are balanced and capable of doing all the strategies and schemes. They fixed soulstones, so they don't create such an incredibly huge swing in numbers. First book masters competive against allthe other masters, themed crews actually working as intended. I've been playing for a year and a half, and imho M2e is by far the better game.

I like the new edition quite a bit. The problem I had with 1.0 and 1.5 was the complexity of the game kept ramping up to the point where it was very difficult to play as a side game (which is what our group played Malifaux as). Not to mention the rules were kind of a mess. This edition is much cleaner and appears to be more balanced.

M2E has excited our group enough that we are dusting off our old crews and getting back into it.

I much prefer ME2. Soulstones in ME1.5 were just too good IMO. I know they were meant to be awesome, but I didn't like the fact that certain Masters (ie Marcus) had to run 7 SS to be any good, and some Masters like Coletté just had too much going on to get my head around.

After a couple of games, I'm liking the new ruleset. The books layout and index is a piece of crap AGAIN.

Get the mini rulebook, it has a much better index.

 Ozymandias wrote:
Get the mini rulebook, it has a much better index.

Same as 1st edition then. How can they make the same mistake twice?

having finally gotten the rulebook I have to say it looks quite good change wise. Haven't gotten a game in yet though so my opinion might change.

I have to say that I find the lay out a huge improvement over the first edition book, it's not perfect by any means but it's a lot better. It looks better aswell, but somehow it lost a bit of the charm of the 1st edition book. Now to play some games and see if the wait was worth it.

I just got my hands on the mini rulebook. I expected more rules to change, it'll just be a matter of getting my friends to pick up arsenal boxes now.

Speaking of which... maybe someone can help me?

My guild riflemen are not in Wave 1, how do I keep using them... just use the old cards?

I have cards for upcoming releases (Low River Monks) and Thunder Archers that have no melee stats. So... they can only do disengaging actions? The monks have big staves... and an ability regarding disengaging strikes... Halp?

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
My guild riflemen are not in Wave 1, how do I keep using them... just use the old cards?

No idea about the other stuff, but no, I just wouldn't use them. There's supposed to be a second Arsenal deck coming for each faction, I believe it includes the figures missing from wave one, and maybe Avatars? That I'm less clear on.

Well at least they can stand in as guild guards, which I don't have. I do hope they are available as a separate box of three at one point.

I had high hopes to get my hands on those multi-part minis for TtB... but I stand behind you Forar, it's perplexing.

 Forar wrote:

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
My guild riflemen are not in Wave 1, how do I keep using them... just use the old cards?

No idea about the other stuff, but no, I just wouldn't use them. There's supposed to be a second Arsenal deck coming for each faction, I believe it includes the figures missing from wave one, and maybe Avatars? That I'm less clear on.

The wave 2 cards are finalized an available for to download for free:
Link

Avatars are still in Beta (wave 3)

Yeah, the wave 2 cards have been available online now for a couple months. I just printed out the ones I needed on card stock and stuck them in sleeves. I just got a chance to use Rifleman last night, and with Lucius and Captain Daschel, they are downright mean!

Can anyone answer my original question, regarding the melee-deprived units I seem to have in Ten Thunders?

Danke for the link!

Yep, not everyone gets a basic melee attack any more...

That's going to make for an interesting gameplay.

The Low River Monk can still "strike" in Melee, but instead of doing damage, he removes conditions. I'm sure I'm too daft to see it, but the synergy must work out if I can just find out how to do it.

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
That's going to make for an interesting gameplay.

The Low River Monk can still "strike" in Melee, but instead of doing damage, he removes conditions. I'm sure I'm too daft to see it, but the synergy must work out if I can just find out how to do it.

The big thing with the Monk is that it is cheap, has a very accurate attack, and is good at going Defensive and healing up. That means it is a great unit for distracting the enemy - you tie up a tough enemy model and make it hard for it to get away from you (due to the accuracy of your disengaging strike.)

Along with that, he is good at moving around and dealing with objectives, and his conditional removal can be a useful tool (either for clearing bad conditions off your own models, or removing buffs from enemy models.)

All that said, I still tend to prefer models with a damaging attack, but there is certainly a place for him in some crews.

There are some very big conditions you can remove.

Examples:
-schemes that tag someone
-damaging conditions
-reactivate or paralyzed
-slow or fast
-one of the various vulnerability conditions (brilliance for Lynch, etc.)

A huge number of things in the current edition are condition-based.