Rage Quit Wire- Episode 312- Cadmus HELP!

Welcome back, Rage Nation. Got myself Pete here. Yeah, really exciting. You got senior or Dixon? I Got it. I think that's appropriate. Oh, you got most here real bar. Explores deserve that. No, absolutely. I was just ghosted. I cannot believe that don't this. I is why I can't buy you stuff. But it's just nonsense. I disagree on that. It's not possible. We're getting the band back together. We're on ambition. Yeah. Now we've got a whole new list of things to complain about. We are at the end. And we're going to do a little bit of the Exploran. And of course, get some of the Explorers Nonsense I got to bring on Trevor and Trevor. We are going to talk about Spoters, I guess. Yes, yes. A little creepy crawlies that get under your skin and control your body. Pervy Spoters that are creeping on people all throughout me also. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and we mainly wanted to do this because I guess, I mean, you talk to Explorer players more than I do, I think. But apparently some people are like, hey, how do I do this? Question mark? Yeah, and you know, Padmas has always largely been one of the more popular keywords in Explorers Society. It's often what brings people in. And they function a little bit differently than they did last edition as far as I know anyway. But I've had a lot of questions in the Explorers Society discord kind of pop up as to, hey, how does this thing work? What's what's best? What are some tips and tricks for Padmas? So I thought it might be a good time. And I've got quite a bit of experience with them in in for so far. Yeah, and if you want to get this episode early in future episodes, definitely become patron at patreon.com/reachgoodwire where I always try to get them early. Next I just wrote one article for the patrons as well and articles whenever I do those or I have other people write them. Those don't go out in the public. That's just for the patrons. So I did one comparing Ezekiel to Asura because I think most people are saying how and why would you bring Ezekiel? So I put in some tips and tricks there for people on when they might want to consider bringing the little Gremlin freak. So speaking Gremlin freaks, I played some value. And you know when you kind of, what did they say? You slip up and you know, you kind of fall off the wagon or hop on the wagon, whichever the version is where you messed up. That's what I did. So when you hear I was talking about this, we'll probably reference some interactions in that game. I actually played Brewmaster and you know, it just felt right. Not gonna lie, it just felt right. You always seem happy when you're playing by you. That is one of the, I mean, you and me have been playing for a couple of years now and it's one of those things that's funny because I've played you with a lot of different keywords. But every time I go back to buy you, you just say, you just seem like you're enjoying that a lot. It's the jank. I think it's the backwoodsiness of a mall. It's all a bit put together. Yeah, and there's just some funny interactions. So yeah, if you're wondering when we talk about some of the interactions, because we're going to give some tips and tricks here, not really a deep dive, more just like things, notice that are helpful for it. We'll probably break down the crew cards in the masters a bit and then we'll kind of just talk generally. But yeah, I'll be referencing the bayou because that's what I was playing. Brumaster, the proof profit. He likes the high proof, the 140 proof. So that's what we played. So yeah, looking at at Cadmus and Nexus here, do, so let me ask you first, Charlie, do you feel like both versions are pretty decent or do you think people are just focusing on the heart of the hive? What do you think when you look at this keyword? Is it you feel yourself bringing both at different times? Or are you like, no, it's probably just this one version. So mostly for me, it's just been hard of the hive. I just see a lot more strength in it. But I'm one of those people that I like to try to get this thing. There's no way he says, doesn't work to work. And so I actually, I think actually, you and I had a game once where you said, oh, actually, these kids can do some stuff. Yeah, we played a game, I think, in the beta when you were kind of giving them a go, or maybe it was right after the beta. Actually, no, it was after the beta because you played them when you came down in November. Yeah, that's right. They were annoyingly solid. I felt like I couldn't really kill them because they'll just come back, which was annoying. Yeah. But so what do you think, maybe like eight out of 10 times, you're probably bringing the main version there at the heart of the hive? I would think so. I just think it's a bit stronger. I think there's some really niche reasons why you would bring the trees. I agree. This felt scarier than the next kids. Yeah. There were things that happened. I was like, oh my, I'm going to have to play this different next time. Yes, they can feel pretty overwhelming pretty quick. I mean, that's part of why I've really enjoyed them is they feel very much like what they're supposed to in my opinion. And we'll talk about this here in a minute. But I also like how when I was playing against it, I had that feeling of being the the moth caught in their web, right? I felt there was a part of the board where I really had trouble kind of manipulating around those web markers. And I feel like you need to definitely be aware of kind of the impact of those because man, there was part of my crew that I wasn't so so spoiler alert proof profit. Pretty tanky crew. So Trevor wasn't necessarily killing myself in the game we played, but the movement shenanigans and the lockdowns were really strong in this crew. So which is kind of funny because you weren't even thinking of that aspect. We played informants and you kind of had the realization you were like, wow, these are pretty solid in this in this strategy. Yeah, I've previously played hive mine a ton in plant explosives. They've kind of been my plant explosives crew mainly because and you know, this is this is the crew card ability that exoskeleton link ability where basically you get to target somebody either a friendly or an enemy and you get to place a base contact with them and then place that model in base contact with a friendly within six. And if they've got a parasite token is plus two. So it's a stat eight against their willpower. Yeah. So they're great for plant because you can, you know, somebody who's standing on a marker that you wouldn't be able to pick up, you can place in base contact and then put them somewhere else. Yeah, that's kind of the thing, right? Because not only do you place there, but then you get rid so you're not engaged, but in this situation you were placing yourself to get next to the marker and you were moving me away from the marker. Yeah, it's