Goblin Mischief

Commonwealth humans have been a presence in the game and story from the very beginning. Today they continue to influence Tauber and play as a brutally hard-hitting and tough troupe on the tabletop. Among Tauber's common races, humans stand as some of the biggest and strongest. In-game, this is often reflected by above-average melee and wound count, in some cases as high as 9! This wound count is supplemented by an average amount of energy, usually 3, with most of it generally skewed to the left. Whilst it's not as extreme as the gnome's energy skew it is enough for the humans to take a few hits before their energy starts suffering. In addition, their large frames and affinity for larger weapons often bestow them with great melee ranges. There are however some disadvantages to being so large, meaning humans often have poor evade, usually 0 or +1. This can make them very easy to hit with ranged weapons and other arcane abilities. Damage-dealing arcane abilities usually aren...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

[[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 ...

Commonwealth is generally a brute force faction that wins by bulldozing through opponents with their superior stats and damage bonuses/reductions. So what happens when you take the most impressive brute force models within this brute force faction?  This isn't necessarily a new list as the core of this list has been around since the very start of moonstone. However, it has recently got some interesting new options with a new plate armoured human in Sir Guillemot Poppycock and the support options that the rest of his troupe box offers. The Lords As the poster boy of the nobles, Baron Von Fancyhat epitomises everything that nobles are expected to do. First and foremost, he has a fantastic melee stat line. With melee 5 he will be drawing more cards than most of his adversaries and with a range of 2" he will be outranging most of them too! As well as these fantastic stats he also has some fantastic passives and a signature to help with his melee combats. 'Plate Armour' mea...

Although the starter box is a great start to the game of moonstone, many might want to start collecting a different way. Y ou may, for example, fancy a troupe that's not available in the starter set. There are currently 2 factions available in moonstone with each faction containing a few races that are commonly associated with that faction. Two such examples are Gnomes commonly associated with the Commonwealth and Faeries who mostly belong in Dominion. However, so long as models share the same faction then they can be used together irrespective of race. This means it is possible to mix goblins and faeries or gnomes and humans. So long as the cards have the same symbol in the top right, they can be used together. Despite this, collecting one race of models can often help with learning the game. So it is often not a bad idea to start collecting 'a race' as opposed to a faction. With this in mind, what are the 2 factions and what races are they generally comprised of? Common...

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