Malifaux 2nd Edition - What Do We Know So Far?

So the guys from Wyrd did the rounds of the various Malifaux podcasts and answered a few questions here and there about what we can expect from M2E. There's been bits and pieces of this information posted all over the various interested forums but I'm yet to find anywhere that has any significant quantities of it compiled together so I'm going to give it a go. There's a fair possibility I've missed something out and a smaller chance that I've completely misinterpreted something and if you think so please chip-in in the comments section with any further information you have.

Firstly lets look at some of the announced rules changes and then we'll look at the other bits we've learned.

Rules Changes.
1) Pre-measuring is now to be allowed at all times rather than just to measure your melee range.
2) Spells have a target number like before but are apparently now normal duels like any other ranged attack.
3) Ca value is built into spell description rather than being a specific stat. This is apparently in order to balance the Masters better but seems a bit redundant to me as the difficulty level of casting a spell is the difference between the base number and the target number so you can balance them just as simply by changing the target value...maybe I'm missing something...
4) A Red Joker flipped for Damage (Dg) now does Severe + Weak Damage rather than the previous Severe plus an additional flip.
5) Red Joker prevents opponent from cheating when it's used...not quite sure how I feel about that one...
6) Avatars will vary in cost now rather than being all the same value. This makes sense as some are blatantly better than others. As far as I can tell the manifest method is going to be broadly the same though.
7) The 'Drain Souls' Action is no longer going to be in the rules...I never used it so I'm not sure how much difference that's going to make.

Changes to Strategies and Schemes.
1) Strategies are now all of the shared variety so you'll both have the same basic 'mission' though there are not as many now but are apparently more balanced than before. It was also mentioned that Victory Points (VP's) will now be calculated each turn rather than at the end.
2) Schemes are now worth more Victory Points (VP's) and I believe the value mentioned was 4. The players now generate a pool of schemes that they will be able to pick from for that game. This is going to be a pool of 5 from a selection of 19 (That's what i scribbled down at least). Not revealing your schemes seems to make less difference than before being only worth one less than the new revealed value of 4. This should stop people picking the same simple ones over and over again which in turn should add more variety to each game.
3) I didn't really understand this next bit but here it is anyway...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 presumably as a form of psychological warfare against your opponent as I see know other reason for doing so.
4) 'Line in the Sand' is now in the Schemes section.

Changes to Soulstone Use.
1) Using a Soulstone to re-flip for initiative is unchanged.
2) When you draw your hand during the Draw Phase you can spend a Soulstone to draw two extra cards and then discard down to the normal hand size (I'm presuming this is still the same hand size as before as I am yet to hear otherwise)
3) During an attack, you spend a Soulstone to add a Positive flip or a particular Suit instead of the previous effect of adding a card to your total. This would means you would cast a spell requiring two Suits by using an appropriately suited card and adding a second via a Soulstone.
4) When the Defender you can spend a Soulstone to get a Positive flip and give the attacker a Negative flip to Damage (Dg). Not sure if this is two separate uses or if you gain both benefits from a single Soulstone.
5) Damage Prevention flips are unchanged but Healing flips are gone which will upset all those people who rely on 'Slow to Die' healing flips to keep their Masters alive.

Crew Changes.
1) Stat cards are too be cleaned up (I'm guessing this means less abilities on them) and will now be standard playing card size. Models can then spend Soulstones on upgrades to their models (within limits obviously) One called 'Seamus's Hat??? has been mentioned but I can't remember where I heard that now...
2) Models now have new classifications which indicates both the number of Action Points (AP) and the amount of upgrades they can take.
3) Masters get 3 AP and 3 upgrades, Henchmen (Right hand men such as the Judge) get 2 AP and 2 upgrades, Enforcers (your beat-sticks such as Ice Golems, Executioners, etc) also get 2 AP and 2 upgrades, Minions (I'm guessing this is every-one else) get 2 AP but only one upgrade and finally Peons (The new designation for Insignificant models) get 2 AP but no upgrade options at all.
4) Standard game size is now 41- 50 Soulstones presumably to take upgrades into account.

Faction Changes.
1) Gremlins are now a Faction of their own which will also include Zoraida and one new Master who I seem to recall being called the Brewmaster
2) Henchmen are all being promoted to Masters so you might actually see Molly or Collodi in charge of a crew for once. This will also see the end of Rasputina/Kaeris 'Fire and Ice' lists and Von Schill being the solution to everything, lol.

3) The early versions of Misaki and Hamelin are going to be removed completely from the game but as newer versions exist (and no-one uses them anyway) this is a none issue for me at least.

That's all I can find...I hope it's of some help ;-)

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.