huge and informants. Yeah, it was it was much better than I originally thought it was going to be for informants. In fact, I'm going to start taking them. I would definitely, yeah, it was really solid. Plus, even your because that's obviously for your unique cadness models, but a lot of your minions have actions that also move models. So there's just a lot of movement that your opponent has to be aware of. Yeah, absolutely. They've got a lot of different ways to do it. And like you said, even the minions. Yeah. And so kind of looking at the rest of the crew card for hive mind, a heart of the hive here. So they have, we are a Legion, which I think that one all that means is if you already have a parasite token, you gain another one. Obviously, you can't have two tokens. So you just take one of your reducible. That's fine. I mean, it's a good way just because I mean, I think Nexus has a as a melee attack that I mean, it doesn't hurt to ping damage, you know, with their, I think it's the tag trigger that she had around it. That way you're getting a raise of three and you're getting to ping another damage. But new host, this one's kind of interesting because after this model's dealt damage by or deals damage to an enemy model as a result of an opposed duel, this model may drain a soul stone to have the enemy gain a parasite token. So basically, I mean, there's a lot of ways to just put parasite tokens out. But if you really just want to put one and you have the stones, just go ahead and put it on there. Yeah, it's definitely good to have some stones when you come in with this. I mean, granted this last game, I only brought two or three. Yeah. But, you know, you spend them and then you get them back. That's the thing is that if they have a parasite token and they die, you usually get them right back. And that we are Legion and new hosts work together really well because if you just need that one more damage to kill like hard to kill, you can just spend a stone to get that one last damage and you're going to get that right back. You know, if they already have a parasite token, so yeah. So, I mean, like I said, the big one on the crew card is definitely the exoskeleton link. Just the move mentioned and against is just insane. Good kidnaps, good kind of, you know, your opponent thinks something's safe and it's just not. And then the other big one that you're going to see in the crew are these web markers, which they're 50 millimeter severe. If models in in peace contact. with the WebMarker, they may not be moved by other models friendly to them. So this is what I was talking about with this kind of the first time I played against I have mine, so I didn't. Anytime I play the first game, I don't plan against it. I'm just running into it to see what it does. And I quickly found that last part of that WebMarker where you can't be moved by other allies essentially, other friendly models. I realized very quickly that that made it where you could move me away from it, but then out of activation I couldn't move them back in, which Brumaster does have a lot of out of activation movement. But my stuff was near those markers and in them, I was caught in the Web and couldn't do anything, which I think is so cool. I think that's a cool kind of mechanic. - It's pretty special and I was and I was purposely trying to do that to models that had already activated because then you know, you can't. - Yeah, essentially you would have to come up and remove the marker and then move them. So I mean, two AP if you really wanna do it that way. - Yeah. - Yeah, so the crew cards really solid, definitely dig it. So let's kind of talk about Nexus 'cause I actually think her Mastercard, there's a lot you can do with it. It's very flexible. You can kind of set up your crew or you can go in pretty hard and do a decent amount of damage to models. - Yeah, she is solid. - So she's six defense, five speed, seven will power. - Seven size three. - It's the gross. - Yeah. - And 14 health. (laughing) - Well, and not only that, she can kind of hang back, right? Because of the connected consciousness. - Yes, yep. So connected consciousness is you can draw a line of sight with any of your actions through either an ally or a model with a parasite token. So you could even do it through an enemy within 12 inches that has not been used for that ability to turn. - That's so good. - And the really janky stuff with connected consciousness ends up being using that exoskeletal link with connected consciousness. So you could essentially teleport like 18 inches away in place and base contact with somebody, which is pretty wild. - And she's also terrifying, which I didn't even try attacking her this game. So that didn't even come up. Also Siphon Power, which I mean, honestly, I love Siphon Power, especially since you have like a surge trigger on an action to draw a card. You have good triggers on her melee. Like I said, putting the parasite token out to put it on or ping damage on to somebody. So that's just, it's really solid to do that. Yeah, so her melee, it doesn't look a lot 'cause it's just too damaged. But you wanna, so it didn't, I would say it didn't spike super hard in our game. I think mainly because you realized top scotch was hard to kill. - Yeah. - He doesn't have hard to kill, but he's hard to kill. - Yes, he's very hard to kill. You could just heal himself, but for, at the beginning of his activation her. - Yeah, he can remove poison to heal for, at the end of the turn, if he has a poison, he heals. The whole crew has a signature action to heal too and, you know, put bolstered on him. So yeah. - I put a ton of damage in doing it too. - I think you probably killed him twice. - Probably, yeah. - But, so talk me through Hive Striker melee attack and, you know, maybe how you've seen that really kind of put in the work and scare some models to literal death. - Yeah, yeah. So if they have a parasite token, which again, there's multiple ways to get that. - Yeah. - You can use your tag trigger or you can spend that stone to just give it - Or even yours to just kill themselves. - Yep, or eyes and ears can kill themselves in base contact to give the parasite, give them a parasite token or draw card. Those eyes and ears are really great peons. But, if they have a parasite token, this action has a raise value of three. So that's where that damage can spike pretty quickly. And, you know, if you've got a red joker in hand situation, it can be pretty devastating. - I think I looked out because I think there was an activation where Nexus attacked one of my models and I black jokered it, but we were kind of like both having no cards. So you couldn't cheat anything sexy. - Yes, yeah, that did end that entire game. I pulled the black joker on every hand. All four hands, I drew the black joker and I was searching for the red. Every chance couldn't buy it. - However, I found it because I abandoned my scheme and just