Advice for a Guild McCabe newbe?

[Zwergenkrieger]

Hi all,

 

while I´m really enjoying my swampfiend crews led by Zoraida and Lilith, I now want to run a series of battles with Guild McCabe (due to all those lovely models).

 

Well, the core of my Crews should be

 

McCabe

Luna

Guild Hounds

Ryle

The Judge

Death Marshalls

Witchling Stalkers

Guild Austringer

 

Well, I have some a pretty good ideas regarding the use of Death Marshalls, Witchling Stalkers and the Austringer as well as the Guild hounds. On the other hand I wonder how to run McCabe, Ryle and Judge to good effect. I´m even not sure wether Ryle and Judge are good models to run with McCabe or not.

 

Therefore: can anyone give me some advice on...

 

- how to run McCabe with Ryle and/or The Judge? I really love these models and I like to try them in the same crew if it seems to be possible.

- what models work exceptionally well in a Guild McCabe Crew.

- what are the McCabe basics?

 

Thanks in advance

 

HTG

[EntrepeNinja]

Allow me to start with:

 

http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Lucas+McCabe

 

second of all, McCabe's basic thing is all about upgrades being tossed around. It's why Sidir is so good, because whoever has the upgrade gets more buffs. MOAR BUFFS!

 

He's high mobility, and loves things that can pass out slow and paralyze. 

 

I don't have personal experience on either end of the table, but the PFM is usually a great starting point for crew builds and basic of abilities and synergies.

 

ENinja

[Shephammer]

I almost started a thread just like this!

 

After reading the pullmyfinger entry I'm still left with a lot of questions about how exactly McCabe should be played.  I play with Perdita and Sonnia mostly, and so the tactical decision-making is pretty straightforward.  Kill stuff from range, let other models walk around and do stuff.

 

McCabe has different facets to him.  I've seen better pure support masters than him, and I've definitely seen better melee masters than him.  I think this is why there are so many questions.

 

Unless he is taking both the elixir of life and the badge of speed, it takes a maximum of 1 AP to do all of his support tricks.  Do you generally spend the other two AP firing off netgun shots?  Or do you spend those two AP on a charge usually?  It's pretty clear that he has to be fairly close to the action so he can take back his loaned upgrades.

 

I've seen a fair number of builds that are primarily ranged (sidir, austringers, thunder archers, etc.) Would it be smart to just create an aggressive gunline and have netguns supporting stutter firing sidir and some raptor strikes?  Or is it smarter to throw promises onto a peacekeeper and heal it with elixir of life?

 

Or, even better, are both of those plans equally good depending on strat/scheme?

[Joel]

Have you watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? Remember the fight scene where 3 people have to share one sword in a swordfight and are throwing it back and forth??

That is McCabe in a nutshell. It's about passing upgrades around to make sure you get as much use of them as possible in a turn.

[EntrepeNinja]

@joel What an amazing visual image. That sounds like a lot of fun.

 

ENinja

[Shephammer]

Have you watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? Remember the fight scene where 3 people have to share one sword in a swordfight and are throwing it back and forth??

That is McCabe in a nutshell. It's about passing upgrades around to make sure you get as much use of them as possible in a turn.

 

Awesome, I totally get the idea of managing the space between McCabe and the models you are going to throw upgrades to.  I'm really excited to try throwing all of that stuff around, But after using black flash, and then throwing one or hopefully two upgrades out there for a (0), what does McCabe want to do?

 

I read your batrep about ten thunders McCabe and got a lot out of that so thanks for sharing that for sure.  I remember you getting an intense amount of work out of a single ten thunders archer by abusing the hell out of badge of speed.  I think I'll be trying to do that with an austringer right away.

 

I feel like melee is a bit too dangerous for McCabe since his upgrade spreading is so vital to the crew, does that mean he is a netgun-first kinda guy (with some exceptions)?  Also, do you take both the elixir of life and badge of speed in some lists?  Or does that run the risk of using up too much of his AP?

 

Thanks for the input.

[marshimartian]

Or is it smarter to throw promises onto a peacekeeper and heal it with elixir of life?

Promises can only be taken by Black Sheep. At this point, limited to Sidir and McCabe.

[jonahmaul]

Promises can only be taken by Black Sheep. At this point, limited to Sidir and McCabe.

