Hamelin Tactica: Drown them in Rats

[Mxbedlam]

Yeah but you have to have Blight 4 plus, so unless they just don't know how Plague Pits works, thats turn 3 or 4,  that means nearly half the game the upgrade doesn't work and they can still get around it by discarding 2 cards. To many IFs

[Kogan Style]

51 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

Yeah but you have to have Blight 4 plus, so unless they just don't know how Plague Pits works, thats turn 3 or 4,  that means nearly half the game the upgrade doesn't work and they can still get around it by discarding 2 cards. To many IFs

Having played my first game with the Plague instead of the Pits I can agree. Without the Pits I was struggling to get Blight onto his crew (it was a Ply game so my opponent wasn't rushing forwards any way) and once I killed his Arcane Effigy he wasn't gonig to remove the few spots of Blight I had managed to get on his models. 

I don't think I'll take the Plague again; The Pits are so powerful and draining on the opponents AP.

[Jesy Blue]

This did work well for me because I run Montressor and Nix Bomb.  Montressor triple moves and 0 actions to drag everyone within 6" towards base contact, then pop Oath Keeper on Nix, triple move and 0 action Drink Spirit, Willpower test TN 15 (-1 Willpower to everyone 6" from Montressor) or get Blight +1, this was usually my last two activations end of 1st turn, so turn ends, get another Blight, and then after Nix gets hurt, Drink Spirit again (any failures healing Nix, usually to full since people are packed around Montressor still), then I can either attack people for more Blight or Bleeding Disease, depending on what's what.  So a this point in the middle of turn 2 I can have up to two people with 4 Blight, use your Pipes Trigger, and having to discard cards to make attack actions when you're in base contact with Montressor, the card dropping is coming fast and hard (and wait until Greed get there next turn!).

Now, with Plague Pits replacing The Plague, I do the same thing, but I discard two cards at the end of turn 1 to slide the pits into the Montressor pile and now everyone's every action to try to hurt/get away just adds blight.  I had 5 Blight on half a Sonia crew turn 2, and it only got worse from there.

So yes, before 5th wave, The Plague was essentially... now, you can get for it if the Scheme Pool dictates a need for it, but it is not auto take anymore.

[Mxbedlam]

Hmm I can see it with Montressor. Not sure how I feel about Nix. he still underperforms for me almost every time. Do you have a few examples of how this list hsa played out for you?

 

[Jesy Blue]

I keep seeing people hate on Nix and I don't understand.  He's so durable.  Just don't activate him until he has at least 2 wounds, and Drink Spirit will heal him right up.  Figuring the Oath Keeper first turn Nix Bomb changed my gane; 15" through walls then a 4" pulse on the last activation when they have so few cards left to cheat a  passing Willpower test.  It puts so many people on their back foot reacting to suddenly 2 blight on ever thing, now they're not Acting... they're Reacting.

I just took third at a tourney this weekend using this list, I've done well with it in friendly games to the point where I don't play it often on purpose, and at least in my meta no one else plays Hamelin like this so it's unique and confusing.

I'm not sure what specific examples you're looking for though, sorry.

[Mxbedlam]

Perhaps its the proliferation of Sandeep and Neverborn in my meta, but Incorporeal just isn't always the safety you want it to be. Nix tends to go down hard and for his points doesn't really seem to do a lot of work.

[Jesy Blue]

If he gets blight on three models, I call it a win. 

[Kogan Style]

2 hours ago, Mrbedlam said:

Perhaps its the proliferation of Sandeep and Neverborn in my meta, but Incorporeal just isn't always the safety you want it to be. Nix tends to go down hard and for his points doesn't really seem to do a lot of work.

In Ply he is just so good! All those Severes down to Moderate means the opponent has to kill the model if they want to remove Ply. 

I agree that Ca actions will shred him but for 8ss  I have found value in Nix.  

[Jesy Blue]

1 hour ago, Kogan Style said:

In Ply he is just so good! All those Severes down to Moderate means the opponent has to kill the model if they want to remove Ply. 

I agree that Ca actions will shred him but for 8ss  I have found value in Nix.  

I haven't used him in Ply yet but that's AWESOME!!!!

File that nugget away....

