For anyone looking to get good at Malifaux, take note: that is the worst time to finally be thinking about any of those things.
As I get more games in, I have more things to think about and share, so I'll (hopefully) be posting a bit more about Malifaux as I go through the crews I own. I ended up buying a lot of crews that didn't get played very much (I was one of the foolish Marcus faithful in M1E, though my perseverance was rewarded in spades in M2E), so I have a lot of models that I haven't explored much, if at all.
Last time, I shared my thoughts on Misaki and her crew. Continuing the Ten Thunders theme, I've been getting games in with Mei Feng and her Rail Crew box set (with various accompanying models), so join me after the break for my thoughts about her and her railworking buddies.
 |
| Pay no attention to Kang's mutant shoulder |
Preamble
My experience with Mei Feng is a little odd. Her M1E incarnation was very interesting - she was heavily focused on trigger based attack combos - but I picked her up pretty much on a whim. The only Arcanists Master I had at the time was Marcus and, having tired of fighting uphill, I wanted to get a "legit" Master to run for Arcanists. While that was definitely the case (her crew was damn solid back then, and still is now), the M2E revision robbed most of the reason for why I bought her in the first place (as Marcus ended up being pretty damn great, finally).
As a result, most of my experience in M2E with Mei Feng has been re-learning her and her crew from the ground up. That's the case with a lot of Masters in M2E but I didn't have the same desire to re-learn Mei Feng that I did with others, like Marcus or Lynch. It's been slow going and painful in places, but now I'm starting to feel like I understand the way her crew is supposed to play. Which is just a little bit important.
Stats and Abilities
Mei Feng has a very good stat line. Her Df and Wp are on the high side and matched, so she doesn't end up with a "weak" defensive stat. She has a solid number of Wds (which goes that much further thanks to her Armor +1), a good Wk value, and a fantastic Cg value. Her high Cg value is particularly remarkable, as it makes it easier for her to get into range with her Tiger Claws (8" threat) and gives her an awesome threat range with her Jackhammer Kick (10" threat). Between her Cg value and Railwalker, Mei Feng has surprising threat ranges despite being a melee Master.
Mei Feng has a couple of abilities that are pretty great:
Armor of any value is a big boon on a Soulstone user. So long as you have the SS to burn, Mei can be taking no damage on any hits of 2 damage or less (where it's important), and a lucky prevention flip combined with Armor +1 can allow her to survive some serious hits in surprisingly good condition.
Unstoppable Industry is simple but effective. Slow and Paralyzed are two of the most irritating/crippling Conditions that a Master can be hit with. Which is of course why any crew that can afflict them on your will be throwing them at your Master as often as they can afford to. Being flat out immune to those Conditions allows Mei to play more aggressively, more consistently.
Finally, Mei has a Df trigger, though it isn't suited to the stat. Leap Aside is a potent reaction to a Df based attack failing against her; a 5" push can easily push her out of range of follow up attacks (especially if the previous attack was the start of a series of melee attacks), push her into cover, or even push her into a better position to capitalize during her next activation. The biggest issues with this trigger are that: 1) it requires the attack action to fail, so it may be tricky to trigger against accurate models, and 2) pushes in Malifaux are unbroken straight lines, which may make it difficult to really move anywhere based on other models and terrain. Those are relatively minor issues though (which can be played around to an extent), and it's overall much better to have a defensive trigger than not.
Actions
What makes the "figuring it out" process funny with Mei Feng is that she's relatively simple. A quick review of her card reveals a few straightforward abilities on the front, and four actions on the back of her card (two of which are Ml attacks, so they're similar in application). None of those actions are particularly complex; the trickiest thing she has going for her is Railwalker, and even that has the benefit of a built-in trigger.
The biggest issue I've had with Mei Feng is figuring out what she should be focusing on each activation (which gets more complicated with her upgrades, but more on that in a bit). I've found it's easy to make poor AP spending choices with her, which usually results in her doing less than you want or hoped.