drew it. - Yes, yeah. - You literally found it, which let me smoke the night till creeper, but that was a good times. Yeah, so raise value of three is really good. I mean, especially, and it's almost like you want to wait, especially later in the game, you want to wait till kind of almost the end of the turn, that way resource their down a bit and you can really save some cards or get lucky and spike where your opponent flips low and you got a 13 and you do, I don't know, four or five, six, seven damage to somebody. - Yeah, I definitely, I do try to save her activation for later in the turn because there's so much she can do. And like you said, she doesn't even have to be close to do it. - Yeah. - So she can just hang back and just buy her time and wait, which is, we'll talk about this later, but which is also why I don't like how Meredith operates a little bit because as we continue through her card here, she's obviously got, you know, after Hyves Strike, she's got Will of Cadness, the Soul Stone ability. She had this last edition as well, I believe, where basically I can target an ally or somebody with a parasite token and it's not even contested. I just spend a Soul Stone and make them do an action. - Yeah, yeah, that one didn't come up. I think it's mainly because you were a little low on stones in this game. - Yeah. - Everybody remembers citizens of Malfa, that's how you get all your little eyes and ears. - Yep, you turn web markers or remain markers into the eyes and ears. So in Heart of Hyves, that is how you're getting your, that's how you're getting your eyes and ears out. That's like pretty much the only way. So to get those eyes and ears out, you have to activate Nexus. So that'll come into play later when we talk about Meredith. - Yeah, and also I was kind of surprised with how good whispers in the web was in certain situations 'cause I had, and it didn't really matter 'cause I think I was just kind of putting them down 'cause I could end the turn. But I was putting ski markers down and yeah, whispers in the web turns out, you can just make web markers for how many ever schemes are next to that. So that was great. - Yeah, you took me for a little bit of a ride there because you had the option for ensnare or search the area and I thought you were trying to ensnare. I think it was the night's up creeper that was right there. So that's why I whispered in the web, basically with this you can target a web marker and if you spend a stone for the trigger, you can remove all enemy ski markers within three inches of that target and make web markers. - Well, and basically that is so strong in this edition because there's a ton of scheme marker schemes that scores when your opponent's done activating one of their models. It'll say after an enemy model activates, score the scheme, and a lot of those are those scheme markers. So that's really strong 'cause you can, and you saw it, you just guessed wrong, which one I would just guess wrong. (laughing) That's why I don't know if you heard me. I kind of have this questioning crack in my voice, like which web marker? (laughing) 'Cause if you picked the other one, you would have got the other schemes. - I would have gotten the other ones, yeah. - Yeah. Good stuff. So yeah, I love our card, very flexible. Got some denial, you're setting up your crew, doing some damage, which is fantastic. Don't have to put her in danger. You can draw a little bit of cards, which is nice with surge off of the citizens of Malafo. Yeah, so really solid. So what are, so we'll look at our totems and then we'll kind of get into the crew that you brought and just kind of how you saw it play out. So what are the shambling nests trying to do here? - So basically beginning of the game, they have from Shadow, so they get to be deployed anywhere as long as they're not within two, which is a strategy marker. I try to kind of deploy them, just midway up past my deployment zone. The biggest thing for them is their big damage reduction for your crew, so reduce all damage dealt to other allies within four inches by one. So they've got a huge four inch or essentially of negative one damage, so if you place them correctly on either side, you've got a good almost 16 inches worth of negative one damage. - Yeah, I think the other thing that the shambling nests are, I think their job, if you wanna say like, "Hey, what's their job?" Is really to do the dust and cobwebs just to create as many web markers as possible. - No, for your master, but also like the Nightsilk creeper and other models, just to be able to use those as just this resource for your crew. - Yeah, 'cause you're often, you're bringing a lot of models in this crew, so usually they're my first and second activation just trying to put out as many web markers as I can. You can get four out total. They don't have a signature action, of course, but it's honestly perfectly fine. I think they're pretty good models. they got a little bit of a glow up after the beta, which is is great. But yeah, putting out those web markers. And again, you're placing those to kind of create a barrier. So you can do some further deployment of your own models and have a spot for the night silt to jump to. Yeah, okay. Yeah. So why don't you go ahead and share the list that you you played against me with just so people can kind of have a good example of, you know, a general list that works pretty well because I think that's a pretty flexible list that you could run in a lot of schools. Yeah, yeah. So let's see, this, the, my think by crew name for this one was spindly pricks. And so what a, and this is a pretty standard list with the last two models I kind of swap out depending on what it is, which strategy it is. So you got high fine, the two shambling nests, I usually almost always bring the night silk creeper and cane herse. I usually leave a hole behind. And a lot of the reason for that is night silk is a beast, so cane herse abilities that, you know, give the beast a positive or that kind of, you know, where he can charge people and give them a positive it works well with beasts. And I just, I don't see as much value in a hole. Night silk does die pretty quick. But yeah, you got it. Yeah, you got to hope that you, you can get him out of trouble because if not only being, I mean, he's even six, but willpower for can get him in trouble. Yeah, the willpower for was tough for him, especially that game. He does have some way to heal, you know, he's got like tear off a bite or whatever, and heal himself up a little bit. But yeah, night silk cane herse, emissary, emissary is in my opinion, almost an auto take in heart of the hive, because what I'm usually doing is setting him in between the shambling nest. So there's basically a huge negative two damage aura. So, and then the archivist, Kovatica, these were two models that I had previously was not sure they were that great. And now I'm pretty sure they're pretty