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So this is a little idea I had as a way to resolve 1 or 2 issues we seem to get here in this section of Dakka, with the exception of one or two regulars, there seems to be little activity until a new player jumps into the conversation and asks about a specific master. While those threads are still good, a question we often get asked is "where do I go from here?" Malifaux is extremely fluid in it's play, the same list you take for one encounter might be different than another. This could be due to the cards you flip/draw, the strategies, schemes, or even your opponent's play style. So this thread will start us out, and I encourage anyone else to start threads like this for the other factions . So here is how posts should go in this thread (if you're submitting a list):

[Strategy], [Scheme 1], [Scheme 2]

Master w/Soulstone Cache
Minion1
Minion2
...
etc...

vs
Opponent's Master
Feel free to include more if you want to, but every post that is submitting a list and experience should at least strive to include those things.

Alternatively you could just copy the text output from the Malifaux Crew Creator.

So I'll start us off with 2 lists based on my games in the past week.
The first was a slightly competitive list that I was hoping to try out in an attempt to solidify a "standard" competitive list for my Pandora.

[Strategy - Shared Turf War], [Schemes - Kidnap and Holdout(Announced)]
Pandora -- 7 Pool
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Beckoner [5ss]
Beckoner [5ss]
Sorrow [3ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Stitched Together [5ss]
Sue [8ss]

vs
Ramos w/Avatar -- 2 Pool
3 Spiders
Kaeris
Steamborg Executioner
Gunsmith

So this is becoming a bit of a standard Pandora list, I take 2 stitched,1 beckoner, the primordial magic, and then fill out as need be. The Sorrow is a great little 3 ss model because I can use it to effectively give Pandora 3 extra wounds, something she desperately needs, the only time I wouldn't take this is if I'm playing against something with blasts, as that is a great way to lose Pandora since the sorrow has mediocre stats. While Kaeris does have blasts, I tend to target her first and get her out of the way, as it's a huge hit to my opponent's crew. the only I don't have in this is crew is a heavy hitter of sorts (as Sue is mainly here for buffs, but can work in a pinch).

Sue was very average in his performance but again he was really only there to give me cards via Hurt, and his Wp buff via Six String Inspirations. Since this was my first game with him, I had to keep him near the front lines, which is okay as long as I didn't hurt him too much to get cards into my hand, as SSI is an Aura of 5 inches. The gun worked well against the armored little spiders and that was about it.

The Beckoners and Stitched went around in pairs, the Beckoner would (if I could), lure the model into melee with her, give it brilliance (as a means of her own protection), and then push herself out of melee. The accompanying Stitched would usually then Gambler the opponent, then use Gamble your Life to deal some damage. Though in almost all cases, Deepest Fear was better for dealing with all of the armor. These two performed exactly as I expected them to.

The Wp buff on Pandora is insane, having her run around with a Wp 9 in opposed duels (which are what Pacify chains are ) is totally worth the 8 ss cost of Sue. The extra cards that Gambler and Hurt gave me meant I usually had the cards and suits I needed.

I want to play more with Sue, and try him out. If you play Pandora, and you're looking for good stuff to fill the list? Look at Sue

The second Master I played was Jakob Lynch it'll be a quick rundown because my opponent conceded turn 2...
[Strategy - Shared Slaughter] [Schemes - Read em' and... and Kidnap

Jakob Lynch -- 7 Pool

Beckoner [5ss]
Mr. Graves [7ss]
The Depleted [4ss]
The Illuminated [6ss]

vs

Seamus - 8 Pool (I think)
Copycat Killer
3 Rotten Belles
Madam Sybelle

This was a game really to test how Lynch functioned without HuggyD on the board as well as a reason to run Mr. Graves. This crew is relatively fast for everything having a Wk of 4 or 5. Turn 1 I activated Mr. Graves and used Bar's Closed and pushed my entire crew forward 4 inches (with the exception of the Depleted). Then I managed to get a Come Hither on a belle, pulled her out into the open, then used the Illuminated to give her Brilliance with Scintillating Cloud, then to catch up with the rest of the crew, I moved the Depleted forward with (0) Drawn to the Light, and then walked into melee with the Belle. On turn 2, I killed the Belle, summoned HuggyD, charged the copycat killer with Graves, and then charged Seamus with HuggyD... He conceded before I flipped my attack.