The takeaway I've had so far is that, most of the time, Mei Feng's AP needs to be spent on a single goal. Usually that will be mixing it up in melee or protecting her crew with Vent Steam. Whatever she's going to be doing that turn, she needs to be able to devote as much AP as possible to that goal. Her attack output is fairly mediocre so you want as many AP as possible to put into attacks, which in turn usually means that you want to make use of her Triggers (such as Railwalker) to double down on any AP you spend. Defensively, Vent Steam works best when you can stack it (something I didn't realize you can do until a recent FAQ release), combine it with things like Defensive Stance, and of course you want to be moving that aura around the table, so you'll probably be spending all of her AP on turns you want to use her to protect your crew.
What makes that expenditure worth it is what you get out of it. Vent Steam - especially stacked - is powerful protection from Sh and Ca actions. Many models rely on Sh or Ca actions and being able to put those actions at a double negative twist to attack makes it very difficult for most attacks to succeed (especially if you're able to stack Cover on top of that). Even for those that can get around the negative twists - Soulstone users, models with innate positive twists, multiple stacks of Focus - it usually ends up being resource intensive to do so, and they still have to try to win the opposed duel.
For those reasons, I've found that Vent Steam is usually Mei Feng's strongest play. It allows her to ferry a core component of her crew to a location on the table with a high degree of safety. That combines well with the natural durability of most of the Foundry models gives you a tough nugget of models that are pretty great at any Strategy or Scheme that focuses on standing your ground. It is less useful in strat/scheme setups that necessitate spreading out, though it's worth pointing out that Vent Steam still covers a fairly large chunk of the table (a 9" diameter circle on a 3' x 3' table). If nothing else, it's always useful for protecting Mei Feng and another key Henchman/Enforcer.
Alternatively, you could use Vent Steam along with some of the potent ranged models available in Arcanists/Ten Thunders to tip the ranged game heavily in your favor.
Mei Feng's melee attacks are solidly "above average". Her Tiger Claws are shorter range, but it inherently self-buffs future Tiger Claw attacks by causing Burning. That positive twist on damage can make a big difference in potential output and ability to cheat damage, which makes the Tiger Claws the better attack to go for when you're looking to churn out damage across several AP. Her Jackhammer Kick has an alright damage track (with a Severe of 6 being the most remarkable thing about it), but as it lacks any way to get positive twists to damage it is more useful for positioning (as it's very likely to put Mei Feng into Tiger Claw range), spreading out Armor (which can get nuts with other Foundry models), and giving Mei Feng a fantastic engagement range (invaluable for messing with enemy movement/scheme plans).
The tricky thing about Mei Feng is that her melee capabilities vary wildly based on the upgrades she has. Because of that I'll revisit her melee capabilities when I get to the upgrades section.
Last, but not least, is Railwalker. This ability is one of Mei Feng's most iconic abilities and it, combined with her high Cg value, is what gives her movement vectors that are hard to predict or shut down. At it's most simple, Railwalker allows Mei Feng to hop across a few Scrap Markers/friendly Constructs and get into combat swinging, potentially combining lots of movement with an attack (and all for 1 AP). This can allow Mei Feng to get to otherwise inaccessible or well defended targets, and it will probably keep your opponent on their toes when moving around your crew.
Railwalker is also very valuable for it's ability to be used at the end of an attack run (to extradite Mei Feng to a safer location) and/or to move Mei around before spending AP on Interact actions. That kind of flexibility is invaluable in a game that can be as positioning intensive as Malifaux, especially if you have the cards in hand/a little luck in order to get multiple Railwalker actions off in a turn. However, that flexibility is earned: Railwalker's utility is directly related to how well you position your crew to allow you to take advantage of it. This is something I'm still working on, and probably the trickiest thing to use well consistently.
Upgrades
Mei Feng has an interesting set of personal upgrades. All of them are cheap (1 SS each) and relatively low impact (adding triggers, adding yet another melee attack, etc) compared to what some other Master specific upgrades are. This allows Mei Feng to be run very upgrade light (as everything core to playing her is on her card) and even if you do load her up with upgrades it's not going to set you back too many SS (as compared to someone like Jakob Lynch).