great. And then I brought two spell eaters as well. And the biggest reason for the spell eaters in informants is their ability to be able to push people. Yeah, I'm friend these or enemies. Yeah, so I know that some people, especially if they have last editions of mindset, are going to say, how could you not bring Dr. Meredith Stanley? So I think this is a good spot for you to kind of, because you've played her. And I think she does the thing, but I want you to kind of explain one, in your experience, what is she done? And then two, why are you finding, you know, in a lot of your lists, you're just not bringing her. So I will tell you that a lot of my explorers society friends will just tell you that what I'm going to say here is blasphemy. So that's all right. Take it with a grain of salt. This is what works for me. Maybe not what works for everybody. Some and maybe I'm not playing her correctly, right? Maybe I'm just too focused on summoning somebody. But essentially what Meredith does is she can turn one of the eyes and ears into a summative model. Actually, well, technically, they're not summoned. So that's what's bit, that's what's great about her. So she's got a ability called a fungus among us. So it costs a stone and it's a TN eight. But you can turn a friendly eyes and ears. Oh, no, it does gain a summon token. It just doesn't gain the slow token. That's what it is. It just doesn't gain the slow. It heals four and then gains a summon token. So you can basically bring in a berserker husk with about five health or a spell leader with five health. So normally what I'm doing with her, when I hire in Meredith, I usually hire in and eyes and ears, and I hire in a berserker husk mainly because as I stated earlier, I don't want to wait for cadmiss to activate to have an eyes and ears to be able to turn into a model. Right. So what I've found with Meredith for me is number one, she's just very costly. Like it's a stone, a TN eight to get that summon to go off. Her other signature action is called doctors orders, which you discard a card and a friendly moves up to six. That's expensive. Here's a stone if you want to heal. Yep, Soulstone for healing energy. Now, she does have an ability where peons are killed within six of her, you could do infuse a soul stone. So she can't gain soul stones, but she is not hearty enough to be in this crumb where those peons are usually going to be. So I when I brought her, I kind of had to have a certain activation order in order for that to go off because the eyes and ears are peons. So you want to turn one into that summon right as as quickly as you can because somebody could just ping it and then it's dead. And then you have to either activate cadmiss or you might have to wait till next year. So I don't know, I've just found better use for seven stones and bring her along. So this is the first time I've looked at her. I will say, protect it is fine. But once again, you're discarding a card to not be punched and stuff. She only has eight hit points and she has no other defensive tech she might have she might be in the minus one damage kind of oras. Maybe the breakthrough research seems really good. But once again, if you're kind of in that position, like if I saw her on the board, I'd be like, yeah, I'm killing that right now. So I think that's just something where you're right, it is kind of intensive. Like I think if you're if you're good at protecting pieces like this and if you're good at managing resources, she's probably fine. But I will say, yeah, three out of her four actions are pretty card intensive and and soulstone intensive. Berserker husks. I mean, so let me so even if let's just say we do bring her. Do you think with her husks are as good as they were last edition in your opinion? So a lot of people will tell me that they're not people who played cadmous last edition will tell me they're not as good as they used to be. I actually really like them. I found that I think that they're very strong. They've got a significant interaction attack. They can shamble through terrain to get somewhere. I've actually used them as little screen runners believe it or not. I think so I think that they're solid. I will say that. But they're not as good as they were last edition. They were correct. I think if I can't remember, I think they're melee. If it wasn't stat six, it was stat seven. It was pretty good and it hit pretty hard and yeah, they could heal and get extra attacks and yeah, they were just a pain in the butt for sure. Yeah. So I mean, they look solid right now. But just because the way things are and the fact that if you summon them, they're just not going to be able to score for you. So I think in some situations, if you're looking for that ruthless that they bring, it might be better just to hire them. They can get you public demonstration though, being summit though. That's that's still pretty good. I thought they don't count for schemes if they have a summit dogan. I looked at the summit token again, and it can I interact as well as state that it just as they can interact. Fair enough. Yep. So yeah, you know, if you're really trying to swarm somebody, which is what I was doing and I gave it the good college try, like I probably have 10 games with Meredith. And the just the the peon dying close enough to get just all stone just wasn't happening. And then sometimes, you know, if you're playing hive mind in your opponent has marker removal, and they're getting rid of your web markers like crazy, you might not be able to get an eyes in years out. And then you're really trapped as to, OK, if I activate this, then I can actively catch. Yeah, yeah, because you got to go, OK, I need to activate the husks to put down some webs that I need to activate my master. If I didn't summon a, you know, an eyes in ears, I had to activate, you know, nexus and she's got a summons of eyes and ears. And they're going to come in, you know, and then I got to replace them. And I'm spending stones for that. So yeah, it definitely kind of sets your order of activation, but I will say though, for breakthrough research, you can trigger that yourself, right? Because if you just siphon power, whatever it is off of nexus, you can just kill him yourself and generate stone. So that's that is very true. That's a little more controllable. So yeah, I mean, I would definitely, if I was going to bring Meredith, which I think she's solid, I don't think she's terrible, if you bring her, it's just you got to know when to pull those levers. Otherwise, you're going to kind of run into some clunky interactions. But yeah, I would totally summon some eyes and ears, put them next to it's not once per activation either. So I could kill three of them and get three soul stones, which is pretty sick. Right, and maybe I was just plant, maybe I didn't need to focus so much on summoning. And if it happens, it happens kind of deal then and look at it that way. I just, I