Isn't that only when hiring?  Once the game starts it doesn't matter (otherwise McCabe couldn't throw upgrades to minions at all)

[marshimartian]

Isn't that only when hiring? Once the game starts it doesn't matter (otherwise McCabe couldn't throw upgrades to minions at all)

He can only pass upgrades with "Restriction:Lucas McCabe" which are:

Badge of Speed

Elixir of Life

Glowing Sabre

Strangemetal Shirt

And technically Barbs, but that does nothing for minions at all.

[ArcticPangolin]

Barbs will still give the target a 4" push and count as an upgrade for things like the Wastrel's Bravado ability, which can all be worthwhile if the model's going to be within 10" of McCabe anyway.

Watchers are dead handy for Scheme markers with Badge of Speed and any pipsqueak minion becomes a lot scarier wielding the Glowing Sabre. I like a pair of Riflemen too.

It's pretty easy to run behind the lines supporting your crew and taking potshots but it's easy to forget that the Sabre does do some damage, and with 3AP on his horse he can cover a lot of ground earning VP's.

[jonahmaul]

He can only pass upgrades with "Restriction:Lucas McCabe" which are:

Badge of Speed

Elixir of Life

Glowing Sabre

Strangemetal Shirt

Ah, didn't realise that it wasn't a McCabe upgrade.  Thanks!

[Shephammer]

Promises can only be taken by Black Sheep. At this point, limited to Sidir and McCabe.

 

Sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean throw the promises upgrade onto the peacekeeper, but to have the peacekeeper benefit from "promises made".

[theJudge]

McCabe is a beatstick for me.  Sure he is only Ml 6 but he puts out crazy high damage even without the glowing sabre due to having a built in critical strike.  Add to this the fact that he can be Df 7 and you also have a durable master in melee.

[jonahmaul]

Ml 6 ain't bad, there's not much that can better that.  Even the super combat experts like the Viks are Ml 7.

[Myyrä]

McCabe is in my opinion pretty poor choice if you want a beatstick for master when playing guild. He can't really compete in close combat damage with Justice, Perdita or McMourning.

 

In my opinion you should make use of McCabe's unique capabilities if you play him as Guild master. (Although same is also true for playing him as TT) Ask yourself what he can do better than other beatstick (and other) Guild masters and then build a list around that. Then take a good look at your list and ask yourself "Is McCabe absolutely the best master to lead this crew?" If the answer is yes, you might be on to something.

[Requirement]

McCabe is in my opinion pretty poor choice if you want a beatstick for master when playing guild. He can't really compete in close combat damage with Justice, Perdita or McMourning.

He may not be able to compete directly with Justice, Perdita, or McMourning while you are deciding what leader to field but he has a distinct advantage over them, at least in my opinion. Whereas he may not be a solely beatstick master, he can be a beatstick. You can decide midgame that you need to get Lucas up in the fray and know he is more than likely going to be ok. That's what I like about McCabe, he pure versatility and the ability to (somewhat) change playstyle mid-game if need be.

[theJudge]

He may not be able to compete directly with Justice, Perdita, or McMourning while you are deciding what leader to field but he has a distinct advantage over them, at least in my opinion. Whereas he may not be a solely beatstick master, he can be a beatstick. You can decide midgame that you need to get Lucas up in the fray and know he is more than likely going to be ok. That's what I like about McCabe, he pure versatility and the ability to (somewhat) change playstyle mid-game if need be.

Exactly. He isn't a pure beat stick and there are better choices if you just want one of those but none of the other masters can do what he does And play the beat stick role.

[akaean]

Lets not sell Doug short. He is one of the Fastest masters in the game with "thats the stuff", injection can place key scheme markers, and on the clock allows for out of activation interacts, and passing out precise.

Sure Doug can do tons of damage, but he also has a ton of support and scheme ability. He is very versatile

[Requirement]

Lets not sell Doug short. He is one of the Fastest masters in the game with "thats the stuff", injection can place key scheme markers, and on the clock allows for out of activation interacts, and passing out precise.

Sure Doug can do tons of damage, but he also has a ton of support and scheme ability. He is very versatile

McMorning is not and will never be guild. NEVER!