As a result, I've had some difficulty in finding my comfort zone with how many upgrades to bring with her and which ones to take consistently. Part of that is a lack of experience with her - Marcus has a similar suite of upgrades, but I've played him enough to know which upgrades I want to take with him for general functionality, and when to vary that up. After a few games with Mei Feng, I think I have a better handle on her upgrades, though this is open to change as I get more games in with her.
Vapormancy is something I find myself taking with her consistently. It gives her yet another melee attack, with this one having blast markers and the ability to spread around Burning. That gives Mei an excellent level of flexibility with her melee output and it gives her a Ca based attack action to leverage against any Incorporeal models you might run into. The other thing that Vapormancy gives Mei, and arguably the more valuable part of the upgrade, is a trigger on her Tiger Claws and Jackhammer Kick that allows her to immediately take a free Vent Steam action after succeed with the attack. This is yet another source of AP efficiency - a single AP could potentially result in multiple Railwalker jumps, a Jackhammer Kick, and a Vent Steam aura going up, all for 1 AP! - and it helps Mei maintain her defensive cover while kicking out melee damage.
Seismic Claws is another upgrade I'm growing fond of. This upgrade is all about opening up free AP opportunities: the Tremors trigger gives you a way to get multiple attacks against bunched up enemies and Roiling Ground lets you turn any Tiger Claws attack into a one-two combo. Both triggers also push enemy models around which can be very valuable for certain strats/schemes. In ideal situations (based on enemy positioning and terrain), you can get a lot of "free" AP out of these triggers. Although those situations may not come up every game, Roiling Ground is a pretty reliable way to get value out of this upgrade, and again it's cheap enough that it's easy to bring along as an "in case" enabler.
Mei's other unique upgrades feel more niche. Thunderous Smash sounds great (especially against crews that want to leverage Corpse or Scrap Markers) but I've never had the stars align to make it really work. It's another upgrade that's cheap enough to bring along as an "in case", but unlike something like Seismic Claws I haven't really felt it was worthwhile after trying to use it a few times (against crews that would be hurt by clearing out Markers no less). Similarly, Price of Progress sounds good (and can potentially help Mei stay stuck in longer) but she doesn't end up killing models en masse, making this feel like a lightweight upgrade.
What hurts those two upgrades the most is that there are a lot of competing options. One oddity of Mei Feng is that she doesn't have any default way to use her (0) action each turn, so upgrades that give her access to a (0) action are very compelling. Hard Worker gives her a potentially powerful self-buff that her crew can also take advantage of, and On Wings of Wind (10T only) gives her a way to move key models in her crew around.
Even ignoring those upgrades, both Arcanists and Ten Thunders offer excellent 1 SS upgrade options that seem more consistently useful - Imbued Energies, Seize the Day, and Recalled Training jump immediately to mind - and both faction choices give you plenty of interesting 2 SS options if you're willing to spend a bit more on that slot. Alternatively, you can just bank that SS to fuel triggers. All those options feel better than the Thunderous Smash or Price of Progress upgrades, but maybe I just need to use them more.
Emberling
This totem is relatively low-key, but I've grown to love the little guy. For 3 SS you get an Incorporeal model that counts for strats and schemes while also not being conflicted with alternate roles. It's a great, cheap scheme runner that can operate independently of Mei Feng's nugget of steam obscured rail warriors, and if you're lucky it'll also do some damage/drop a Scrap Marker or two before the end of the game. Love it.
Kang
Kang is well known as a badass Henchman, and he's one of the more compelling reasons to run a Ten Thunders crew (though Mei Feng can drag him into an Arcanist thanks to his Foundry tag).
What makes Kang so good is that he brings a number of solid things to the table, all for a reasonable cost. He's pretty damn durable with Hard to Wound +1, Hard to Kill, SS use, and Can't Keep Him Down all native on his card. Add any other source of healing or Armor and Kang will take some serious work to put down.