just know that I was so hesitant to leave her out of my list. And once I did, I felt free. I felt like, yeah, I can do whatever I want with this burden. I think that's something that's important because, you know, there are, and it might be also pool, you know, dependent because there's some boards where you don't want to be tied down in a certain area. You want to be very flexible. But then there are some pools where it's like, oh, yeah, I can totally just sit in the middle of the board and just hang out. So I think it's just kind of looking at your board, looking at your strats and schemes. Because yeah, I don't think she's an auto-hire. There's plenty of stuff going on in this crew that you don't need her. But I can see some where you'd want her, for sure. Yeah. Okay, so let's kind of talk about the models that you did bring. So obviously Nexus is really good. Is there a model in that list that you brought that oftentimes, you feel kind of like an MVP? It does a lot of work for you. Or maybe a model you're surprised by. Maybe you're like, I didn't even expect this to do much and, you know, it's done a lot of work in these lists that I brought. So I would say that's the archivist in Kovatica. I mean, both of those guys have surprised me lately when I wasn't originally kind of bringing them. The knife silk has basically, it's got like one job to do and it goes out and it does that job. And then it dies. It's your front runner, you throw them out there, you distract some people, make them put some AP to him and then he dies, but Kovatica is a bit of a brick house number one. I mean, he's got inhuman physiology. So you can't cheat on a melee or gun action. He's got life and power. He's got superiority complex. So reduce damage to him if they have, if an enemy model has a token in it. If it's not a crew that has, you know, three tokens like where this room actually is, then chances are you're putting a parasite token on them anyway. I think there was once where Burmester had four tokens on him. Yeah. Yeah, and he's nine health for seven costs. So nine health for seven times. But he's, yeah, you can't cheat against him. So he's all recently hardy called out was so sick against my crew because I had two or three tokens on everything. Yeah, and that's his signature action is called out. Yeah. So luckily, Burmester was willpower seven. Otherwise, it would have been brutal. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a 10 inch magic action stat six against willpower does one damage. But bigger thing is it moves the target up to two inches for each token of it. Yeah. It would have moved him six inches. Yeah. This is like lead bolstered poison and impact impact token, yeah. But the triggers on called out so really kind of also where it stands out is not only to get some movement out of there, but some soon will deals an extra two damage if they got it or site. I almost got together off and I was just saying to myself, I did not let that happen. But together is, it's the better coordinated attack where another guy made a clear and attack action targeting the same model. So anybody could do it, whether that's a gun somewhere or yeah, yeah, yeah, and draw and then it's in main good triggers. Right. Yep. Really, really great triggers. I haven't really used the parasitic infiltration that much, but his fancy cane is also pretty solid too. I mean, making it into that six, making us be marker for a seven, I mean, that's not terrible. Plus, if you have a mask, it also gives you like a pseudo leap there. Oh, that's true. That's definitely true. Or if somebody had picked up one of your markers that you were going to use to score like boundary or something like that, you could drop one next to your model that was already out there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of like, it's fine, I mean, there's a way to put it right token out. The big thing is, remember, he has safe and power, so you can get which trigger you really want. Yep. And then what is the archivist do, he didn't do too much in our game. So what is he actually trying to do since I didn't get to see too much of him? So basically, I'm bringing him for additional web marker generation when the shambling nests go down. Yeah. He's one of the other scythe and power models where he can get the triggers that he wants. But his dust and cobwebs is a signature. A lot of the other people, it's their actual action. So I do like that his is a signature. And it's one less, it's a T and five instead of their T and sixes. And then food for the hive is probably one of the bigger reasons, you know, it's the same action that the spell eaters have. It's 12 inch stat six versus willpower frigging book nerds. And you can, right? You can target your own friendly models. You move the target up to its speed towards the piece of terrain and it's like late game and late turn on informants. That was a backbreaker because it's 12 inch three models that have. Yeah. Hell eaters are hanging so far back and they've just moved my models into irrelevant web markers. Yeah, I had a, I had a pretty well laid out plan for informants before we played. I was like, okay, these spell eaters just get a hang out on the back marker or hang out near the back. And they were like, hold the board and carry fodder. Habracadabra or whatever, you know, the kill spell is, right. And then his, uh, his inaudible whisper ten inch magic action is pretty solid too. It's a damage three and it's got great triggers. Well, not only that, but if you get a raise, you can draw a non-joker from your discard and non-joker tone from your discard pile, which is pretty slick. Yes. There's, you could essentially draw maybe two cards off of this action by spending a stone and getting in your head as well. And then he's got an anti demise. I was going to say color late fees, just ignoring demise and not even just that, though the explanation abilities, defensive abilities, you get to ignore those as well, which is really good on some of those nasty models. Yes, yes, it is. So go ahead and kind of talk through maybe some of the combos that you're running in. Maybe some of the tips and tricks for people that are kind of having trouble, maybe unpacking the crew. What are some of the things you would tell people that are interested in nexus, just how they can, you know, level up a little bit and figure out how to play these creepy, uh, spoters? Yes. So, um, I will tell you that it takes a little bit of time to get the function of them understand how good exoskeleton length is and placement is everything. Because if you're out on your own and you don't have another model within six, let's say you're trying to go out and drop a plant explosives marker and you're like, oh, I'll just exoskeleton length. This guy, well, you might hop into base contact and realize, well, you don't have a friendly within six of you to drop that guy off. Oh, now I'm not going to be able