[Tiaden]

What do you think about the Desperate Mercenary? Especially since it's now down to 3 points. You could take 2 or 3 of them. Then let the Obedient Wretch throw them Rats at their head to trigger the Plus Twist on their attacks and let a rat bite them for the blighted. Then just keept them within 3" of Hamelin.

So for 3 points each you get a nice bubble of Sh/Ml4 +twist Weak damage 2 around Hamelin. And when the opponent kills the Desperates then you get a stone for your pool and a 2Pt Malifaux Rat. And they can interact too if there is nothing to shoot at.

[daniello_s]

On 19 February 2018 at 8:10 PM, Kogan Style said:

In Ply he is just so good! All those Severes down to Moderate means the opponent has to kill the model if they want to remove Ply. 

I agree that Ca actions will shred him but for 8ss  I have found value in Nix.  

Considering you will be outactivating opponent on every turn you can easily avoid any potential threat with Nix. 

[Fenriel]

As a fairly new Hamelin player - Question - Do you always play the rat activation game even if something tries to get in your face? Play defensively? I've played about 7 or so games and if I start reacting at all to what the other player is doing, I lose that activation advantage.  

Also any suggestions for when the rat engine goes bad? I had a game with 1 crow in hand (a 13) even after stoning for cards and didn't top deck any crows for tossing rats. 

Lastly do you always go king to catcher at the start to get your two ratchers out and then circle back around on the kings?

 

 

[daniello_s]

Always have Piper on Hamelin so no-one can charge him. Also have so hard-hitting model nearby so you can counter-strike whatever dares to walk to close.

You don't need Obedient Wretch for Rat-activation control. You hire Stolen and 1 Rat. Stolen changes into 2 Rats then from 3 you have Rat King, then Rat Catcher + Rat. Hamelin should summon Stolen and you should have a card to summon other one same turn too  - you have burn a soulstone for that to get one of the suits but you should have a card to get second Stolen. This way you put your enemy way behind your activation unless it is Nellie of course.

[Erik1978]

You need 4 rats to make a Rat King. At least that's what my card says?

[Kogan Style]

22 minutes ago, Erik1978 said:

You need 4 rats to make a Rat King. At least that's what my card says?

Correct it is the rat activating and 3 other rats. 

As to the rat engine not working comment, I find 2 rats and a stolen enough. If the Wretch doesn't hit the crow then the stolen can sacrifice to make the 4 rats required. I'm happy if I get one crow in hand as then you can position the rats so that after the stolen sacrifices you can move one rat away before the Rat King is summoned. This gives the Wretch a target for the next turn.

[Adran]

16 hours ago, Fenriel said:

As a fairly new Hamelin player - Question - Do you always play the rat activation game even if something tries to get in your face? Play defensively? I've played about 7 or so games and if I start reacting at all to what the other player is doing, I lose that activation advantage.  

Also any suggestions for when the rat engine goes bad? I had a game with 1 crow in hand (a 13) even after stoning for cards and didn't top deck any crows for tossing rats. 

Lastly do you always go king to catcher at the start to get your two ratchers out and then circle back around on the kings?

There is no 1 right answer. The game situation means different things at different times will be best. If I am relying on out activating I make sure I have a back up plan, it might be sacrfificng the waif for 2 rats rather than trying to throw. Its not as good in the long term, but if I am planning the out activation game, then the most important time to do it is turn 1.  So if you are going for that, don't rely on getting a crow, because you can't garentee it. Prehaps you hire 2 rats and a stolen just to make sure you can always get the engine running.

The reason to run the engine is to allow you to react to what your opponent does. The strength in going last is they can't retaliate to you. But if they give you an oppitunity to take control earlier, then take it. Don't just effectively pass for 10 activations and then look at the board state. 

 

[Sombre]

On 08/03/2018 at 1:47 PM, Adran said:

So if you are going for that, don't rely on getting a crow, because you can't garentee it. Prehaps you hire 2 rats and a stolen just to make sure you can always get the engine running.

On top of the Stolen, why not hiring 1 Obedient Wretch (4ss) instead of the 2 rats (4ss too) ? If you don't have the Crows in hand, then Inevitable Fate the Obedient Wretch to make the 2 rats. In the worst case this is one more activation (for the same cost), and in the best case (if you have 2 Crows) this is 2 more rats almost for free (2 cards).

