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I have been trying to make a Heamelin crew i would like to play, as im new to him.

But coulndt quite find it.

But the builds here where he is an obey master, instead of The Plague is very intriguing.

 

It also fits well with me just reading on the Specialist on the Wiki.

 

The focus and luring him trick.

Ill be going for that kind of build with my heamlin i believe.

 

Thank you for that idea!!

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I found I prefer a rat engine with a focus on spreading blight. it is really easy to make a core blight list and just add other models as needed per schemes and strategy. if you swarm rats, they have to deal with them or blighted with add up. I havent found too much issue with condition removal as a lot of rats means a lot of blighted models to cleanse. My "core" hamlin build:

Hamlin

      The Plague

       The Piper

1x Stolen

Nix

      Infectious Melodies

 

Obedient Wretch 

1x Ratcatcher

 

From there I add what is needed. I want as many models with the Bleeding Disease attack as I can get. I have had a game where huggy died 3 times, two beckoners died, an illumiated, and very nearly Lynch himself. All the while I had my other models doing schemes and strategies. 

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So last Sunday I played my first tournament with Hamelin and… well, it was fun but I only won one game out of three hahaha! I used Hamelin with I pay better and The Piper, Nix, The Obedient Wretch, two stolen, Hans with Scout the field, the freikorps strongarm and killjoy in order to make special those close encounters. 

My conclusions at the end of the day:

·         I pay better is amazing.

·         Forbidding ending charges in a 6 inches radio around Hamelin it’s extremely useful.

·         Although they pack some nasty punch power, maybe 20 SS in just two models is too much.

·         The reactivate feature in the rat catchers with the rat kings is quite helpful! 

But overall I think that the band I picked was poorly chosen. Maybe replacing killjoy and the freikorp with ashes and dust and a convict gunslinger (or Sue) it’s better so I have another model that can’t be charged and more shooting power with the gunslinger (or some area control with Sue, overlapping it with the no-charge area of Hamelin could play quite well). Also, I didn’t find very helpful the obedient wretch so I think she’s a goner.

 

Please feel free to point everything I did wrong! I’m also open to suggestions to pick the band members for future matches; currently I have available the Jack Daw band, the convict gunslinger, desolation engine, the abominations, Sue, Bishop, Ama no Zako, the malifaux child, Hannah and Johan (what can I say, I’m a compulsive buyer!).  

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  • 2 months later...

Hey all, I'm looking for ways to take my Hamelin playstyle to the next level. He was my first ever crew when I got into Malifaux, and while I enjoy playing him, I feel like I can use improvement. I know the basics, such as what can be changed into what, and usually make a rat catcher and rat king on turn one.

Here is a list I like playing with:

Hamelin (7 SS Cache)
- The Piper
- The Plague
- Sewer King (flex slot)

Nix
- Infectious Melodies

Rat Catcher

The Stolen

Obedient Wretch

Killjoy

Malifaux Rat

Malifaux Rat

Malifaux Rat

 

I usually deploy one Malifaux Rat and the Rat Catcher as far up my deployment zone as possible. I keep Nix behind the Rat so Infectious Melodies will work. The other two Malifaux Rats are placed on the side so they won't get Tangled with the third Rat. I start by sacrificing my Stolen to make two Rats, which eventually tangle with the two Rats on the side to make a Rat King. Sac the slow Rat King to make another Rat Catcher and a Malifaux Rat. So far that is 6 activations in. Then I activate Hamelin. Use an action to focus to get the 0 Lure, and go for the trigger if I have a high mask or tome in hand. I use my second action to focus and third action to Obey the Obedient Wretch into killing a slow Stolen. Sickly and Voracious Rats will make a slow Malifaux Rat. Walk that slow Rat towards the other slow Rat that hasn't activated yet. Activate and sacrifice the Obedient Wretch to make two more slow Rats. Walk those two towards the third slow Rat. Activate the final slow Rat to get Tangled, making a slow Rat King. Activate slow Rat Catcher to give Rat King reactivate. Activate Rat King twice. Activate the normal Rat Catcher. Walk once and use 0 action to move normal Malifaux Rat. Then reactivate the Malifaux Rat. If you're facing a summoning crew that hasn't finished activating, activate Nix now and the Stolen if you got the trigger off earlier. Now activate the Malifaux Rat to walk, then on its reactive, give it fast via Infectious Melodies. Move up the board, pop, bring out Killjoy. Killjoy charges something.

At the end of all that, I'll have 2 Rat Catchers, 1 Rat King, Hamelin, Nix, Killjoy, and maybe one Stolen. That will leave me with 53-55 SS in a 50 SS match, which is great, but it will also leave me with 6-7 models at the start of turn two as opposed to 8 on the field at the start of turn one. It's a great way for Killjoy to go kill a certain model, but I'm losing my Obedient Wretch and my Malifaux Rats in the process, and nothing got Blighted. Is it worth it?

