Goblin Mischief

You can ring my bell, ring my bell Most support models in Moonstone generally do one or two things pretty well. Daniel however does not and instead opts to do a lot of things well! Furthermore, Daniel supports characters irrespective of keywords so he will happily slot into any troupe with ease. There are however some troupes that appreciate his bonuses slightly more than others. With some careful positioning and planning, Daniel can really bring out the best in all of the characters he's playing alongside. Troupes that really appreciate his buffs, in general, are the ones that like to huddle together making use of multiple auras. Daniel can therefore feel right at home with gnome, noble and cultist troupes, which generally stick together around one or two models and methodically advance up the board. To this end, Brother Daniel carries the excellent 'Plant the Placard'. In the early turns of the game, this can be used to simply move your troupe up the board. At only 2 of D...

In Melee we T(h)rust Coming in at a whopping 6 melee, the Fencer immediately secures her place as the highest melee stat model in the game. This is also supplemented by a fantastic arcane 5 and a superb evade of -2. As for her other stats, the Fencer has the traditional faeries melee range of 1", 6 wounds, and an incredible 5 energy. As great as these numbers are, it's from the Fencer's horde of passive abilities that we see how this faerie designed for melee will operate. Firstly, she has the standard 'Weakling' as is common with most faeries. As normal this can be removed by Wasp's 'Rage' ability, but weakling isn't usually an issue for this faeries as we'll see when we look at her signature later. Unusually for a faerie, the Fencer has some damage reduction, specifically an excellent -2 against all piercing damage received. Although this seems oddly specific it is very useful in tangent with her signature. On the damage-dealing front, the Fen...

Zzz... Huh? L ike many goblins, Portly Pete has an underwhelming stat line at first appearance. Unlike most goblins though, Portly Pete is slightly less evasive and has slightly more wounds than the rest of his goblin comrades. Although, as is typical with most goblins, these stats are a little misleading initially. This is where 'Asleep on the Job' comes in! Despite being a skillful goblin soldier, Portly Pete is often a little aloof, which leaves him in an awkward position at the start of the turn. Firstly, he can't be the first activation in a turn. However, when he finally wakes up, he gets a boost to his melee and evade stats which puts him more in line with the other goblin soldiers. This can be even more effective if the Goblin King is around since Pete gets this boost every time he activates! Once he’s in combat, Pete can make use of +1 piercing and Impact damage to his melee damage. In turn, he can reduce all non-magical damage he suffers by -1. In practice, it mea...

The three inevitable things in Tauber: Death, Taxes and Moonstones M oonstones are the win condition for a standard game - if you have more than your opponent by the end, you win. Now with the Tax Collector, they're also great for buffing your troupe's movement and toughness as well as sapping the opponent's troupe of energy. 'Rebate' and 'Income Tax' are the Tax Collectors' active abilities that accomplish this. As these are active abilities, they don’t need any cards drawn from the arcane deck and go off automatically. This is always a nice bonus for active abilities but it’s especially useful for the Tax Collector, as she is likely to be targeting moonstone carriers (who are often hiding behind cover), enemies who have good evade, or both. 'Income Tax' is something the Tax Collector will likely use every time she activates. For no cost, she can target an enemy character that has a moonstone and get them to pay an energy tax or forgo all their ...

Any resemblance to any real developers (in play or slain) is purely coincidental G oblins have had an affinity with being able to move moonstones around for a while now, with models like the Goblin King and Crusty Balboa being two examples. Jobie is the latest of this type of goblin, though he specialises in stealing stones from right under the noses of the opposing troupe instead. From here he can then throw them around the board, getting them further away from the enemy and closer to your own troupe! This he accomplishes with his two active abilities 'A Cunning Plan' and 'That's Mine... This is Mine...'. The first is a rare ability in Moonstone which allows Jobie to voluntarily give up his Moonstone and chuck it 2" away from himself. This comes at the cost of 1 energy and, perhaps more steeply, Jobie being slain. From his base energy, this means Jobie will be able to harvest a moonstone of depth 2, then throw it to his allies.  This is perfect for moonstones ...