Graves was really the only model I was interested in with this encounter, and he did well. He's well worth the points, and provides extra movement, and a beatstick.

Great idea!

I'll start the Ressers thread, might take me a while but I'll def get something up in the next hour or so!

A brilliant idea, I'll join in with the 10T!

Trying to arrange a game at the moment with a friend and wanting to take my new Pandora for a run out, thinking of runnign the following

Pandora / Cache 6
Primordial Magic
Bady Kade
Candy
Teddy
Weaver Widow

Plan is that since I typically lose Teddy turn 4-5 I'll have the Weaver Widow to Thread from Nightmares for 4-5 turns creating the needed counters for create plaything to summon a 'Slow' Teddy for Kade to Where's my Teddy to throw it into Combat for a Flurry to offset the Slow ability (not too sure on this part)

Carpe_Jugular wrote:
Trying to arrange a game at the moment with a friend and wanting to take my new Pandora for a run out, thinking of runnign the following

Pandora / Cache 6
Primordial Magic
Bady Kade
Candy
Teddy
Weaver Widow

Plan is that since I typically lose Teddy turn 4-5 I'll have the Weaver Widow to Thread from Nightmares for 4-5 turns creating the needed counters for create plaything to summon a 'Slow' Teddy for Kade to Where's my Teddy to throw it into Combat for a Flurry to offset the Slow ability (not too sure on this part)

It's an interesting concept, but flurry requires (2) general AP to work, so a slowed Teddy wouldn't be able to do it if you "where's teddy him" on the turn he's summoned. Since the Widow Weaver has the scavenger ability, you don't have to worry too much about not getting the scrap counters, Teddy will drop 3 scrap counters when he dies (based on base size), and she can create 1 and use those to resummon him. Alternatively, on other turns you could also bring out wicked dolls to help out as annoyances, though their lack of stuff with Wp doesn't make them very ideal for a Pandora crew.

It's an interesting list, let us know how it works

Yeah that was back up plan, have the Weaver and the "walking" scrap counters advance up behind the main line and hopefully get Teddy's corpse counters before any pesky Ressers get a nice fat bonus

Carpe_Jugular wrote:
Yeah that was back up plan, have the Weaver and the "walking" scrap counters advance up behind the main line and hopefully get Teddy's corpse counters before any pesky Ressers get a nice fat bonus

Teddy is a Construct... he doesn't drop corpse counters.

Is he? Well that's a bonus.

Probably should have had a look at his card before nefariously plotting

Teddy being a construct doesn't drop any corpse counters unless he has an ability that says he does (Like the Dead Rider, Steamborg Executioner, etc...). And models ONLY drop counters when there is a model on the table with Graverobber (corpse) or Scavenger (scrap). If there isn't a model with that on the board, then there is no point to drop that counter

Avatar Lilith remains a favorite of mine when I have a field with a few forests to throw her out on. Generally I float between a board manipulation list to use her avatar in or a grow list that I fall back on if I just need to throw down beat sticks for her - our usual game size is 35 stones so she gets a generous crew either way.

Last game I had was vs. the Viktorias with their usual list. My list was as follows:

Neverborn Crew - 35 - Scrap

Lilith, Mother of Monsters -- 4 Pool
+ Lilith, Avatar of Nature's Malevolence [2ss]

Lelu [7ss]
Lilitu [7ss]
Tuco [7ss]
Waldgeist [6ss]
Waldgeist [6ss]

Gives me good board manipulation, the twins serve as my beaters and are able to draw key models out of place, and the Waldgeists just make the woods move everywhere around the field. Everything in my list ignores terrain in one way or another, so they maintain excellent mobility while potentially bogging my opponent down.