Other questions I have:

1) How early do you give Blighted? I want to use that 14" range on Hamelin's Pipes to give Blighted turn one (through The Plague upgrade), but that will require me to change my strategy. If I go this route, I am strongly considering the Scout the Field upgrade instead of the Sewer King upgrade, and the Scramble upgrade instead of The Piper. If I go this route, I will rely more on high crows in my hand for Obedient Wretch to make more Rats (I will lose Obey to kill a Stolen, triggering Voracious Rats), and the only way I can help with that is by drawing two, ditching two via a SS at the start of the turn.

2) I run out of Rats really fast with my current strategy, and want to use them to block charge lanes. If I get rid of The Piper and Sewer King for Scramble and Scout the Field, blocking charge lanes will be even more important because Hamelin will lose Irresistable Dance. How many Rats do you run to help block charge lanes?

3) I really want to get good with Hamelin's Sick in Bed trigger and Nix's Plague Pit 0 action. When do you go for those as opposed to giving more Blighted with Nix's other 0 action or Hamelin's Decaying trigger, or just choosing to deal more damage?

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  • 1 month later...

Having played my first three games with Hamelin, playing him as an Obey master, I have to say he's a heck of a force multiplier.

Combined with I Pay Better, Obey allows an almost abusive level of firepower with two Trappers, and easy repositioning of slower models like Taelor and Johan.

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I can see how that might happen. I am enjoying this style of play though. It's kind of like Zoraida, if Zoraida had access to all the Henchman, Enforcer, and Minion units in Outcasts. I'm tempted to take the Student of Conflict to see if I can get 4AP a turn out of Hamelin.

I did keep forgetting the six inch charge denial aura though, which probably led to me losing models I shouldn't have.

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I like the concept of Hamelin, but typically I and my opponent's find playing him an NPE, not for being over powered but just for general boredom. Going for a rat engine build or a blight build is about the most NPE to me in that respect, where as going for more of a Lure/Obey style build that uses blight/rats as a bonus (if it happens it happens but I don't actively hire rats or try to stack blight) is far more enjoyable of a game.

It comes down to personal preference and play style though.

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Not directly Hamelin related, but The Captain charged my Librarian, leaving her on one wound, so I discarded for focus (I pay better) and to get furious casting, and then laid into him with Ancient Words, and even though he tried to escape with a defensive trigger, Ancient Words is both melee and ranged. So she killed him.

Then Ironsides killed her, but still, dead Captain.

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Not directly Hamelin related, but The Captain charged my Librarian, leaving her on one wound, so I discarded for focus (I pay better) and to get furious casting, and then laid into him with Ancient Words, and even though he tried to escape with a defensive trigger, Ancient Words is both melee and ranged. So she killed him.

Then Ironsides killed her, but still, dead Captain.

Because good Captain is a dead Captain ;)

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Indeed.

Unless I play an Arcanist list with Johan, Taelor, and the Captain for all the relic hammer goodness.

Probably led by Mr Cooper for the lulz.

I read this combination and suddenly Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy" popped into my head. ;)

 

 

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Awesome, thanks. Unfortunately Mr Cooper and his monkeys were the only sculpts I liked in that box, so I had to buy regular Colette for the rest of the crew. The Dark Carnival Coryphee are quite nice too. Now it's Mr Cooper and his Angels of Darkness.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hamelin is a model that really appeals to me however having been on the other side of the the table to the rat engine it is not something I would want to play. As a result I am looking for alternate play styles and was wondering if anyone has had any success with a lost themed list. 

I was thinking baby kade, iggy and crooligans. Also possibly using Nix and canine remains as alternate scheme runners to crooligans. 

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With the advent of Winged Plague, the Crooligans and Canine Remains aren't entirely necessary.

It is true that if you're playing with a rat summon list you have to play fast and have a plan for every model. I do have to say that Rat Kings are awesome, I had a couple sucking up scheme markers one game, which was frustrating for my opponent who needed them.

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I like baby kade and I'm thinking about bringing him with Hamelin. Is he worth his usual cost + upgrade for master? What else should play great with this setup? I thought about Ashes and Dust for card draw and spending rest soulsones for typical crew, like Nix, wretch, couple of rats + upgrades. Or maybe instead of A&D I should hire emissary?

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  • 1 month later...

They're scheme runners, probably the best native to Outcasts. They can also hand out blight, which is handy when Hamelin and Nix are throwing around bleeding disease. I did have one game where I threw one into combat with Ama No Zako, and she had to spend both her AP that turn killing it off, which allowed Nix to run past and score Undercover Entourage.

So basically whatever you'd use a 4 stone, fast, moderately tough, model for.

Remember that a Rat Catcher can give them reactivate, if you want them to run 24 inches in a turn.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't know Hamelin like master, he has always fascinated me, especially his background, and i never saw someone play him,

How is its style of play? (i understand that he exploits many more activations than his opponent right?)

What pieces are needed to start using it right?

(sorry a lot for my usual mistakes in writing i hope that you understand anyway)

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He can do the activation control game by summoning Stolen, in the following turn turning them into rats, turning the rats into Rat Kings, then turning the Rat Kings into Rat Catchers, and doing what he wants to do when the opponent has run out of activations. 