A Piercing Boar Sir Hogswash is a classic Commonwealth melee model with no frills attached. Of his four abilities on the front of his card, three are specifically to help him in combat. The other one is to help him against troupes with lots of arcane which he is often used to counter.  As well as these abilities, Hogswash also has some great melee stats, keywords, and signature move.  All of this combined leads to a melee stat 4 model with a 2" melee zone, some boosts for melee damage, and some damage reduction. The 'Hunting Spear' gives +1 piercing and slicing damage which means you'll always get +1 damage in melee as all melee cards have options for either slicing or piercing! More interestingly it also gives a further +1 damage against animals, making Hogswash an excellent choice if your opponent's troupe contains many animals. Similarly, 'Sun Shield' also plays very well against specific troupes notably cultists and faeries with their focusses on impact...

Ice Cream for All! Eric has made his choice and his future now belongs in the hands of Leshavit! As a previous Commonwealth knight in training Eric will be able to help his new friends with some excellent combat abilities. Hogswashes lessons in particular must have been useful giving Eric a Melee 4, Range 2" and some wonderful skill with a javelin and shield. Unlike Commonwealth though, none of these pieces of equipment are traditional and all have a Leshavult twist. The shield for example can only be used once per game, but being a Leshavult shield it reduces all the damage to nil! As for the javelin, it increases piercing damage by +2 as expected. Unlike a normal javelin though, it can convert any piercing damage dealt into the same amount of magical damage instead! Against certain types of armour, like many Commonwealth nobles 'Plate Armour', the ability to convert damage into magical can be extremely potent. It also doesn't specify that it can only convert melee da...

The other Grassy Knoll Traditionally trolls, giants and other monstrous models are known for their colossal combat capabilities. Knoll however is not a traditional troll and has instead set his talents on healing and not harming. Despite this, he does still have some very recognisable troll traits of high wounds and a passive bonus to his melee damage with 'Old Staff'. The extended reach of his weapon also has the added bonus of elevating his melee range above that of a standard troll to 3". As is traditional with Leshavult though, he does not have a passive damage reduction ability typical of most trolls. What he does have instead though is 'Tough as Old Boots' and when using his arcane abilities, other characters can also potentially gain 'Tough as Old Boots'... Knoll's first arcane ability is 'Healing', the standard for a traditional healer and something that can be used with his base energy. More interestingly though is Knoll's second a...

VALHALLA! Unlike Olim and Liv, Bj ø rn offers no support options and instead opts for an all-out damage and combat policy! The first and simplest such ability is bearskin, reducing all non-Piercing damage he suffers. To supplement this, Bj ø rn also has a healthy complement of 8 wounds, as well as three energy, shifted as far to the left as possible. The main advantage of energy shifted all the way to the left is as normal, he doesn't lose energy as easily the more wounded he becomes. Whilst this is obviously a great advantage for gnomes in general it is even greater of an advantage to Bj ø rn due to how his melee damage bonus works. 'Berserk Fury' is a unique melee damage bonus, it gets better the more the Berserker is wounded. It can vary from no bonus damage for a healthy Bj ø rn to a +4 to all damage types for a Bj ø rn who's suffered 7 wounds! When Bj ø rn has suffered 7 wounds though he is likely to die from the next melee attack courtesy of the opponent a...

Liv, Love, Manipulate cards   The norse often make use of the top card of the arcane deck and having enough models to manipulate and make use of the deck is often the key to the norse. Enter Liv who is excellent at both setting up the deck for these abilities and making use of the top card of the arcane deck. Liv's one and only arcane ability is 'Runes of Power' which is a simple 1 energy action that she will likely end up using every turn. With a range of 8" she will be able to either restore X wounds or deal X-1 magical damage. Off an arcane of 4, this will reliably give some decent heals and occasionally deal a little magical damage. The real power in this ability though is the fact it costs only 1 energy and can hence be done multiple times, giving more and better options for  'Manipulate the Runes'. Like 'Runes of Power', 'Manipulate the Runes' is also something that Liv will likely be using every time she activates. Unlike 'Runes of Po...

