Model Review- Misaki, Fractured and Jin Baccara

 Another one of my all time favourites with a very interesting title I like a lot, Misaki is also now corrupted by the Burning Man which is reflected in her gameplay. Moving from a Master that used to do a lot of work on her own with the ability to make her crew act as a supplement to her kit, she is now very much a support Master, but with her crew having some pretty great pieces she is definitely going to be worthwhile in the right pools. 

Misaki herself has now become an Obey Master in this form, with all that entails. Her front of card is very different to what she was before, as she is now very much non-combat, and most of her stats have gone done slightly (Df5/Wp6 compared to Df6/Wp7 of the old version, and 11 instead of 12 wounds). She does have a lot more synergy with Shadow markers in this version though, the least of which is that Shang counts as one when in her crew. She gains Shielded +1 every time a Shadow marker is placed within 8", and when Last Blossom or enemy models take actions generated from effects that aren't Charge (Obey, Onslaught, Knock Aside all count- Obeying a model to Charge still works as well) or gains Fast (Assassin) she gets to place a Shadow into base contact with them and thus also gain Shielded. This placement is only once per activation but that doesn't matter that much because it really is just free resources for doing things you would anyway with her. Wilting Tsubaki is good in itself, ignoring Concealment and then also gaining suits if models are near Shadow markers (which is great with every trigger she has) but when combined with the attack actions she has it is a really amazing part of her kit because you can make it work quite easily. Disguised also keeps her alive for longer which is nice to have, but that's about all to say about it and her front of card in general. Misaki only has one tactical action, and it's also her bonus action. It's pretty simple ignoring LoS and range, but requiring an enemy model that isn't a Master to be within 3" of a Shadow marker and for a 5 she can push the target up to 5 and make it drop a Scheme. The Mask trigger moves Misaki 3" but it is best in how it puts enemies out of position and also drops you a Scheme marker you can score off of which works great with a bunch of Schemes. Obey is the same as always (which is to say very good) and the suit built in on stat 7 is amazing, as well as it triggering her placement of Shadow markers once in her activation for a little bit extra free resources. The simple ability to make your own models take more actions (excellent for Ototo/Crime Boss charges, or moving/interacting with Torakage to let you scheme better) or against the enemy to turn their beaters against them or shove things out of position so they can't score. In general it's really great and I think it's the thing she will be doing the most. The 2 triggers though are where it really gets amazing. It's pretty obvious which one is going to be on friendly models and which is on enemies, because you want your own stuff with Focused and enemies with Injured, but you can pretty reliably make sure to get which one you want to have as well with some fairly straightforward play. Ink-Tipped Dart is fairly low damage, but stat 6 and the ability to very likely choose a suit is good enough for what is quite obviously a more support-based Master. It's Shadow marker generation (which means Shielded +1 on Misaki fairly often) and the triggers are both good too. Moment of Weakness can be a bit of fairly low-risk card cycling if you use it on your own models or more punishing on your opponent, and Shadow Pin (which you basically have built-in with Shadow markers) makes your damage better and gives a nice debuff in Staggered. Twisting Paths only works on Last Blossom or non-Master enemies (continuing the trend of this Misaki having a lot more synergy with keyword models) and they need to have Concealment as well to be able to be targeted by this action. 6 vs Wp is decent, and only needing a 5 to reach the TN is easy to do, while 8" range is pretty good to be able to mess with the board state in very relevant ways. It places the target into base contact with a Shadow marker within 8" of them so it puts things a long potential distance away from where they were earlier either to manipulate your own models placement to get where they may not have been able to otherwise, and for enemies to deny their plans or put them in places where they will be easy to kill for you. The trigger on a Tome (again, fairly easy with Wilting Tsubaki) for Last Blossom only, it instead Buries the target and you can Unbury later on in base contact with any Shadow marker on the table so you have even more range to get anywhere you want. 