 

In seriousness, McMorning is fast and damagey. You can also hire all sorts of crews with him. I still don't see the versatility in him that I do in Lucas. Maybe that's just because I really like Lucas

[EntrepeNinja]

Like it or not, Lucius is a legit Guild Envoy. And like it or not, he's got his hooks in Doug. Which means he's got a badge now. Maybe even a decree. And a lawyer team. (shudder)

 

LOVES me some Doug! And the biggest thing that McCabe brings is the upgrade mechanic (especially with Wastrals running around), and an extremely unique "hard to kill" technique (dismount).

 

What I'm hearing is, "McCabe is a flexible master who can control a from a distance, and tarpit/survive in a brawl." Being able to move between roles in a battle can be really amazing. Knowing when to play what role is the challenge.

 

ENinja

[MasterDisaster]

I don't see McCabe as a beatstick in the slightest. He is first and foremost a support master. He supports his crew my passing upgrades around, healing them, pushing them around,  buffing them or handing out debuffs to the enemy. The fact that he can beat face doesn't make his primary role a beatstick at all. 

 

He can focus on 3 roles really. Offensive support by passing around his upgrades and using Promises to maximise his crews killing potential. Heal and buff his crew with abilities such as Nimble, Re-Activate, Regen etc and finally he can focus on debuffing the enemy with Slow and Paralyze to help his crew get the job done. Effectively though he is a force multiplier, he takes poor, average or great models and makes them a lot better. 

 

As a Guild Master I tend to find I'm taking Austringers, Hounds (because with a Sabre they are funny!), Riflemen, Wardens, The Executioner, Death Marshall's, Witchling Stalkers and the likes. He really seems to work well with the Guardsman models which makes sense as he can Infiltrate them as well as his Black Sheep.

 

The Executioner becomes particularly deadly when you give him some McCabe support. He is already deadly enough to not need the Sabre but if you use Black Flash to give a minion Re-Activate then hand the Badge to the Exe that's a 4" Push, Nimble and 2 AP to move. This effectively doubles the Executioner's already fairly poor movement. Then by giving him the Elixir or Shirt it compensates for his other weakness which tends to be durability AND gives him yet another push! Nobody wants to see an Executioner getting 12" of movement for free before he charges to eat you alive! Witchling Stalkers also benefit greatly in a similar way because of their fairly slow movement McCabe can push them around to get into a better charge lane or have them move into position to remove conditions more effectively. 

 

One of Lucas' primary strengths his is extreme versatility in both play style and crew selection. There are very few schemes or strategies he cannot accomplish with the right crew selection. He can hire just about anybody or anything and he WILL make them better. Adding additional force multipliers such as Dashell or Toshiro into the crew further increases Lucas' effectiveness on their crew. Dashell can ramp up the killing power of a re-activating Rifleman. Toshiro can bring Punk Zombies to the party and nobody wants to face a Punk with the Sabre,  Ml Flips, Re-Activate and Flurry! This is further increased if Sidir or McCabe are nearby with Promises! 

[theJudge]

 McCabe plays the support role for me in turn 1 and the beginning of his turn 2 activation.  Once he has cast black flash on turn 2 and passed out an upgrade he usually is charging something to smash them as  on attack (with promises) as well as a potential +3 dmg on top of his damage spread with the critical strike trigger leads to dead enemies.  If the enemies live its cool, McCabe will have Df 6 to help him live to tell another tale.

[jonahmaul]

McMorning is not and will never be guild. NEVER!

Quite right!

[zFiend]

Quite right!

Oh but he is.

Although I play him on the Rezzer side, for now.

[Chumbalaya]

McCabe is definitely a bit of a mindbender for me.  Coming from Sonnia, Perdita and Justice he plays very differently.  Currently I'm running him with Sidir, Luna, Hounds, Wastrels and flexing the last 12 or so points.  I like the Peacekeeper for being a pain to kill and handing out slow, Death Marshals for scheming, Stalkers for condition removal and numbers, maybe Guard and a Captain, Riflemen or the Executioner idea sounds wonderfully fiendish.

 

I tried him first time last night against a Leveticus crew.  We had Reconnoiter, Assassinate, Line in the Sand, Breakthrough, Outflank and something else I forget.  I picked Outflank and Line and pretty much deployed centrally to see where I needed to commit.  First time using the Hounds too, and I overextended them to the point where Levi is farming Abominations off of them and taking a flank away.  I really liked how McCabe's passing works, but I made a bunch of errors going for damage over scehemes and fighting over the center and denying myself Recon points.  I'm going to keep trying him, but it's very different from what I'm used to.