Malifaux 2nd Edition

So Malifaux 2nd Edition was announced the other day and as part of the hype around that, the game designers did a lot of podcast interviews with the main Malifaux podcasts (including the mighty Malifools :) )
However last night down the club I had a few folks asking me about the changes to 2e as they didn't have time to listen to all the podcasts so I thought this might be useful.
Factions
Gremlins become there own faction giving us 7
Each faction will have 7 masters including duel faction masters.
All the existing Henchmen have been promoted to Masters, no more seeing Collodi in every Neverborn list
So far we know

• Guild - Perdita, Lady J, Sonnia, Hoffman, Lucius (Neverborn), McCabe (10T), McMourning (Resser)


• Ressers - Nicodem, Seamus, McMourning, Kirai, Molly, Yan Lo (10T),  Tara (Outcast)


• Arcanists - Ramos, Marcus, Raputina, Colette, Kaeris, MeiFang (10T)


• Neverborn - Lilith, Pandora, Zoraida (Gremlin!!!!!), Dreamer, Collodi, Lucius (Guild), Jakob Lynch (10T)


• Outcasts - Leviticus, Viktorias, Von Schill, Hamelin, Tara (Resser)


• Ten Thunders - Misaki, Yan Lo, Jakob Lynch, Lucas McCabe, Mei Fang, Brewmaster (Gremlin)


• Gremlins - So'mer, Ophelia, Zoraida!!!!!!!! (Neverborn), The Brewmaster (10T)

Arcanists only have 10T Duel Faction.  They are doing something different with Arcanists that they haven't explained yet.
Two models are removed from the game.  Minion Misaki and Minion Hamelin
Model cards will be moving to a standard size so that sleeving them rather than lamination becomes possible.
Releases
Public Beta on May 31st until Mid July
Phase 1 will be out for August at Gencon (October for those not buying off the Wyrd store) - will cover original masters plus 3 Ten Thunders crews and 3 Gremlins.
After Gencon public beta test of the remainder of masters and models.  This will end at the end of the year.
Feb 2014, Malifaux 2.0 is Tournament standard
Faction Decks will be released in 2 waves to cover all models currently in game with the 2 exceptions listed above.
Game Size
Standard games are now 41-50 SS but this doesn't mean more models on the table - see below.
Crew changes
Default cards are streamlined and have less abilities on them.  This makes it easier for demos and new players to come into the game.  To keep things interesting for the vet players, models can spend soulstones on upgrades that give them extra abilities.  Seamus's Hat for instance.
Models are all split into new classes.  This determines the number of upgrades and AP they have

• Masters: 3 Upgrades, 3AP


• Henchmen: Judge, Sybelle etc. 2 Upgrades, 2AP


• Enforcers: Executioner, Ice Golem etc. 2 Upgrades, 2AP


• Minion 1 Upgrade, 2AP


• Peons 0 Upgrades 2 AP, new name for Insignificant models

Rules changes
Pre-measuring is allowed
Spells have a target number, but are now normal duels like ranged attacks
CA value is built into spell description rather than being a specific stat. Helps with the tricky model balancing act.
Red Joker on damage now does Severe + weak damage. Red Joker prevents opponent from cheating when used!
Drain Souls is gone, woot
Avatar manifistation is still in flux, but they all manifest in the same
way (using cards to reach a target number) and now cost a variable
amount of SS
Strategies are now all shared and there's less to pick from (but better balanced).  They are very similar to the ones in gaining grounds 2013 in that VPs are calculated every turn.
Schemes
are now worth more VP (4). The players generate a pool of
schemes that they will be able to pick from for that game. Pool of 5 out of 19. Unrevealed schemes are more important as they are now worth 3VPs other than 4VPs. No more
picking those easy ones for every pickup game (yes that does mean Sabotage arcanist players)
Models can take a (1) action to drop a scheme marker.  You can do this even if you don't need them for the scheme to just mess with you opponents head :)  Line in the sand is now a scheme.
Soulstones

• During an attack, you spend a soulstone to add a positive flip or a suit. You no longer add a second number to your total.  Means you can cast a spell using that high tome and add a crow via soulstone.


• When defending, you can spend a stone to get a positive flip and give the attacker a negative flip to damage


• Prevention flips are the same, Healing Flips are gone (shame for all those slow to die folks :) ).


• When you draw your hand you can spend a stone to draw two extra cards and then discard down to the normal hand size.


• Initiative can still be reflipped by using a stone.

Edit - Added Brewmaster to 10T and altered the Arcanist duel faction information
Edit - Added info about cards moving to a standard format
Edit - Added the fact that Drain Souls is gone