While Kang is taking a beating, he can be dishing it right back out. He has an awesome attack in his Whomping Shovel; Ml 7 and a 3/4/6 damage track make it an accurate and frequently painful attack. And, for chuckles, Kang can also throw Hot Coals around as a ranged attack option. It's not anything remarkable - short Rg, mediocre damage track - but it gives Kang some attack flexibility (nice when he's holding ground somewhere) and it can be remarkably effective against Undead or Construct models.
Oh right. Kang also bring along two crazy-good buffs for himself and models within (aura) 6" of him as passives: Friendly Living models gain immunity to Horror Duels, and all friendly models gain positive twists to attack and damage flips against Construct and Undead models. This makes Kang himself a beast against those types of models, and it can give you a powerful buff to counteract the durability of those models (especially when combined with something like the Hard Worker (0) action buff). What is most remarkable about The Worker's Champion (the positive twist aura) is that it works for all attack and damage flips: melee, ranged, and casting actions all get the buff.
Kang's buffs make him invaluable against crews that are full of Undead and Constructs (it's also worth noting that many crews contain a splash of those model types) while his natural durability and melee capabilities make him a solid inclusion in general. He's an easy inclusion into any crew that can take him, and Mei Feng has the benefit of always being able to take him so they end up spending a lot of time together.
They still don't talk about that shoulder.
Rail Worker
The "in theme" grunt Minion of the Rail Crew, the humble Rail Worker has earned a lot of respect from me. I was initially underwhelmed when I read their card, and they usually don't do anything elaborate, but they're really solid Minions that work well in the context of Arcanists or Ten Thunders.
Rail Workers are innately durable with Armor +1 and Hard to Kill, and they can be remarkably durable if you can get their Metal on Metal trigger against harder hitting attacks. While Rail Workers don't have a large Wd pool, they can make enemies work for absolutely every damage point they get through. In that way, they act as excellent AP sinks for your opponent. Rail Workers also have solid Df and Wp values which gives them a fighting chance of dodging some attacks entirely, or at least forcing negative twists on damage (which in turn allows them to potentially soak more hits).
Unlike some cheap, durable models, Rail Workers can kick out some very respectable damage. Their Replacement Limbs hit remarkably hard for their cost (having a 4 Moderate damage is awesome) and they can self-buff with positive twists on Ml attack and damage flips, making it that much more likely for their attacks to connect and get in solid hits.
Rail Workers are Living and Construct models which allows them to benefit from a variety of buffs and abilities, plus they drop Scrap Markers on death (great for Mei Feng and other Arcanist models). Their innate Construct typing, along with their ability to capitalize slightly on the Burning Condition, allows Rail Workers to slot nicely into a number of Arcanist builds, while Ten Thunders offers the Rail Workers more flexibility with movement shenanigans, healing, and fun tricks like "infinite" Implacable Assaults with Lynch (assuming you get an ace card early).
Overall, I've found the Rail Workers to be great...workers. They're part of what makes up the backbone of my Mei Feng crew (so far), and I've had solid luck with using them in other crews.
Metal Gamin
These little guys are Arcanists only model, but Foundry allows Mei Feng to bring them along anywhere. Metal Gamin are very defensively oriented models - Armor +2, Hard to Kill, and Stand Ground - that also have the virtue of being cheap, strat/scheme capable Construct Minions, so they play well into Mei Feng's crew. Metal Gamin are most valuable for their ability to stand around and soak damage. However, they do have some side features which are very nice, and play into the rest of Mei Feng's crew.
Magnetism is an ability that is only useful against Constructs, but it can give the Metal Gamin a remarkable speed boost against them while also causing fair damage (that ignores Armor). You can potentially use this to move based on your own models, but as most of the Construct models I'm bringing usually have low-ish Wds I don't want to be softening them up just to speed up Metal Gamin. It does, however, play nicely into Mei's crew's probable slant against Constructs (especially if you have Kang around).
Protection of Metal is a nice defensive buff. It can be difficult to maintain, depending on how much a given set of strats and schemes requires you to move, but if you're able to have a Metal Gamin orbiting another key model, it's an easy way to give them a flat Df value of 6 (which can translate into as much as +2 buff for some models). Having this buff in place also dials up the output of the Metal Gamin's Fierce Head Butt attack by giving it Burning +2; a welcome buff to it's low damage track that also plays into some Rail Crew abilities (such as the Rail Worker's Shovel Faster (0) action).