For myself I don't bother, it's a bit boring. Instead I focus on summoning Rat Kings, I have five models, two plastic Rat Kings and three Twisted Apparitions, that I could potentially get onto the board over the course of a game. It's not the huge summoning power of Nicodem or Molly, but it's a relentless progression that can land you an extra forty stones worth of models over the course of a game. If one gets badly damaged use Obey to sacrifice it and turn it into a Rat Catcher (and rat of course, that +1 armour can be surprisingly handy).

My core with Hamelin is The Piper, The Plague, a Stolen, and the Obedient Wretch. The Wretch can use any low crow to summon a rat, provided there's a model around to throw rats at. Even another rat will do, just don't hit one more than once. You can potentially kill one with unlucky damage flips. The Rat Catcher actually has his crow built in, which makes him handy for summoning in melee, but I prefer to summon the Catcher rather than hire them.

Ashes and Dust is awesome with Hamelin, just Obey him to cast Industrial Age three times, then cast it another three times with AaD's activation, and that's a great way to suck cards out of your opponent's hand.

Nix I haven't used much. He's reasonably resilient, within his three inch aura of "no severe damage" effect, and the ability to spam Bleeding Disease can make your opponent very unhappy when there's a lot of Blight on the table. That said he's competing with the rest of our 8-10 stone range and we have a lot of good models made even better by an Obey master.

Among the nasty tricks are using Pipes to draw an enemy model in, using the trigger from The Plague to give them blighted, then obeying a nearby Rat King to charge them as a 1AP action. Every time you inflict damage with the King, hit the trigger to up its blighted by 1. When it's high enough hit the model with bleeding disease to kill it.

Winged Plague are probably the best in faction scheming model available to us, and again they're great for handing out blighted. I always take at least one.

Hamelin is a top tier Outcast master. Make no mistake about that.

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5 hours ago, Freman said:

He can do the activation control game by summoning Stolen, in the following turn turning them into rats, turning the rats into Rat Kings, then turning the Rat Kings into Rat Catchers, and doing what he wants to do when the opponent has run out of activations. 

For myself I don't bother, it's a bit boring. Instead I focus on summoning Rat Kings, I have five models, two plastic Rat Kings and three Twisted Apparitions, that I could potentially get onto the board over the course of a game. It's not the huge summoning power of Nicodem or Molly, but it's a relentless progression that can land you an extra forty stones worth of models over the course of a game. If one gets badly damaged use Obey to sacrifice it and turn it into a Rat Catcher (and rat of course, that +1 armour can be surprisingly handy).

My core with Hamelin is The Piper, The Plague, a Stolen, and the Obedient Wretch. The Wretch can use any low crow to summon a rat, provided there's a model around to throw rats at. Even another rat will do, just don't hit one more than once. You can potentially kill one with unlucky damage flips. The Rat Catcher actually has his crow built in, which makes him handy for summoning in melee, but I prefer to summon the Catcher rather than hire them.

Ashes and Dust is awesome with Hamelin, just Obey him to cast Industrial Age three times, then cast it another three times with AaD's activation, and that's a great way to suck cards out of your opponent's hand.

Nix I haven't used much. He's reasonably resilient, within his three inch aura of "no severe damage" effect, and the ability to spam Bleeding Disease can make your opponent very unhappy when there's a lot of Blight on the table. That said he's competing with the rest of our 8-10 stone range and we have a lot of good models made even better by an Obey master.

Among the nasty tricks are using Pipes to draw an enemy model in, using the trigger from The Plague to give them blighted, then obeying a nearby Rat King to charge them as a 1AP action. Every time you inflict damage with the King, hit the trigger to up its blighted by 1. When it's high enough hit the model with bleeding disease to kill it.

Winged Plague are probably the best in faction scheming model available to us, and again they're great for handing out blighted. I always take at least one.

Hamelin is a top tier Outcast master. Make no mistake about that.

Many thanks Freman!!

Now I'd like to try it even more :D

Only three other questions please:

What is twisted apparitions? i search about it and i found only an article about 3 metal miniature (but i know malifaux game from 2e)

What twisted apparations do? (I like it very much aesthetically)

Do you think that with the basic box plus rat of brotherhood box i can use Hamelin well or i need other pieces like rats, stolen or winged plagues?
 
Anyway thanks a lot!
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44 minutes ago, TeddyBear said:

Many thanks Freman!!

Now I'd like to try it even more :D

Only three other questions please:

What is twisted apparitions? i search about it and i found only an article about 3 metal miniature (but i know malifaux game from 2e)

What twisted apparations do? (I like it very much aesthetically)

Do you think that with the basic box plus rat of brotherhood box i can use Hamelin well or i need other pieces like rats, stolen or winged plagues?
 
Anyway thanks a lot!

With the Hamelin box and the Brotherhood of the rat you won't need more stolen nor rats (specially if you are planning to play Hamelin focusing on Obey). The winged plagues seems to be a must, I've bought them but haven't had the chance to play them. 

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I just put the Apparitions on a 40mm base and count them as Rat Kings. There are only two in the Brotherhood box, and I plan to summon more than that.

The basic box and brotherhood of the rat gives you everything needed to start Hamelin, but I would get the Winged Plague as well.

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