Jack the Even Younger The norse are here and Olim is the hero of this new keyword. To help his fellow norse, Olim has a slew of abilities. Some of these abilities are to help anyone, some of which are better suited to the norse and some which can only be used by the norse. In keeping with the traditional toughness of gnomes, Olim has the noble keyword, which allows Brunhilde to Bodyguard him, a defensive signature where fellow norse can leap to his defense and 'Look of Innocence'. With these three abilities combined, Olim will prove as defensive and tough as all his gnomish predecessors. The norse playstyle is somewhat different from a traditional gnome troupe. In these cases, Mama Gimble normally forms the core of this troupe, giving incentives for the gnomes to bunch up around her for damage resistance and arcane buffs. By comparison, norse troupes usually struggle to bunch up due to their tendency to charge headlong into melee combat as soon as possible. This is seen in the ...

Flimsy Faerie FIrespitter Like most faeries, Foxglove has a poor amount of health but excellent energy and evade stat. They also possess the ever-present weakling passive ability that plagues most faeries and a melee range of 1". From here though it's all good news for Foxglove with a plethora of excellent abilities for keeping them and their friends alive as well as putting some serious magical damage onto the enemy. This excellent damage comes primarily from their 'Atrophy' ability which deals a fantastic 2X Magical damage. It is however held back by a less than great 3 arcane, but this isn't the entire truth for this tricksy fae. Firstly, they have 'Trickster' which will seriously mess with your opponent when they decide whether to call a bluff or not. Secondly, there are many ways to boost the number of cards drawn by other means. In a rogue troupe, this can come from Muridae's passive arcane boost with 'Honour amongst thieves' and Creep...

Roly Poly Pudding In Leshavult, a lot of models have abilities that cost 1 energy more than their base energy generation. Kavanagh is one such model with one of these "Leshavult Abilities" and is also a model who can grant energy to enable other models' "Leshavult Abilities". The latter comes in the form of 'Black Comedy' a 0 cost ability which wounds another model but grants a bonus energy. This is primarily useful for enabling the mentioned "Leshavult Abilities" of many models' such as Boris the Bunny Summoner, Kalista and Danica to name a few. Loubard is another model and is particularly appreciative of 'Black Comedy' as his large number of wounds means he won't feel the 2 Wds as harshly. Even so, 2 Wds isn't much of a problem in Leshavult anyway as an abundance of healers means you can usually heal back up in no time at all. Additionally, Kavanagh can also get energy onto friends by draining enemies with his signature mo...

Hopping good fun The Jackalope is an odd 'Monster' character. It's got better evade and energy than trolls and giants, but lower health and damage output. In this respect, it's more of a 'Lightweight monster' rather than a proper full-sized monster. Because of this, the Jackalope is able to fill a Jack(alope) of all trades style role, adapting easily to the current situation in the game. As for melee, when dealing damage the Jackalope has an excellent +2 piercing damage for rising attacks and thrusts and a dangerous signature for anyone who gets too close. This signature is particularly good for low health models as it deals a minimum of 0 (+2 piercing) to any card in melee meaning there's no way to avoid damage! When the Jackalope is hit back it can rely on a healthy 10 wounds to stay alive as well as impact damage reduction. This is mostly situational in melee though as most models will choose to avoid dealing impact damage and go for slicing or piercing d...