I had actually completely forgotten about the Metal Gamin - I bought them exclusively for Mei Feng, so all that time playing other crews let them filter down to the bottom of my memory - but I'm glad poking around in the crew creator made me remember them. They're not going to win any awards in the damage department, but they're cheap, solid little models that compliment the core of a Mei Feng crew nicely. Plus they'll be nice to have when I inevitably pick up Kaeris and Ironsides in the future.
Rail Golem
One of the coolest models back when it came out in M1E, the Rail Golem made the jump largely intact: it's still a big bruiser that can be absolutely devastating if it gets going. However, like many of those big bruisers it's sort of vulnerable - low Df, mediocre Wp, no resistance to things like Slow or Paralyzed - so it benefits tremendously from having someone like Mei Feng be able to ferry it across the table.
The Rail Golem is fairly durable for it's cost; 10 Wds is a little low for it's cost, but that's because innate Armor +2 makes it a big pain to chew through most of the time. Everything else about the Rail Golem is based around it gaining, maintaining, and then using it's Burning Condition. It's Ml attack is no slouch with a built in positive twist to attack and a great damage track, but it gets absolutely terrifying when it gets buffed up when used under Locomotion (which bumps the damage up to a staggering 5/6/8!)
The Rail Golem requires three things: 1) plenty of Burning Condition on itself, 2) a steady source of tomes cards for it's Momentum trigger on Locomotion, and 3) some form of protection from all the disabling/damage ranged attacks your opponent is probably going to be throwing at it to slow it down and/or soften it up before it can get into the enemy crew and start turning everything into a fine paste.
#1 isn't that hard to come by. The Rail Golem generates it's own Burning Condition fairly well between Stoked Fury and it's Redline trigger, so it only needs a little help (or a turn or two waiting in the wings) to have enough of a Burning Condition saved up to fuel any potential Locomotion spree.
#2 is trickier, and tends to influence what the rest of your crew can do. Ideally, you'll want to build up a small cache of mid-range tomes cards to guarantee some Momentum triggers on a Locomotion turn, though how many you may need varies wildly based on just how much the Rail Golem can reasonably get to. It is possible, even, to just use Locomotion as a source of an extra attack each turn and not really focus on Momentum, though the high cost of the Rail Golem usually puts it's crew into the position where it needs to do sizable work in order to pay it's keep.
#3 is the hardest of the set to pull off. Once your opponent has been on the receiving end of a Rail Golem Locomotion/Momentum spree, they're going to go to great lengths in the future to shut that down as hard as they can. Armor +2 gives the Rail Golem solid durability against most damaging attacks, but it's Df and Wp values can make it hard to avoid nasty debuffing attacks. Especially since your opponent is likely willing to spend important resources (SS, high cards, AP to Focus) to give themselves the best chance to land those kinds of attacks.
Any defensive bonuses you can get for the Rail Golem are crucial as it makes it's way across the table. Terrain can help, but it can also play hell with movement, and isn't useful against attacks that ignore/don't care about Cover. No, what the Rail Golem really needs is something that can protect it universally against ranged attacks.
Something like, say, one or two stacks of Vent Steam.
And/or, getting a bump up to Df 6 from Metal Gamin.
With the Rail Golem, it's less about what it can do for Mei Feng (it's a big Railwalker target, and that's about it) and more what Mei Feng can do for it. The blanket efficacy of Vent Steam makes her one of the best Masters available at delivering the big guy in fighting shape, and it can get some support from the models likely to be in her crew (Kang's auras, Metal Gamin's Df buff). It also offers probably the hardest hitting native Foundry model (with Locomotion Ml attacks), giving Mei Feng's crew some much appreciated top end damage output.