Note: The only issue is that you don't have anymore any Obedient Wretch (Rare 1).

 

On 19/02/2018 at 5:37 PM, Jesy Blue said:

Now, with Plague Pits replacing The Plague, I do the same thing, but I discard two cards at the end of turn 1 to slide the pits into the Montressor pile ...

Can we really do it twice (discard 2 cards to move 2 pits) ? 

Crawling Plague: At the end of the turn, you may discard a card to move a friendly Plague Swarm Marker up to 6" in any direction.

[Adran]

2 hours ago, Sombre said:

On top of the Stolen, why not hiring 1 Obedient Wretch (4ss) instead of the 2 rats (4ss too) ? If you don't have the Crows in hand, then Inevitable Fate the Obedient Wretch to make the 2 rats. In the worst case this is one more activation (for the same cost), and in the best case (if you have 2 Crows) this is 2 more rats almost for free (2 cards).

Note: The only issue is that you don't have anymore any Obedient Wretch (Rare 1).

 

Can we really do it twice (discard 2 cards to move 2 pits) ? 

Crawling Plague: At the end of the turn, you may discard a card to move a friendly Plague Swarm Marker up to 6" in any direction.

The only down side to sacrificing the wretch is that you only had one. I normally find she is useful beyond turn 1, so if possible I try to avoid sacrificing her for rats. But you totally can do so. 

Crawling plague doesn't allow you to discard 2 cards, its just one card to move 1 swarm marker

[Jesy Blue]

Darn, I'm cheating again!

[Fenriel]

I'm watching the folks on facebook discuss adjusting some of the stronger masters. One of which is adjusting Plague Pits. Is anyone else finding this upgrade earth shattering? It's really good for 1 stone, but against good players I find it rarely nets much blight. They use less important models to remove it turn 1 and unless the board has some nice choke points they use careful movement to avoid it. One of the proposals is to only allow one blight from it a turn? Or I'd ponder bumping it to two stones. Thoughts?

[Jesy Blue]

I have found Pits to be annoying mid game but hardly game changing.  it's a mini game to stop interactions in some locations, where it's guaranteed blight regardless.  all I need is to just to get a point on one more model, and you get three chances... but I'm already blighting everything anyway, one single soul stone for at least one more guaranteed blight during the game is underpowered, frankly.  I'm already blighting the known wotld, 1 more point is not game changing.

[Anung Un Rama]

@Jesy Blue what does your typical list with montresssor look like?

[Jesy Blue]

The two I'm currently testing to see which is better are:

50 SS Outcasts Crew
Hamelin + 1 Pool
 - The Piper (2)
 - Plague Pits (1)
 - Sewer King (1)
Montresor (9)
 - Brick By Brick (0)
 - Fearful Whispers (1)
Nix (8)
 - Infectious Melodies (1)
 - Oath Keeper (1)
Greed (9)
 - The Creeping Terror (1)
Obedient Wretch (4)
Crooligan (4)
Crooligan (4)
Crooligan (4)

AND....

50 SS Outcasts Crew
Hamelin + 6 Pool
 - The Piper (2)
 - Plague Pits (1)
 - Sewer King (1)
Montresor (9)
 - Brick By Brick (0)
 - Fearful Whispers (1)
Nix (8)
 - Infectious Melodies (1)
 - Oath Keeper (1)
Greed (9)
 - The Creeping Terror (1)
Baby Kade (6)
 - The Bigger They Are (1)
Obedient Wretch (4)

 (exported from CrewFaux)

Crooligans if the schemes and strategies are based on stuff that's going to be further away than center table; Baby Kade otherwise.

[Seadhna]

Cache 1 for Hamelin and 2 henchmen is ridiculously low. Things will die horribly!

[Jesy Blue]

I actually win with the Crooligan list often; Nix sticks with Montresor, everyone failing Drink Spirit, The Chocking Death, Brick by Brick, and Fearful Whispers Nix can stay healthy.  Greed picks off stuff to generate Stones so to heal Montresor. 

Hamelin is mid field manipulator, so The Stolen will keep him up.

It's pretty survivable.