My opponent list was as follows:

Outcasts Crew - 35 - Scrap

Viktoria -- 5 Pool
Student of Conflict [3ss]

Convict Gunslinger [5ss]
Freikorps Librarian [7ss]
Ronin [5ss]
Ronin [5ss]
Ronin [5ss]

Usual Viki list that slingshots the Viktorias around and leaves you with one or the other smashing you in the face. The backline of the student and Librarian means you can boost both of them and heal easily, so one Viki stays in the back while they use the spells to swap back and forth.

We're not gonna be having any of that if we can help it, however.

We both flipped the same individual strategy (Destroy Evidence). I took Kidnap on all 3 of his Ronins and Hold Out, while he took Bodyguard on Twin Sword Viki and Hold Out as well. We were fighting in a frontier village, and the cold was kicking up thanks to December's unnatural influence, leaving us with a raging blizzard from time to time to complicate the situation.

I had Tuco make a break for the first evidence marker, only to have Gun Viki run up, then swap with Sword Viki who launched herself into him. Two hits (with red joker on the second damage) leaves Tuco at one wound, and Lilith closes in to try and trap and finish her off and hopefully save Viki. I drop a forest for my first manifest requirement to block of LOS from Viki to Lilith (also basically sealing off the right flank of the board with another large forest that touches the edge that the illusionary forest was touching).

The twins go up the middle of the table, where we have a large river running across with another evidence marker nearby, blocking off access to my opponents foward marker as well as the the one in my deployment zone. The Waldgeists advance a forest forward towards the fighting area in preparation for Lilith manifesting in a turn or two.

Turns out its longer than that. I lose initiative on the next turn when my opponent pops a stone to reflip, and Viki cuts Tuco's head off and advances towards Lilith. I take the opportunity to move the forest up in hopes of getting Viki inside of it so I can perhaps get my 2nd requirement, forgetting about the Viki swap. Gun Viki swaps with Swords Viki and attacks Lilith.

She gets one good swing in, and then Lilith disappears and dodges her other attack.

Lilith swings for severe damage, Viki pops a stone to prevent damage, red joker. Crap, there goes that attack. I make another swing, miss as he drops a 13 and pops a stone to flip another 11, deal 3 more damage with my last swing on my fast action. It's not looking great until my 2nd Waldgeist uses Haunted Forest and tears Gun Viki to pieces. With all his stones gone at this point, he can't summon her again with one of his ronin. Happy day!

The majority of the action for the next 2 turns involves Lilith smashing an evidence marker and Lilitu chain luring Ronins over so Lelu can mangle them. My first Ronin target moves up and gets lured after activation, so Lelu's assault gets her down to 1 with her hard to kill, and then his 2 damage in the closing phase finishes her off. The 2nd hasn't activated the next turn, and she lays some hurt into Lelu before going down.

At this point I've got the 3rd Ronin and the Convict Gunslinger to deal with, with the rest of my opponent's force on the other side of the river and a forest, with Swords Viki trying to get through to join the fight. My waldgeist moves up and destroys another evidence token, and then my other Waldy walks the forest over so it covers the Ronin and Gunslinger. As it's turn 4, I finally drop my 2nd forest (right in Viki's path across the river) and manifest Lilith. Forests everywhere - there's literally no non-severe terrain for a good 12 inches in almost every direction with the river next to me and forests all along it thanks to the Waldies and Liliths Manifest. For my fast action I use the claws on the Gunslinger, who then gets lured away by Lilitu.

Next turn is a bloodbath, as the gunslinger uses rapid fire and kills my Lelu and Waldgeist with some amazing flips, backed up by the last Ronin. Sword Viki finally gets to the forest, swings on Lilith and misses. Lilith pushes 4" away, then uses Erupting Undergrowth to kill the Convict Gunslinger and damage the Ronin down to 1, then places touching the far edge of the somewhat irregular shaped forest. She then uses her claws to kill the last Ronin and scoots across the river towards the last evidence marker.

Lilitu goes down to Sword Viki, who then out of spite attacks my last Waldgeist. Thankfully his 2 armor means he's tough and takes only 4 wounds from 3 attacks. Lilith walks up and smashes the evidence marker, and the game ends at the end of turn 6.

Both of us succeeded in out strategiest (all 3 ronin are gone, holdout successful for both sides, Sword Viki is still up) but I win with I believe 4 VPs for all 3 evidence markers being destroyed. Less brutal than some of my other games - the last few have resulted in me having only my master by turn 4, and large portions of both crews dead by the bottom of 2. But a fun game overall, and my opponent and I were both laughing as the woods just skittered across the field towards people. Waldgeists are terrible for tournament play, but oh so amusing.

I've slowly been trialing this on the quiet

Pandora - Cache 5SS
Primordial Magic - 2ss
Baby Kade - 6ss
Coppelius - 9ss
Teddy - 9ss
Weaver Widow - 9ss

Candy just wasn't cutting it for me so she was dropped for the inclsuion of Coppelius as he allows me to better interact with markers and isolating solitary models.

I'm still not sold on the Weaver Widow, having a second Teddy re appear when the first has (finally) fallen is very demoralising for my opponant but having a second 9SS model to bring Teddy back (and with Slow) I just don't feel is the best use of the SS for that model again for another 2+ turns with one being handicapped. So having said that I also plan to attend a short tournament this weekend where I will try the following list (its a fixed list Tournament - with 10SS Sideboard)

35SS
Pandora - Cache 6SS
Poltergeist- 2ss
Lelu - 7ss
Lilitu - 7ss
Teddy - 9ss
Coppelius - 9ss

Sideboard
Stitched Together - 5ss
Stitched Together - 5ss

So now a little blah blah about my choices

Poltergeist - Persistant Distraction early in game(turn 1-2) to out activate my crew to see what my opponant is doing, then use Magical Extension to cast Project Emotions

Twins - Enemies will lose immunities to Wp duels, so everyone will have to take the wp->wp duel to try and strike these models. If enemy models lose, they will suffer a wound, and enemies affected by emotional trauma will be at a :-fate. Secondly, pandora can pass off any hits onto a woe in base contact. Whilst normally a sorrow, keeping a lilitu in base contact has the advantage that it can easily be healed by a friendly lelu activating.

Teddy - Big Fluffy Killing Machine. I love my Teddy

Coppelius - Pandora loves forcing Wp and Terrifying Duels plus I just love the creppy little thing

Stitched Together - Pandora can capitalise when building up on the pain caused by the Stitcheds' many Wp duels.

How'do all, I've not had much time to play on the forums recently due to life getting in the way again but things seem to be settling down a bit now so I have a bit more "me" time, anyways, the point of this post and the "Resurrection" of this thread is to ask the experts of Neverborn a little advise!

Having purchased my final Resser models (Thus completing the Faction, more posts coming soon in other threads! ) I'm looking to branch out into another Faction. As well as getting more Outcasts I've been swaying towards the Neverborn, this is also the least played Faction in my circle of gamers (Bar 1 Lynch player) so it's quite conveinent that I've been drawn in!

I quite fancy giving Zoraida a go but I'm not keen on either of her sculpts, so I'm planning on a proxy model. So I probably won't get the boxset. (Unless advised too! ) I figure the Voodoo Doll is a must but other than that I can't seem to figure out what else she particulary works well with.

So what models does she really need and that I should be looking to get first?

Being a Resser player (did I mention that? ) I really enjoy the synergies between my models. Will I miss this with the Neverborn? Do they synergize or do they play more like Outcasts where everyone is a specialist?

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions!

Also, soz in advance if it takes me an age to reply to anyone. Don't mean to be rude but life has it's way and all that!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just noticed a Zoraida based thread . . . I'll be reading that now then!

Zoraida and Collodi are the best master/crew combination in the game right now. Not sure if she won the Malifaux Masters at AdeptiCon, but her with Collodi and dolls makes for a wicked crew. Zoraida is completely reactive while Collodi is completely proactive, so they balance each other out in a powerful way.

Our Zoraida player had to branch into other masters because no one wanted to play his list .

Speaking of which, I got to try out the following list in a tournament:

Pandora w/7ss Starting Cache
Primordial Magic
Sorrow
Sue
Beckoner
Beckoner
Stitched Together
Stitched Together

Strategy: A Line in the Sand
Schemes: Holdout (announced) & Kidnap

Opponent's list:
Von Schill
Taelor
Ronin
Convict Gunslinger
Freikorpsman
Freikorpsman
Freikorpsman Strongarm Suit

Strategy: Treasure Hunt
Scheme: Frame for Murder (not announced)

This guy had not played many games of Malifaux, and he had never faced my master, so he was in a good position with all of the Stubborn on the board. Sue has been underperforming in all my games, simply because he needs to be out front-ish, but gets targeted like a punk because no one wants him on the board with pandora.

It was a tough fight for me, because I couldn't rely on just outright beating my opponent at every Wp duel, and had to cheat in some cases in which case I might not normally cheat. We misplayed his Strongarm suit when it grabbed his treasure counter, and lept away, but since he had done it before a judge saw it, we just let it slide. I ended up beating him 8VP to 5VP (since we both got our strategies, and he didn't announce his one scheme, and didn't take a second one.

Pandora did really well, and controlled the center board as she always does, and the stitched did their thing. I got some looks for my list, people were surprised to see the beckoner in a non Lynch list, but honestly, for 10 points, they're tough to beat. While I don't normally care about Brilliance in a non-Lynch crew, having them toss out Brilliance and keep it on something via Party Never Ends, is fantastic because it makes them next to impossible to kill as long as they're near that target.

Suffice it to say, my teammates were obliterated, so we lost the round 19 to 8, but it was still a fun game.

Huh! Well I dont really want people to refuse to play me but my circle is quite competitive already. I suppose I could just get a small force just to see how I get on.

I'll probably just start with Collodi boxset, Zoraida and her voodoo dolly! Maybe add in the stitched to make up the ss. Plus I've always loved those models!

On a different note, what's the point of your last opponent not taking a 2nd Scheme? I know he gets the extra ss but you don't get prizes for ss! Just seems a bit weird really! But then I don't see the point in not Announcing your schemes either!

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Huh! Well I dont really want people to refuse to play me but my circle is quite competitive already. I suppose I could just get a small force just to see how I get on.

I'll probably just start with Collodi boxset, Zoraida and her voodoo dolly! Maybe add in the stitched to make up the ss. Plus I've always loved those models!

On a different note, what's the point of your last opponent not taking a 2nd Scheme? I know he gets the extra ss but you don't get prizes for ss! Just seems a bit weird really! But then I don't see the point in not Announcing your schemes either!

He actually doesn't get more SS, Henchmen, when taken as masters, add their SS cost to their starting pool to hire models, but can only ever have their Henchman rating as their starting cache. So it didn't serve him at all to do that. I asked him that, and he just kind of shrugged. He was a new player, but it was weird because he knew he wouldn't get extra SS...

Editing my last post to include Strats and Schemes.

Now I don't know if I should wait till 2.0!

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Now I don't know if I should wait till 2.0!

Don't, this isn't like 40k, where everything is going to massively change.

Pick up Zoraida, and start to learn her. once 2nd edition drops, you'll already have the experience of playing her, so you don't have to learn all of her tricks, just some of them.

 Alfndrate wrote:

 Emperors_Champion wrote:
Now I don't know if I should wait till 2.0!

Don't, this isn't like 40k, where everything is going to massively change.

Pick up Zoraida, and start to learn her. once 2nd edition drops, you'll already have the experience of playing her, so you don't have to learn all of her tricks, just some of them.

I hope you're right mate. I've dropped 40k this Edition for several reasons but the constant rules changes are a big part of it!

Ok. I'm going to remain faithful that 2.0 will only be a good thing and start my new crew!

I mean you can hold off if you want to, but an edition change has never been reason for me to not buy things. Check out the 2nd ed thread in News and Rumors, some interesting things...