to interact, you know, um, so even running some of those eyes and ears out to spots where you can use them as an ally to place those enemies in base contact with from exoskeleton length, but placement is very important. I think once you get parasite tokens out on your opponent, that's when things really start to line up. Because then you can really not only are you in the stat increase, but then, you know, it's really making it where you can get some cool placement and line of plays off that. Yes. Yeah. And then deployment again, placement, getting those sampling nests in good spot where you can then get the MS area in the center and have a good negative two damage or a, um, you know, spend stones because you're going to get them back. That's another thing that I would say is, especially with heart of the hive. Now I think something that you need to do Trevor is you need to take your intrepid MS area. And since he has the new, you know, quick study ability, so he's technically part of cadmice, you should get some of that Halloween cobwebs and you should put it on him to make it look like the spider webs on him just to fit with your crew. Well, it would also fit with him a little bit because, you know, who knows if he's just a statue, maybe when he's off duty, he's just standing there collecting, collecting cobwebs man. That's all he's doing. He's just a statue. Right. Um, yeah, yeah, um, when you're, you know, uh, I guess another thing would be when you're doing again, your deployment and your first couple of activations, making sure that when you place that web marker, it's within 12 inches of the night silk for him to hop out there. Um, you did say that you like bringing cane her as well. So what are you really doing with him? So cane hers has, um, so he's got two things that interact really well with the night silk creeper, um, so he's got scent of blood once per activation, when a friendly beast within six inches declares an attack action. It may receive a positive, but that's passive ability. And then he's got lost in the hunt. per turn non-liter ally only, the target declares the charge. action. If the target receives a positive, the action generated by this charge action. You could essentially get double positive by charging the night so creeper or you can charge one of your other models. So I'm getting some extra attacks out of him. Andy's got a gun. He's, you know, he'd six. Yeah. I think so. If I was playing and you can kind of, let me know what you think about this. So if I was playing Nexus, I think cane hers would be my flex model if I wanted to bring Meredith, just because I think he does work well with the night silk. But he's also a unique model. So obviously you get the exoskeleton connection thing. So if I'm not going to bring Meredith, I think you do want to bring something like cane hers just so you have another, you know, unique model for the crew card. And like you said, if you're bringing the night silk, he works really well plus. I don't think you want to look past. I think your totems aren't those also beasts that you can use that on. Yeah, they are. Oh, the shambling nests are? Yeah, sorry, the shambling nests are also beasts. So you could do, you know, the ticks and leaches off of them as well. Oh, that's true. That's true, definitely. But yeah, I also like him. He's defense six. He's camouflaged in resilient. Yeah, he's a little bit larger. Because you're annoying. I think you kept him in cover because of that for a bit. And yeah, I think that applies even to your nest markers. Aren't those technically touring as well? Yes, yep. But yeah, I just keep him within six inches of the night silk, usually a little bit back. And he pops a couple of shots off and gets a charge off generally. Yeah, and you know, he just has arranged a tech that's, you know, solid, has some decent triggers. Yeah, I don't think gainers is a bad choice. But like I said, if you're a Meredith Homer and you're like, yeah, I need Dr. Stanley, I would probably switch out gainers just because, you know, they're both seven soul stones. So slots really nicely. Yep. I think also you might want to think about Stanley. If you want some healing in with healing energy, I just think that there are sometimes where you're going to go against like a heavy hit and crew. And you probably do want Meredith to, you know, help heal your stuff up when you need to. Yeah. So, you know, it's kind of once again, though, that it is just, it's such a stone hungry crew. Now you're getting those healing for them with parasite tokens, right? Yeah. But yeah, there's so many things that you want stones for in this. Yeah. Well, cool. So any other tips, tricks that you have with them, any kind of like, I know you said you've been bringing them into plan explosives. We've talked about how they're probably good in informants. I mean, yeah, they're probably good in boundary dispute then too because you can, you know, interact exoskeleton connection and then interact or linking and then do it again. Yeah. So I, I tried that, but I honestly think that because you need somebody to link to, you could, I mean, you could put somebody, you know, interact, put somebody up there and then link to them, but then you're going to have to walk. I mean, it's a little more, maybe a little more rude goalberg that you need practice with. Yeah. Yeah. I've honestly, I've kind of brought the kids into boundary dispute because you've got three, three AP months. Yeah, not terrible. Yeah. I think that's a game actually you and I played against each other and yeah, they were just kicking the can. Yep. And then recover evidence. Have you tried into recover evidence with the old spoters? So I have not yet, but now that I'm more comfortable with them, I do think that I will, because I think they can get quite a bit of damage out there. But if you've got what I'm, what I'm seeing a trend with with recover evidence is people are bringing tankier crews, not necessarily high, high damage crews. A lot of people are bringing tankier crews that can heal a lot. And despite how much damage I was throwing into your toady boy there, I couldn't take him down. So I don't know. And they also have a lot of magical attacks, which can't get raises for more damage. So that's also something where it's like, yeah, you can do some decent. I think the strength of this crew is definitely the mobility and the triggers. I feel like a really the strength of them. Yes. Yeah. So what I'm going to do Trevor is I think a good spot to put this in just mainly because my dog started to yip and be annoying, which means she probably has to be. But if you want to talk just for a few minutes while I'm going to handle that on just like I said, we already talked about the list. We talked about some tips and tricks and kind of what they're good to. Maybe talk about some things that you think a good like would be good for Nexus players to practice. Kind of just