Jin Baccara gets shared with English Ivan, and naturally that means Shadow Markers. He is overall fairly simple with a completely average stat line, Assassin as part of Last Blossom (but he is low min damage so don't expect it to happen in most games) and Ungentlemanly Affairs from DUA (which will be far more common, although again not as universally useful with his attacks). The other 2 abilities he has though are far more interesting and directly useful most games, with Skulker giving your crew pass tokens if he is Buried or in Concealment during the start phase (and with both keywords throwing out Shadows...) and Undercover letting him start the game buried. He can choose an enemy Minion if he is Buried when he activates (meaning this is a great potential counter to Tara and Lady J shenanigans too) and then Unbury in base contact with it before sending it back to its deployment zone and Jin himself gains Slow, which is generally a great application of the model mid-game (and you can still use some of his actions while Buried to get max value out of him). Of his 2 bonus actions both are good in the right cases, with Ambush being the usual one for free movement and Dispose of Evidence being great counter-scheming that you gain a card from at the same time. Hidden Blade at stat 5 isn't fantastic, but built in Critical Strike for 2/3/5 ignoring Armour is not bad for a cost 7 model and against Armour is one of the better ways to get damage through in Last Blossom. Ink-Tipped Dart he shares with Misaki, and here it is still competing with other very good actions but is still a great way to easily generate Shadow markers for you to use. Stat 5 is fairly average and won't be doing huge amounts, especially with 1/3/5 damage, but it's mainly the Shadow generation you want for the synergies that brings. His last action, Enemy Intel, is the main reason I like Jin because it is pretty great. He can take it while Buried, meaning the first couple of turns he can still have a meaningful effect on the game while still off the board. Stat 5 vs the enemy Leader's Willpower means there are some games that you are only really trying just cause you're Buried (when the Leader is Wp7 mostly), but in most cases you have a decent enough chance of getting it through it's worth trying anyway. The effect on it, forcing the opponent to choose either a discard or you manipulating the top 3 cards of their deck (and discarding them if you don't like the look of them- severes and the Red Joker) is really annoying to do and can mess up plans in a lot of ways. In general I think Jin will be seeing quite a lot of table time in the coming months in both his keywords, because he does so much to support their game plan

Model Review- Jakob Lynch, Dark Bet and Soul Battery

 Probably the most unique in terms of the title reviews I will be covering, the new version of Lynch doesn't necessarily change up the playstyle of the keyword as a whole but it does change up Hungering Darkness in a very major way. 

Lynch himself is a bit weird because he becomes a directly offensive model and can act as a pretty good beater now, but keeping Brilliance flowing is more important than ever for this title. Lynch has pretty low stats on his front of card, being very slow and having an abysmal Willpower, but otherwise he is fairly standard in terms of Honeypot although a little different to before. Instead of not being able to have Brilliance ever, he now starts with 5 tokens (which is quite a lot really) and the less obvious downside of being able to gain Stunned now, which with some great triggers is important to note. He no longer brings a few of his old tricks, namely any of his front of card abilities to punish cheating and give out Brilliance (meaning the early game spread is a lot less passive) and enemies are no longer at negatives to attack him if they have Brilliance meaning he is somewhat easier to take out. He keeps Rig the Deck +2 though as could be expected, and gains Luck Thief and Delirium which both are really useful to both keep him alive and hurt the opponent (with Delirium also playing very heavily into the Brilliance focus of this Lynch). Lynch only has 1 attack action that is fairly self-explanatory, being 2/3/5 damage and stat 6 with a built in Crow, and a 1" melee range. Nothing super amazing, but the triggers will always be useful and make it a complete package, with built in Sharpened Brilliance for easily changing your damage to 3/4/6 which is pretty great and The Light Inside to spread Brilliance more for you to use. With regards to tactical actions he has 3, one of which is his bonus action and one which is once per turn so he will usually be doing a variety of actions each turn simply because the applications of them are more limited. His bonus Feed the Darkness needs a 5 to go off, but is a 6" aura (it's Honeypot, of course it is) that forces all models ending their activations within range to make a TN12 Wp duel or gain a Brilliance. With friendly models able to choose to fail this (and outside the mirror match, you always will) it should really just be something you always do especially if you can hit the Ram trigger for Inner Glow to give out another Brilliance and heal 1 to all friendly models in range. It's also important to note that Lynch is also in range of it himself with it being an aura, so he can easily gain 2 Brilliance a turn off this as well as pumping it out on a lot of other models. Looming Eclipse is only once per turn, but being able to shed Brilliance off Lynch to pass it out to other friendly models and heal them 2 in the process is really great because it keeps the crew ticking when they need to. This all works together to make sure Lynch really wants a lot of Brilliance generation to keep running at max efficiency in this version which is quite doable, but requires an effort and keyword models to make sure it happens. Pulse 6 is a pretty good range (and within 6" of Lynch is the fun zone usually anyway) and a 6 isn't too difficult to get off, especially if you can Rig the Deck to make it happen. Dragged into the Dark is his last action to note, and boy is it fun. The only options in terms of who you can target are either Hungering Darkness or any model with 3 or more Brilliance on them, and all it does is place them in base contact with Lynch. 6" range, no resist on it and it just needs a 5. In terms of countering positioning and pulling things where they don't want to be, this is amazing. Sure it requires a lot of setup, but being able to pull things out of position and then close to you (where you are now a min 3 beater just by tearing off their Brilliance) is a very bad situation for the opponent to be in. Especially when stacked onto Lures and Obeys that also hand out Brilliance when you do them, this is definitely a very viable option. 