For all of those reasons, the Rail Golem isn't something I use often - it's much less useful in scenarios that necessitate your crew spread out, and it's an expensive and inefficient scheme runner - but it's a fantastic model to have when the situation calls for it. Turf War gives the Rail Golem one helluva mosh pit to play in, and there are a number of schemes that reward killing power and/or durability, two things that the Rail Golem excels at. It's a semi-specialized model, but it can be very potent when played well into it's niche.
Willie
Ah Willie. Source of a million low hanging fruit jokes. Also, one of my favorite models in M1E. He was a blast.
Pot, kettle.
Willie's M2E incarnation is understandably less insane than he used to be; a big part of his M1E appeal was how absurdly potent and useful he was for 6 SS. His M2E version hews much closer to what a model in his cost bracket should be capable of, which is good for balance but harder in actually applying him effectively.
Willie's purpose in life (and death) is spreading around blast markers. His Demo Charge attack generates them (while also ignoring Armor, which is nice), he generates them when he walks, and he even throws out a variable number of them when he dies. With some lucky tomes for the Slow Burn trigger, his Demo Charges can also hand out the Burning Condition, which ties in nicely with some of the Rail Crew's abilities (as well as other Arcanists and Ten Thunders models).
The problem that Willie often runs into is that his abilities pull him close to the enemy (his ranged attack is "only" Rg 10 and his ability to drop out templates on move/death come off of his model) but he doesn't have the most robust defensive stat line. Or, more accurately: Willie's raw stats aren't good enough to offset the amount of attention he's likely to garner. His stats are actually quite good - Df 6, Wp 5, and 7 Wds is a nice loadout for a 6 SS ranged model - but he lacks any of the "big" defensive rules (Armor, Hard to Wound, Hard to Kill) that would give him real staying power.
As a result, Willie tends to fall down dead (with a bang) shortly after your opponent really commits to killing him. Dropped Load helps to chip in some damage on his way out, but Willie really needs to do more prior to that to justify his output. Unfortunately, getting him into position to do that work can often put him in danger (unless he's in a really juicy spot out of LOS, but more on that in a bit) and his only defensive measure - the "You Go Near Him..." (0) action - requires that he activate prior to anything that wants to charge him.
Willie also has another smaller problem, though it isn't unique to him (most Sh ranged models have to contend with this): the opportunity cost of accuracy. Willie has it better than most ranged models as he's able to innately ignore Cover with his attacks. Many models are stuck having to either flip cards and hope for the best, or Focus to offset Cover's negative twists; Willie can get around Cover at the cost of -2 to the attack total, which is less AP intensive. The downside is that this penalty (putting him at effectively Sh 4) makes it harder to connect with the attack, and more likely to put him at a negative twist on the damage, which in turn makes it harder for him to generate blasts. This is a necessary evil, as at that point he's ignoring Cover, LOS, and Armor, but it does make his job trickier than it first appears.
Most of my games with Willie have ended with him dying unceremoniously and depressingly early for little gain. I'm hoping that a better understanding of how to apply him may lead to better results. I've been realizing more and more recently that Mei Feng could run one helluva ranged presence with her Vent Steam bubble giving her crew a big accuracy advantage. That would give Willie some potent defense against ranged attacks (he can make good use of it with his high Df), and hopefully having other models nearby will protect him effectively from being charged and stabbed to death.
We'll see how that works out. Willie is up against some seriously still competition (har) in both Arcanists and Ten Thunders crews, so I'm hoping to discover a niche where I like him. Failing that, at least he's still an awesome model.
-------
That's the extent of my experience with Mei Feng and her related Foundry models. Like most Malifaux crews, I enjoy it more and more as I continue playing it. What seems simple at first ends up having lots of depth and options; Mei Feng alone offers a ton of options and possibilities between all her available upgrades, actions, and triggers.
Hopefully this has been helpful for anyone looking to play or against Mei Feng and her thematic crew. I'm branching out into using more oddball models (i.e. non-Foundry) so I may have more impressions to share in the future. And I'll definitely do another write up like this once I rotate to another crew. I've solidified more about the Rail Crew as part of writing this up than I have after 3-4 games with them; it's amazing what just trying to put your thoughts into a post does for your understanding.
Until next time, thanks very much for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment