How I Play Ulix (Not Quite A Tactica)

[Hateful Darkblack]

I’m starting to learn Ulix. He's really effective and a lot of fun to play! Also hilarious because pigs. Here’s what I’ve been learning. I'm writing it down because I'll remember it better that way, and because maybe others will learn from it, or tell me what I've been doing wrong. And that my opponents will read this and totally wreck me because they know how I'll play.

 

What I find about Ulix is that he's really solid in play, with a few big tricks that are devastating. Most of the play is the sort of thing you'll see in any Malifaux crew: move carefully, remember Strats and Schemes, keep track of your cards and your VP, etc.

 

What He’s Good At

 

Scheme Denial. Ulix is amazing at destroying enemy Scheme Markers. Piglets can just do it, even if they’re just summoned, engaged, Paralyzed, and busy with other things. Thanks to Corn Husks, all they have to do is end an activation nearby. The Sow can do it to make more Piglets, who can in turn eat even more enemy Scheme Markers. McTavish can also gobble up enemy Scheme Markers, but I don’t find myself playing him with Ulix very successfully.

 

Scheme Running. Ulix’s crew is fast, and they can do Interacts a (0) with Corn Husks. With Penelope and Old Major moving Crews around, I find that I can take lots of Interact-based Schemes and get full points for all of them.

 

Movement Tricks. More and more, I’m finding that Ulix’s Crew are great at moving each other. Old Major can move Pigs (and buff them) as a (1) and move Gremlins (like Ulix, Slop Hauler, and Pigapult) as a (0). Penelope speeds up other Pigs and moves them off-turn. Ulix can sort of do this with Shot in the Rear, but that’s more for killing and a little unpredictable. And moving Ulix is amazingly easy. Any Pig can run up and drag him away free of charge.

 

Summoning. Ulix can make Warpigs with some setup, or he can make lots of Piglets. The Sow can make Piglets, especially later in the game. I know that Sammi Lacroix can add a lot to the Crew (like Carrying the Clobbering Stick) and can make Piglets, but I haven’t tried it yet. The Taxidermist can make Stuffed Piglets, too, which is always nice.

 

Fighting. The Ulixball has a plenty of mobility and a lot of model-killing tricks. (Usually, the Ulix Ball is Ulix, plus one big model like Gracie or The Sow, plus the Piglets he’s spawned recently, plus probably a Slop Hauler hanging out nearby desperately trying to keep up and not get slaughtered.)

 

Big Tactic: Corn Husks Old Major

 

Old Major is just amazing for gaining objectives when you take him with Corn Husks. He’s tough enough that he doesn’t roll over. He gets a Reactivate if your opponent runs out of cards before you run out of activations. He can push Gremlins and Pigs every which way. Most of all, he makes Interacts super easy. Old Major plus a few Piglets equals a lot of VP.

 

The main thing to watch out for on this Line of Sight. Because the range of Corn Husks is unlimited, it’s easy to forget an think that every model benefits from it. Unfortunately, that’s not so, and I’ve made the mistake of forgetting that too many times. You’ve gotta pay attention to intervening Ht3+ terrain and models.

 

Big Tactic: Husbandry Pig Spam

 

Ulix can summon a Piglet or a Warpig. The Piglet just requires a big Pig model (Warpig, Gracie, Old Major, or the Sow) and a 9 or better. The Warpig requires three Scheme Markers nearby (they gotta be basically in a triangle unless you’ve got some special non-Interact Scheme Marker tricks) and a 12 or better. Both wound your models and bring out Wounded pigs.

 

Summoning is amazing because of Activation control, object running, and increased durability of the Crew as a whole. Ulix can make a lot of Minions quickly, and Minions win games.

 

The main thing to watch for with summoning spam is your card flow. Every Piglet requires a 9, and every Warpig requires a 12. If you don’t have it in hand, you’re wasting your AP trying to cast the spell. This means that Ulix’s Crew doesn’t like to cheat for other things except to use 8 or lower cards, or 9+ cards after the first three. It’s very very often good to spend a Soulstone to draw more cards at the start of the turn. You need those nines. You also need those twelves, but only after you’ve scattered some Scheme Markers.

 

The second thing to watch for is your Wd. Summoning drains a lot of Wounds. Ulix’s crew has a lot of healing tricks that help with that. Usually I give Ulix Dirty Cheater and Proper Care. And I have a Slop Hauler nearby that follows along (either with Reckless, or with a Saddle on Gracie, or with Old Major using The Old Pig Knows The Way). That Slop Hauler is mostly there to heal models after a Summoning spree. Most of the pigs can also heal themselves — and Old Major can help by giving them the Crows they almost always need for healing triggers. It’s nice that he can also do some objective running or combat and catch folks by surprise. Remember, he can Reckless to move and Heal, and he can heal himself.

 

Big Tactic: Shot In The Rear Sow

 

This can be a dud, or it can be horrifying. Get The Sow within 6” of Ulix and 11" of a squishy enemy model, while she’s still three-headed. It's better to be closer to the opponent so you can angle your Charge to set up the next charge. Have Ulix use Shot in the Rear (Soulstone the Ram if you don’t have the card in-hand) then have the Sow Charge in and kill a squishy model, then another squishy model, then another.

 

The reason this is amazing is that usually killing those squishy models is a waste of AP, but The Sow can chain it up and keep going without spending AP for any particular model. The other reason is because she’s got a positive twist to attack and damage, so two attack will almost always be a slaughterfest.

 

You probably won’t be able to slaughter all of an enemy’s Crew. If you do it right, though, you can kill a bunch of little models and then end by softening up a big model.

 

The main thing to watch out for is target control. Pick targets carefully - a single non-kill will stop The Sow’s charge spree. Have cards in hand to overcome Terrifying and Manipulative. Don’t charge models that have Hard to Kill, or a high Df, or more Wd than you can take out in two hits. Always pick your next target when you’re moving for the Charge - you charge the closest model each time, but you can Charge at an oblique angle or even past the enemy model, so you should be able to control your next target pretty well every time.

 

The other thing to watch out for is Ulix getting left stranded. You can Summon a Piglet before you send the Sow out slaughtering, or you can Sooey her back if she ends within 8”. But if you were using The Sow as your ride and then you send her away, Ulix can get left stranded.

 

Big Tactic: Ulixball

 

Ulix likes to have a ball of Pig models around him. They can move him around. They raise his Df and often his Wp by 2.

 

A Ulix ball is usually a main steed (usually Gracie, Old Major, or the Sow) that also acts as a big model for Birthin’. Ulix rides behind the thing and Prods or Summons. A Slop Hauler drags along. You may want a second pig around for more distributed Summoning damage and additional attack options. Penelope often moves around nearby to scoot along stray models, raise everyone’s Wk, and keep the pigs calm.

 

The Ulixball is good at attacking. Ulix can Prod to give a model an attack with a bonus. Or he can Slop ‘Em Up to wreck the target’s defenses, and use (or Soulstone) a Ram to make all nearby pigs take a bite, which can mean a lot of attacks if you set it up right, but it’s resource intensive since his attack score is only a 5 and you need a Ram to pull it off. Getting three or four attacks with positive twists can be murder and drain an enemy’s hand while you’re at it, but it’s costly enough that you can only usually do it once or twice per game.

 

The Ulixball is amazing because of Activation economy. Models are moving each other around and Ulix is triggering them to attack, so you get a lot of models getting to act outside their own activation. You can time your activations so the right thing can happen many times.

 

The main thing to watch out for is movement. Only Walk actions pull Ulix along, so pushes and charges, while sometimes necessary, can leave Ulix stranded if you don’t have a plan. Also, if you walk around a corner wrong, Ulix gets stuck. I’ve had a few games where I found that I couldn’t turn may Ulixball around because the models were all in each others’ way — it takes some practice to learn to do that right. Remember that Ulix pushes in a straight line to the Walking pig, so you need to be careful (unless you use Saddle, which can place instead and is much easier, but if you’ve got Saddle that should usually be for the Slop Hauler if he’s still alive.)

 

Big Tactic: Pigapult

 

As my opponent put it, the Pigapult has a range of “yes.” Well, 24”, but same thing. It’s slow and it needs a steady supply of Stuffed Piglets or Piglets to work efficiently, but Ulix is great at providing that. I usually hire two Stuffed Piglets, then send some summoned Piglets back to feed the Pigapult. Those feeder Piglets can also spend some activations while you’re waiting for enemies to get within that 24” range.

 

You’ve got two big tricks with Pigapult: Killing at range and placing Piglets. Killing at range probably requires sacrificing a Pig (and unless you’re desperate, it shouldn’t be anything but a Stuffed Piglet or a Summoned Pig). You pick a target anywhere and smash it. With a Sh of anything between 4 and 6 (6 if you kill a Piglet, 5 if you kill a Stuffed Piglet, and 4 with a 12” range if you kill nothing) you can usually hit things if you’re willing to commit the resources.

 

Any time you shoot pigs, you should use Reckless — you’ll heal back the Wd you spend anyway, and that third AP makes all the difference.

 

Launching Piglets is an amazing way to deploy models for VP. With Corn Husks, you can launch a Piglet next to an enemy Scheme Marker and within LOS of Old Major. Even though the Piglet is paralyzed, it will still eat the enemy Scheme Marker. This is great for setting up objectives or ruining enemy Schemes that they thought they had set.

 

The main things to watch out for are waiting for enemies to get within 24” (and you’d be surprised how often you’re not close enough at that range, once you start expecting infinite range), and enemies mobbing up on the Pigapult. The Pigapult is slow, so moving into position to shoot at more stuff is difficult. Old Major can drag the Pigapult along more quickly and drag it to safety, which can help a lot with both problems. A Slop Hauler can heal up a Pigapult and make people curse your Armor +5 even more. If your opponents put everything into destroying the Pigapult, they’ll be able to, but hopefully you can be busy winning the game while they do.

 

Crew I’ve Been Playing (and Why)

 

Ulix: Center of Crew, Summoning, Shots in the Rear, Pig healing, Prod firepower.

+ Dirty Cheater: more healing for keeping pigs okay, and Ulix cheats a lot anyway when summing.

+ Husbandry: Pig spam for the win.

+ Hunting Bow: Shot in the Rear shenanigans, stray shots if you got nothing else to do.

 

Penelope: Calming and moving Pigs.

 

Old Major: Objective running. Sometimes dragging Ulix. Moving Slop Hauler and Pigapult around.

+ Corn Husks: Better on Old Major than Ulix because Old Major is Ht 3. Provides incredible objective-running and scheme denial.

 

Gracie: Ulix’s best pig-mount. She gets a free reactivate, she can drag Ulix and a Slop Hauler (with Saddle), and she’s incredibly difficult to injure and fast to heal.

 

The Sow: Summoning Piglets and destroying lots of enemy models. Shot in the Rear massacres.

 

Pigapult: Long-distance destruction of major targets. Positioning for Piglets.

 

Slop Hauler: Post-summoning and mid-combat healing. He can also surprise everyone by being effective on his own every one in a while.

 

Piglets: Objective-running. Making Schemes to help Ulix summon a Warpig. Eating enemy objectives. Most often than anything else, though, I use these little guys to trip up enemy Crews. They waste a lot of enemy AP because they charge around, eat Scheme Markers, and take a lot of effort to kill.

 

Stuffed Piglets: Pigapult ammo, mostly. They provide some extra cheap Activations. They can also blow up if they get surrounded, which is a nice if unreliable damage boost.

 

Taxidermist: Makes more Stuffed Piglets and is a solid melee beatstick in his own right. Gives Pigs Flying to handle terrain problems. I don’t take him often, but he can help.

 

McTavish: Clears Conditions, plenty of movement tricks, provides sniper support if you don’t want the Pigapult, does some Obeys on Pigs. I take him sometimes but not often.

 

Warpig: Seriously durable meat shield with massive damage. Usually I summon these instead of hiring them

 

Crew I'll Likely Try As I Get More Comfortable

 

+Pig Slinging: Greater ranged attacks. Protection from Marcus. Movement shenanigans. Model killin'.

 

Sammi Lacroix: More Piglet Summoning. More of Ulix's fancy Upgrades. Excellent attacks.

+ Clobbering Stick: Extra melee attacks, and better yet, card draw mechanics.

 

Wild Boar: I know these guys are good, but I can't make them work well. They're too easy to kill, especially if you take advantage of their From The Shadows. They get bonuses when attacking off-turn, but they're still not as good as the Sow for Prod or Shot in the Rear. They seem to die quickly and they're hard to control. Worst of all for me, they can't Charge as a (1) like most pigs can, which makes me a sad bunny. I believe that they're really nice models, but I still need to figure out how to use them.

 

Whiskey Golem: Maybe it's because I just bought the model at GenCon, but I want to give this a try. Durable, hard to hit, and fast enough to keep up. No direct Pig synergy, but a really nice model that I think may be worth it anyway.

 

Lucky Effigy: One thing Ulix has trouble with is area attacks hosing the whole Pigball. I'm not sure, but I think Lucky Effigy may be able to help with that.

[hypoking]

If you're having trouble with aoe you should try Merris. Another solid objective runner and a massive middle finger to a number of crews.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Ooh, thanks! How do you play her?

[Sevorin]

I seen this What He’s Good At , and scrolled down to find What he's Not Good At , and didn't find that part. 

[hypoking]

Both lists are accurate.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Severin, good point! Here's what comes to mind. Do you think i should update the main post?

 

What He's Not Good At:

 

Ulix really needs a pig. If he gets stranded, he's in huge trouble and can't do anything. Even a single piglet can get him around, but if he 

 

Ulix can get into a lot of trouble with terrain if you're not used to how he moves. Models don't have facing, but a Ulix ball kind of does! I've had times where I had to spend a turn just turning the Ulixball around. Similarly, he can get in trouble when too much terrain blocks his view to models. (Especially if Old Major can't see over it either.)

 

Ulix relies on a lot of soft models, especially Piglets. If they survive an attack they can quickly heal and recover (or Ulix or a Slop Hauler can heal them.), but often, they don't survive.

 

For all that Ulix has a lot of Scheme Marker-related abilities, he doesn't have many ways to stack Scheme Markers together. This can make Line In The Sand difficult to accomplish.

 

The Ulix-ball is subject to blasts and pulses. It's always something to look out for.

 

Ulix's Crew has mediocre Wp for the most part. They can be obeyed, Alpha, or juat bossed around. Such is the price of hiring mostly pigs; they don't have a lot of higher brain function or self-control. There, I said it.

[dgraz]

Why does The Sow need to be within 6" of an enemy model for Shot in the Rear? 

 

She needs to be within 6" of Ulix.......but she can use her full 9" Charge and 2" reach after that.

[Sevorin]

 Excellent. It helps knowing that information when facing him. Thank you.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Why does The Sow need to be within 6" of an enemy model for Shot in the Rear? 

 

She needs to be within 6" of Ulix.......but she can use her full 9" Charge and 2" reach after that.

Right, yes, correct. Thanks.

Fixed that.

It is good to have the Sow closer than 11" so you can angle your Charge for the next Charge, but 11" is the max, not 6".

[Kadeton]

I watched a game with Ulix last night - he's pretty impressive!

[Mason]

I'm about halfway through a game with Ulix on Vassal, and he really is quite fun to play.  It's sort of like running Hoffman, only with pigs.

[zFiend]

So.. Unix can have a hard time achieving line in the sand..? That's it?

[Hateful Darkblack]

The main problem with Unix is that it's surprisingly difficult to install a DVD player.

The main problem with Ulix is that he needs to bunch up, so area attacks can kill all his pigs (which have crappy defenses) and then he's stranded.

[zFiend]

Damn autocorrect.

So Sonnia or Rasputina for Ulix?

[Hateful Darkblack]

Sonnia rocked me when I played Ulix against her.

[Baalbamoth]

I've yet to play as Ulix (still building my proxy army) but I work nights and have a LOT of time to think about this stuff... so some synergy ideas... 

 

 

Trixy- awesome for bouncing pigs around, pushing stuffed pigs at opponents etc, and if you keep her near a pigapult and she has the bounty upgrade gets a SS every time a model dies to it. 

 

Merris- Agreed is great for Ulix, if your taking sammy with her you got some great card drawing synergy if they keep close together, also her 0 interact action is also good for dropping the scheme markers/more pig production. Also... if your facing raspy or another master/crew with lots of auras or blasts, she's almost an auto-include.

 

Sammy- one o the best for any grem crew, a lot of people like adding the hunting bow to him for range, then ulix can prod while sammi hands out the 2 AP as well. 

 

Old Cranky- good model to take with the pigapult, and again... killing a model with shooting=draw card,  old cranky+trixy+sammy= every time you kill a model get a SS, draw two cards, discard one. I'm really considering this for a pigapult crew. 

 

Student of Conflict- extra AP to have that pigapult firing 4 times, or cause a slop hauler to heal twice, or give Ulix even more pig summoning. 