I feel that given the special nature of it, the changes to Hungering Darkness deserve their own section and discussion. Becoming a Master and the leader of the crew is a big change, but something that makes Huggy incredibly strong and a good option to consider when looking at the Honeypot keyword. Huggy was already really good, and becoming 3AP just makes him stronger, while the "downside" of lower wounds and thus weaker to Assassinate isn't actually an issue for a few reasons. Like I've mentioned before, Huggy has tons of healing potential already, and with Terrifying and Incorporeal he isn't the easiest to land damage on. He also gains a Demise ability to place into base contact with Lynch and then heal based on how many Brilliance Tokens Lynch has (which Lynch then takes in Irreducible damage) so he becomes really tough to kill as long as Lynch has Brilliance. It is once per turn, so there is a lot of counterplay just like Demise:Eternal, but very strong nonetheless. I think in general Huggy is mostly going to be Obeying things around the table be it enemy or friendly, especially because his trigger to hand out Brilliance is very important in terms of resource generation. 

The Soul Battery is a shared model with Leveticus, and all in all it is decent but I think it is best in specific cases and not a great generalist. It mostly exists as a support piece for the rest of the crew, and my favourite things about it are the ease at which it gives out Brilliance tokens (very important in this version of Lynch) and passive healing. 1 damage to give out 2 Brilliance is a fair trade IMO because it gives a far greater benefit in a lot of ways, especially doing it to enemies where it can become so much more (extra damage from Sharpened Brilliance, positive flips for Huggy, healing for Huggy and Slow for them without even mentioning the synergy with Delirium). It's also a 4SS significant model so you can potentially pivot to using it for schemes if you absolutely need to, but I wouldn't hope to rely on it unless you absolutely have to. Giving extra bonuses for using Soulstones is great, as is Entropy for more detrimental auras and Hard to Kill to keep it alive a bit more. Final Sacrifice can be useful if you really need it, but the really nice bonus action is the possibility to cheat from your fate deck instead of your hand (kinda a nonbo with Rig the Deck unless you only see weak cards, cause you'll know what's coming anyway). In general I think it is a really great addition to the 4 Horseman Leveticus list, but in Lynch it comes some of the time with Dark Bet when you want to make sure you have Brilliance spread around the table. 

BMG Model Review and List Discussion- The Flash (TV)

 A bit of a hybrid post today, I've decided to talk about one of my favourite models in the game and one that's a little bit tougher to use for a couple of reasons at this point in 3rd edition. The Flash has always been one of my favourite models to use, and definitely one of my favourite characters in DC in general. Obviously he is primarily about speed, and you can use that to your advantage in a lot of ways in game even without having access to Speedster rules yet. 

In a Batman crew, Flash occupies an interesting role as he can take on a few different tasks and do all of them effectively, but he does cost a lot for that luxury. Being a Sidekick he can lead a crew, which isn't a terrible option but also isn't great either (a fast solo operator doesn't play nicely with Inspire, and you will also want other hitters to put out some hurt) so I would only really do this to be able to take him and another Free Agent if that is the main intention of your list. Pairing him with a Batman is also very expensive, but it does the job of having a bit more of a big hitter and then using Flash to run objectives and Arrest what Batman takes out. Flash and Snitch are a match made in heaven, because he can almost guarantee later in a turn that he can get to where the enemy can't to deny it being scored and he can also zip in to deny enemy cards as well should he have to with his huge movement of 16" and Detective giving him a potential of 19" Manipulating range. He can get to 5 attack dice and the opponent can't Effort against it, but that isn't really great because you're not doing damage reliably enough to anything, being better off using his Speed Force counters to give him 2 free defence counters if he gets attacked in melee and saving his Tactical Action for Manipulates. Overall he synergises very well with the Batman deck because he can score almost any card if he has to, and I really like him in that regard. 

I'll put 2 examples for lists here, one with Knightmare Batman (because as always, he is my favourite Batman to use) and one with Bruce Wayne for a bit more of a focused list. 

Knightmare Batman

-Upgraded Batsuit

The Flash (TV)

-Batman Inc

-Martial Arts Training

Alfred Pennyworth

-Handcuffs

Sgt Harvey Bullock

-Radio

-Street Patrol

GCPD Detective

-Radio

-Whistle

GCPD Cop 1

Almost every model in the list is a Detective (or Veteran) and has Arrest which gives a lot of angles to get your cards scored, and anything with positioning needed is very easily done between the crew. It doesn't have huge amounts of damage in it, but it does have speed and the ability to get markers down exactly where they're needed right from the start of the game. 

Die Hard

Flanking

Get Them Off The Streets

Non-Lethal Ammo

Secure the Perimeter

Snitch

They Won't See Me Coming

Wait for Backup

Unveiling the Truth

Back to Arkham

Wrong Place, Kid

Bruce Wayne

-Upgraded Batsuit

The Flash (TV)

-Batman Inc

-Martial Arts Training

Harry

-Handcuffs

Sgt Harvey Bullock

-Radio

GCPD Detective

-Radio

GCPD Cop 1

GCPD Cop 2

This list is a bit more well-rounded and brings a ton to the table. Harry is a really good gun piece that synergises well with the amount of Arrests the crew brings, and Strategist is always good, Bruce is still a good hitter that can do a lot of work while also supporting the crew around him and Flash does Flash things.  

Die Hard

Flanking

Stake Your Claim

Get Them Off The Streets

Secure the Perimeter

Snitch

They Won't See Me Coming

Unveiling the Truth

Back to Arkham

Wrong Place, Kid

In Team Arrow, his role as "expensive objective scorer" is just as apparent, but he becomes a lot more efficient. Being able to be inspired by Green Arrow (who himself has a very good model in his new version) gives you a really good objective runner who can get to pretty much anywhere he needs to at any time to score points. While still not a great fighter, he is defensive enough and mobile that you can just use him to reliably place suspects and do the occasional Arrest when you can (I probably wouldn't recommend taking any cards for Arrest in Team Arrow because Flash is the only one that can do it). With that said, you're mostly just looking at some of the mainstays of Team Arrow otherwise, be that Katana, Huntress or Canary for access to Birds of Prey cards and Captain Cold for literally everything, I would play some kind of list like this using Flash in Team Arrow crews. 

Green Arrow

-Magazine

-Tactical Gloves

-Red Dot

The Flash (TV)

Captain Cold

BOP Katana/Black Canary (Rebirth)/BOP Huntress

The list is fairly self-explanatory- Cold and GA shoot things pretty well, GA gives everyone Inspire and Flash runs around and does work as well. The last slot I think is fairly contested, because the 3 options I listed all give you a great deck to pull from with Birds of Prey (although this may very well change soon with new team rules) and all give you a very useful tool to use. Huntress helps you massively double down on shooting and is a decent melee model when she needs to be, Katana is a really great melee model, and Canary is very good control on top of fairly average but reliable melee. I would probably lean towards Katana because she has the biggest role in terms of covering bases for the list, but any will work IMO. 

I won't be putting a deck together for this one, purely because I'm not sure yet just how much they will be changing with new team rules and I expect to be updating this post when those and updated Speedster rules are released. 

On the Table- Family, Wildfire

 Another quicker update, I've been working on quite a lot of different Malifaux stuff in between some of the other projects I've posted lately and thought I'd put it up here. 

I painted Kaeris and her keyword a little while ago, and I found them really fun to paint. The flames were something I don't very often attempt but here were a necessity, so being pushed out of my comfort zone a bit was a good thing and I'm pretty proud of them overall. 

One of the biggest draws of Malifaux to me is the Weird West aesthetic a lot of the crews have, especially the gunslingers, and Perdita and her Ortega Family are a really big part of that I hadn't picked up until recently. I've had all the alt sculpts and her Avatar lying around for a while with the intention of playing her crew eventually, but now (especially with her gorgeous new art and title) I'm definitely looking forward to having the opportunity to put her on the table. 

On the Table- Fallout, King Shark

 Hobby update time, I'm still managing to make my way through a bunch of new things that I'm really happy to have finished and add to my collection. 

After watching The Suicide Squad I really wanted to add King Shark, my favourite character from the movie, to my Batman Miniatures collection and particularly so I can use him in Suicide Squad. He was a really quick and fun mini to paint and I'm looking forward to adding him into my games. 

I also finished up my Fallout collection for now with the core set (with bonus alien) and a set of Ghouls, giving me a ton of things I can use in game either as their own factions, for AI mode or as random encounters to threaten both sides on the table.