what you recommend for them. Kind of maybe some of the struggles you went through with them as well. Yeah. And I might touch base on the on the whim of the hive here real quick as well. So if you are going to play whim of the hive and the kids just know that they they're just a little bit more they've got more AP with the three kids having three AP each. I will say that that soul shock ability is really, really good. Don't forget that your peons can even do that. It's just friendly cabinets models can do the soul shock to pulse out parasite tokens and deal the damage. So they've got ways to put that out. But really they're, you know, what you're trying to do with the kids is get is get parasite tokens on people so you can get the subsumed wheel trigger to go off. So that is just the additional two damage. So their embrace of the spitter at attack is a eight inch skill five. That's the only reason why, you know, again, they're just not maybe as good, but skill five against willpower the damage to attack. If they're in base contact with the web marker, it's a plus two. So you can't get up to a skill seven, but they heal two from this. If you get a raise since an additional plus one heal, but you can subsume will. So essentially if they have a parasite token and you've got a ram, you can be doing four damage with each of these kids. So with their three AP, maybe at the beginning, you might want to be taking an adaptive token so you can get that subsumed will off the following turn. But yeah, I've really only seen success with them in boundary. Maybe I need to get them back on the table again. Yeah, I mean, definitely think about that tummy full of screams and coddled as well. You always want the one of many paired with at least one person that's within two inches of them because then they can't be cheated against. And you want them just far out enough. So somebody tries to attack them because if you do take damage, then they gain a parasite token and then you can just do that right back to them and heal right back up. But overall in regard to Cadmus in general, it takes time. It really just takes time and reps with this crew. And I felt really good in this last game against Pete and Brewmaster. But I had a very solid plan set up and I've been playing this crew for a while. So you're just the placement's going to take a little bit of time just knowing off hand what you're able to do if you're playing Meredith and you've got summons. I have had fun with that. I mean, you can really feel like a swarm all of a sudden you've got three berserker husks on the table, which are taking three attacks each. It can feel like you're getting overwhelmed by them. But maybe a really tough crew to play on the clock. I'm not going to lie. I mean, playing them in a tournament, there's a lot of root Goldberg machine stuff going off. There's you know, if you're playing Meredith and summoning a bunch of models in, I mean, I think there was a point in time. I had 13 or 14 models on the table at one time with the peons and all of that. So it's maybe a little tough to play on the clock. Yeah. And I will say, though, that if you've always been interested in Nexus and Cadmus, it still very much feels like it did last edition. But without some of the bookkeeping, which is really nice because previously with the edition, yeah, there you go. Okay, I'm going to reassign damage to that model and this model and I'm going to heal here. It's going to heal that. So you don't really have to worry about that. The some of the brokenness that you had early on in third edition with them. Obviously, that's not here. But the triggers and the mobility are really kind of what sings with this, I think. Obviously last edition, you could activate Nexus at the end of the turn. She always just has last activation. So that's not a thing anymore, which I know sometimes was a feel bad for people because this edition, that would be that could be really gross in this edition if you had control of that where it's just you waited. No, I'm going to wait and then just move models around and all that fun stuff. So definitely fun to play with. I think if you like that kind of game style, I think it's really cool and especially if you like summoning stuff You get a bunch of that as well. So yeah, I was I was impressed with that I had a lot of fun playing against it because it just it felt like a bunch of spiders trying to swarm you And I was happy that brew master smashed the nice silk creeper in one activation Yeah When you draw the red Joker and you have a 13 11 12 and I think another 13 it makes short work of them Yep, I I was struggling to draw good cards that that game, but I mean even with that they were pretty damn effective I mean don't discount the spell eaters. Well, I think all I think that's good stuff with everything being almost everything being against willpower Obviously bolster tokens change things playing against brew master But traditionally I mean the average is willpower five. So even though you don't spike super hard or you know your your attacks aren't actually damaged It makes it more reliable that you're gonna hit especially even with exo skeletal link because that's against willpower and You get plus two skill if they have a parasite token. So Yeah, I think the crew's solid. I think definitely Nexus is probably the version to play most of the time You can have fun with the kids. They're annoying and creepy looking and one of the girl has girls has a Like a beetle, but coming out of her skirt, but you know, whatever Creepy kids Yeah, I'm excited to paint them. I just got imprimed so nice Yeah, I got Vansh took coming in the mail here. So I'm excited to play him I got all my buy you stuff out So that's gonna get switched into the bag here probably sometime pretty soon So if you want some buy you content after all this a reservoir stuff Put your fun hat on we're going but and then also gonna start dabbling a little bit in the war machine. So Gonna record next week with Chris leopard my buddy from the podcast in South Carolina We're gonna talk and he's gonna kind of catch me up to speed on some of the things changes and Yeah, just talking about the game. So excited to kind of just talk about another war game is always fun Even if you don't know anything about war machine. It'll be a good listen. Just cuz Chris Chris is always funny to have on the podcast. He was really good when he was coming on for all the malafo stuff Yeah, yeah, I like talking with him or I like to listen into that episode, I believe. Yeah, yeah Yeah, so Trevor you guys do have the Rocky Mountain open coming in the springer Yes, we do One more thing back at Miss just real quick I know there were some people who did feel bad about how it is this edition versus last edition I urge you to go back out and try Get some reps in I am still having you know, I'm having a blast I mean I do have the benefit that I did not play last edition