 

Raphael- shoots over the piglets at up to 36 inc, can shoot the enemy (or stuffed pigs)... and with a ram doing up to 8 wounds, can weaken the bigger lugs for sow "finish him!" death charge (and if you have the trixy/cranky/sammy combo... more cards, more soul stones) 

 

Lenny- extra piglet production for the pigapult, gives Raph his dumb luck every shot, gives Gracey her reactivate if riding in saddle. 

 

just some ideas... 

[AverageGatsby]

Truly fantastic article. One quick note I might ad is that the Pigapult is not a 'gremlin'. Unless there was an erata that I am unaware of the pigapult is simply a "peon, construct rare 1", so it can't be pulled by Old Major, saddled, or healed by the slop hauler or anything of the sort. 

 

Also, I recently tried out a list where I took pig sling, husbandry, Gracie w/ saddle, the pigapult, slop hauler, taxidermist, Burt and four stuffed piglets. Basically you can burn through up to  12 activations on average any given turn if lucky. Summoned pigletts can be  eaten by Gracie to heal after they have wasted there activation, who then gets another activation with rile her up. Burt can saddle along with Gracie and then 'cracker jack timing' ten activations in or so to set up for the pigapult. The piglets that Gracie eats can then become more stuffed piglets which can be pig slung at the enemy with Ulix next activation, and the Pigapult should never run out of ammo conceivably. 

 

This list greatly reduces some of Ulix's well known scheme control with no Corn Husks, but there are enough significant minions roaming around to get most jobs done, and the Pigapult should take out large chunks of most lists. 

 

Lenny also has potential to give some great damage reduction to a Ulix list, but is too expensive in my mind. 

[Hateful Darkblack]

Truly fantastic article.

Thank you! I hope it's useful.

One quick note I might ad is that the Pigapult is not a 'gremlin'. Unless there was an erata that I am unaware of the pigapult is simply a "peon, construct rare 1", so it can't be pulled by Old Major, saddled, or healed by the slop hauler or anything of the sort.

Maybe I'm misreading or looking at a different version of the card than you. I see the keyword "GREMLIN" writ large, in the line right under Peon. What version of the card are you looking at?

 

Also, I recently tried out a list...

Sounds like a great list! With the Taxidermist there to make more Stuffed Piglets, I'd probably drop down to 3 Stuffed piglets and get Corn Husks back myself, because that Upgrade is so useful for VP, but YMMV!

[AverageGatsby]

Maybe I'm misreading or looking at a different version of the card than you. I see the keyword "GREMLIN" writ large, in the line right under Peon. What version of the card are you looking at?

 

 

I'm looking at the Wave 2 beta final version, I just have the printed beta cards, but it's interesting to see that they changed that. Doesn't that technically mean the Pigapult can be moved with Saddle? (not that you would want to over say the slop hauler, but weird)

 

Yeah, corn husks would be better, I just really wanted activation control...but I had it by about 6 activations turn one, so yeah. 

 

 

[AverageGatsby]

Actually I had a question,

Since it does not say on the 'shot in the rear' action (at least not on the card I'm reading) that the model may charge even while engaged like the 'stampede' trigger the piglets and war pigs have, do you find that the sow gets locked in melees due to her 2" engagement range?

 

Additional food for thought, having Old Cranky within 3" of the pigapult means your crew gets an additional soulstone every turn. 

[AverageGatsby]

also, (sorry to spam) but could Trixiebelle be used to push pigletts/stuffed pigs up and pull your Gremlins back? Food for thought (never used her myself)

[Baalbamoth]

she absolutely can, though its one AP per grem unless she's attacked. 

[Hateful Darkblack]

Actually I had a question,

Since it does not say on the 'shot in the rear' action (at least not on the card I'm reading) that the model may charge even while engaged like the 'stampede' trigger the piglets and war pigs have, do you find that the sow gets locked in melees due to her 2" engagement range?

Yes, it's totally possible. You can often manage to keep going if you angle your Charge just right, but it takes planning, and it's totally possible to get stuck.

 

Additional food for thought, having Old Cranky within 3" of the pigapult means your crew gets an additional soulstone every turn.

Yeah! That seems like a great combination, but I'd be a little sad to lose out on the Penelope mobility.

[Pip]

Great run down Hateful Darkblack.

 

I'll definetly try some of your suggestions.

 

Cheers,

 

Pip.

[Jonathan Pickles]

This not tactica is a better tactica than most actual tacticas good job!