Eyes on the prize At first glance, Peggy is very similar to Swash. 2" melee range, cutlass, pistol and the same wounds and energy distribution. If needs be, Peggy can therefore act as a backup to Swash if he's unable to help. In a combat capacity though, their main differences are Peggy's lack of a buckler, lower melee, a more aggressive signature and the 'Slow' passive ability. One thing she does have over Swash in a combat role is her increased arcane making her a better pistol shot.  However, her main use comes from her amazing passive and excellent active movement abilities. 'Treasure map' is a unique ability that will come in effect after deployment, but just before the first turn. With this, a pirate can make a jog and therefore reposition itself just before the game truly starts. This could be a big melee threat like Crusty or Swash to scare your opponent away or possibly a model with plenty of energy like Stu or the Powder Monkey to harvest a stone ...

Explosive Tendencies Since their initial release, the pirates haven't had their own dedicated healer in moonstone. This has left them having to rely on models like Beaky Bobby and Fraya to fill that role. Now with the Black Powder box, they have the 'Powder Monkey' who isn't exactly a dedicated healer, but a support model with some healing abilities. The healing ability in question is 'Swig o rum' which heals X+1 for 2 energy like 'Healing' normally would, but that's where the similarities end. It also has the effect of lowering arcane by -2, so this should definitely not be used on anyone who hasn't activated and is relying on an arcane ability. It also has a meager range of 2" and comes with the Powder Monkeys arcane of 4, so he will have to be very close to the action and won't succeed as often as traditional healers. 'Pirate mascot' by comparison will have neither of these problems being a passive ability and having a range o...

Putting the Buckler in SwashBuckler Probably the most straightforward of the human pirates, Swash is a simple melee focussed character. With 5 melee and 2" range he will usually be drawing more cards than anyone he's engaged with and will sometimes outrange them too. As well as the advantage in stats Swash has, he also has two excellent damage buffs in the form of two passive abilities. 'Cutlass' has been seen on El Capitano before and increases all slicing damage (sweeping cut, rising attack, falling swing) by +1. Additionally, Swash carries a very specific damage bonus in the form of 'Inferiority complex' dealing +1 melee damage to all nobles. Combining these, Swash can deal +2 melee damage to nobles if using slicing damage, the exact amount of damage reduced by the plate mail which a lot of nobles use! The other thing nobles are famous for is drawing lots of cards in melee and getting big critical hits. Luckily Swash has a way to deal with this thanks to his...

Giant support, Giant songs and Giant damage Even as other giants go, Brunhilde is an incredibly powerful one in melee. Although Loubard may have a better damage potential when given a myriad of buffs, it is Brunhilde who will be the best equipped for dealing damage at the start of the turn. Firstly, 'Giant-forged blades' increase  damage by +2 for  slicing and piercing damage, but not impact. However, the only impact damage cards can also be used as slicing or piercing, so this will only ever be an issue in extremely specific situations where an opponent  reduces only slicing or only piercing damage. As well as +2 damage on  what is essentially  nearly all attacks, Brunhilde has an excellent, for a giant, 4 melee. Whilst this is only 1 above Loubard and Gotchgut, the extra 1 melee card means she will far more reliably crit and a good crit with +2 damage is usually enough to kill most models in the game. In addition to this excellent damage output, Brunhilde...

[[Big Shot]] There are a lot of characters in moonstone who could be classified as 'Ranged characters' and of all of these Flintlock is arguably the most iconic. Being amongst the first human characters in the game with a clear and focussed set of stats and abilities it's easy to see why. With this set of dedicated stats and abilities, how can you ensure he makes a big as impact as possible? Although his main abilities are concerned with how he shoots, it's worth first looking at his other abilities and stats to see what he can do if something goes wrong. With 3 melee and a 1" range he's unlikely to reliably draw the card you want in melee and he will often have a problem with 2" range enemies. If he is in range when he attacks or is attacked though he can use his 'Dagger' to deal more  piercing   damage on rising attacks and thrusts. When he is involved in combat, though he is likely to be the defender, he can fall back on his excellent signature ...