So I don't know what I'm missing. So maybe that's good thing for me and maybe they're not back But yeah, they're not what they were, but I think they're still good and still have echoes of what they were good at Yeah, I think if you played them last edition Definitely kind of get the the end of turn activation out of your head because that's just not a thing anymore and you know You can keep missing that if you want, but it's not gonna make it come back Yeah, but the red I think the rest of crew card and crew is definitely fine. So Yeah, yeah, but yeah, we do have the Rocky Mountain open coming up I like to get that the word out there as early as possible, especially You know, I'm trying to get some people to travel here if possible It's we've got a lot to do here. I'm gonna actually try to do Like a group hike on Friday if you show up on Friday beforehand But I've got some I've got a player packet out on the discord there So this is May 2nd and 3rd. It is being run by frontline gaming It's their Rocky Mountain open, which is a big war hammer tournament. It's really good exposure for us to other war gamers We had a great time doing it last year It's a different time period this year and things should be a lot More convenient as well because is that at an actual hotel and convention center this time Yeah, it was at that county fairgrounds or whatever And hey cool because I actually like I liked it. They had some good food trucks lots of space But yeah, you had to drive 15 minutes to get to somewhere with food in the hotels and stuff Yeah, and we were hauling people people were sleeping on each other's floors. It wasn't It wasn't the most efficient thing in the world But we still had a great we still have a great time honestly Yeah, I'm hoping to get to that one It's gonna depend on how some family stuff shakes out, but I might bring my Wife possibly with me on that of course right now. Yeah, we'd love to love to see you guys out there I know that obviously economy and everything things are tight for everybody right now, but Definitely consider it. We're trying to grow it each year. We had a decent we had a decent turnout last year for sure And I know this is fourth edition to so we might just this year might be a little tough, but Yeah, and yeah, we people were asking about that because that was something where people are like well You know, there's not the new boxes aren't out yet. You know, keywords don't have basically if you're not already invested in the game It's hard to get invested in the game with current models, which I actually don't believe that if you go back to my episode I forget what it was, but it was essentially like you know quick grind about models episode You you can go on eBay or you can talk to people on a discord or the Facebook, you know models exchanges and stuff People are getting rid of Malafo stuff just because they're you know, realigning which crews they want to play in the new edition So I think it's still easy to find I was able to find bunch took almost as full keyword for like 90 bucks Yeah, that's what I'm saying like I understand if you want the new models I get it You just go be patient and hopefully weird really starts releasing those a lot faster But yeah, there's plenty of models out there for you to play you can always proxy. I've had new players paper dolled up before I don't care about you play paper dolls if you want Right. So yeah, and you can always ask people to borrow stuff. I got a crap ton of crews man. You can dry them out And honestly, hopefully by the time that the Rocky Mountain open rolls around, you know, there's gonna be even more out and then I've already got you know, I'm probably supposed to be coming in for weird as well So hopefully those would be some of the fun boxes, but I will say just kind of finish that point that It was the same way with third edition third edition events just had lower amounts of people get you know playing in it And that ended up evening out towards the end of the year of 2020 and obviously COVID kind of made things weird as well But I would say things pick back up, you know after people kind of got out of their houses and got the new cards and stuff It was the same thing we're dealing with now, so I expected to pick back up probably in the Third or fourth quarter of this year. I would expect those larger tournaments to have bigger Bigger show-ups and show-outs for it And you you are correct about that too by the way I was I was definitely a little doubt on it in the discord today just being a community leader trying to get people into this But you know to your credit and to our own credit as a community We have had more we have had a couple of players join and they have been able to find Models and they're proxying what they don't have yeah, and they're playing and it's good So and like I said, dude just proxy stuff. I got especially for I have freaking Zeridus in right here. She doesn't have the moth yet So I'm just gonna proxy something there because you know I could be salty about that because weird even said to us like oh you can pick up the totems and you know You won't have to order the box don't know when that's happening There's no word on that so this proxy, you know because we can't control what this company does weird does what it does We know weird sucks with some things. That's fine. We still love the game though. So just play the day game I'm having a blast pretty chill. Yeah, I do I'm I'm telling you if you're on the fence about playing Malphone 4th Edition You got to play it's a blast I even even when I'm losing you can still have fun There's very few games that I feel just beat down and just brutalized and even when I'm beating down my opponent You know punching nubes in the face and you know punching and slapping gups It's just everybody's still having a good time because there's just funny stuff happening on the board good interactions Efficient, you know not as grindy as it was so I think new players and no casual players and even the skilled players are having a blast with it Yeah, I have been laughing a lot this edition just because You know, it seems like there's less opportunities to cheat so some just wild Wild stuff happens and that's what Malphone's all about bad things happen You know you flip the joker's there just as dude. It was just funny hearing you laugh when you were trying to target You know the brew master with that stupid push spell and you're just like he's willpower 7 with a bolster token Yes, yes, you can't call him out when he's willpower 7 All right, Trevor well one. Thank you for coming on I know people are gonna excited to play their spoters and you know get them on the table because they're just a fun crew If you paint them up real well, they look amazing on the table Yeah, that being said make sure you guys for flipping cars and flipping tables and you'll talk to y'all Yeah (upbeat music). (upbeat music) (upbeat music)