Carrion Emissary - so much to like!

[Sholto]

Anyone else enjoying the Carrion Emissary?

It has found a spot in 10 of my last 11 games. In order of awesome here is what I love:-

1. The Shards. Reliable board control and so versatile. The Swiss army knife of (0) Actions. Kill this guy or you might not score your Schemes;

2. Claims of the Dead. Turning corpse markers into Scheme Markers is amazing, particularly when you play Molly and she is summoning Drowned. Or when you have Mindless Zombies wandering around (see The Shards). Arcanist levels of Scheme Marker fun - kill this guy or I will score my Schemes;

3. Flight & 6" walk. Mobility like that is golden. Makes it hard to kill this guy

4. Min Dg 3 with a Ca and Blasts. Another attack with no real weaknesses and some fantastic triggers.

5. Bonus Wk for everyone!

6. Something something Destined Condition something something summoning models. Meh - this is Ressers. Anyone can do that

[jonahmaul]

I've yet to get this guy on the table as I've been focusing on Outcasts recently but I do see a lot of Emissaries popping up in general.  Which Masters have you been running the Carrion with?

[Sholto]

Just with Molly. Making everything Undead into Horrors is very useful (but only for Horror Molly), and his other (0) to make something Fast is good if you don't need the Shards that Turn.

[jonahmaul]

Molly wise it definitely seems like it's designed to make up supposed shortfalls in that side of her because Spirit Molly is considered the better version of her.

[MEGAHORSE]

Molly wise it definitely seems like it's designed to make up supposed shortfalls in that side of her because Spirit Molly is considered the better version of her.

This. Each upgrade is supposed to help shore up a weakness of the master and encourages taking it. 

• Seamus's upgrade is ok. it allows the Emissary to heal along with Seamus with failed Wp duels, which will help keep it around longer and make its Hard to Kill that muhc more annoying. It also gains a "toss" for enemies within 2" to be thrown 6" away and possibly take damage, which plays into the crew's ability to manipulate the board, as well as getting Copycat and Seamus out of melee combat. Sadly it has no Wp duels to help proc his heal nor Seamus's, so keep that in mind. But being able to make Ht4 shards is the real kicker here. Get in your back alleys when and where you need them. Also provides ranged Ca duels. Belles are suddenly the best scheme runners within 6" of it and sybelle. 
• McMourning is the one most people arent excited about, but I really want to try. The Emissary brings a ranged shooty option that is much more reliable than the Guild autopsie's, and does some actual damage if you want to kill things without Expunging them (while also applying poison at range, without a build in suit). Shards allow you to move Sebastian up the field more easily. The big downside is possibly losing support in bringing the Emissary, or Rafkin (and a second Transfusion). Claims of the Dead uses otherwise useless Corpse Markers to help you accomplish schemes. The big boon is the upgrade, giving a (0), if you dont need Shards, to a Ca Gun action dealing 1/1BB/1BBB and giving ALL affected models Poison 1. In addition, the upgrade gives the Emissary a + to attack flips against Poisned models. I'd shoot a flesh construct and just nuke their crew with chip damage. I'd compare him to a ranged Rafkin. Myself, I dont care for Rafkin. He's a Shikome that heals off poison that can carry an upgrade for 1ss less, but with less defensive measures. I know others love him, but he either does nothing the entire game, or kills a single model. I think the Emissary can better let me hand out poison, while also having its OWN self healing, and helping position sebastian for fun shenanigans. I need to ask this in the rules forum, but what happens first? Shards disappearing, or Poison/Burning damage at end of turn? As if he's behind shards, and enemies are in front of the shards, and the turn ends, do they take the extra damage?
• Nicodem gets the least mileage out of the Emissary, and yet, the most. He finally has a solid ranged option as well, and the Shards allow him to sit in the backfield away from snipers and make mindless zombies and raise the dead without fear. Even better, the markers make another zombie each turn. March of the Dead is just more salt on the wound. The additional walk helps, as most of his crew is walk 5 at best. Helps Izamu or your Nurses a bit .Again, not much. The upgrade is key for Mindless Zombie activation control, allowing them to get +1Ml for each other Mindless near them. ML6 zombies means your opponent isnt going to be able to disengage very easily. Board control! I guess he also has a new 0 to pitch a card to give a friendly undead + on attack flips, but that's pretty eh. 
• Horror Molly gains A TON. More movement just means turn 1 Punk Zombie bombs are more eminent, the ranged attack is nasty, the Shards make zombies, and the upgrade grants Horror to Mindless Zombies, so Manical Laughter suddenly is a very viable choice since the Mindless will splash out Black Blood if theyre near both Molly and the Emissary. That will probably be the trick. also, on a 4 of tomes, he can hand out Fast as a (0) as well! While Spirit Molly may be considered "fine", I was still disappointed that side of her didnt get an upgrade to compensate. I guess she can have him take the generic upgrade. I'm the least excited to use him with Spirit Molly unless someone can convince me of his usefulness. 
• I'm excited for Kirai and him. He becomes a spirit and grants friendly spirits within 4" the ability to treat Ca actions as Ml actions for the incorporeal ability. Which makes some models EXTREMELY tough to remove now. He also has the ability to 0 to push a friendly spirit 4" on a 6 of any suit within 6". Definitely just more shenanigans for Kirai to abuse. Again, like Nicodem, Kirai has many slow models and relies on pushes and abilities to swap models around, he has that in spades, as well as more movement when youre near the guy. And most importantly, he wont be needing any healing from her. This helps alleviate her AP being used on movement and healing when he can certainly help out. 
• Generic upgrade: He grants friendly minions within 4" + to attack flips. And on a 0, he can discard a soulstone to draw two and discard two cards, which is pretty solid, I guess. The important bit is it's any attack flip, so Guild Autopsies can become a better ranged option by not having to focus!

edit2: fixed a few things. these are just my thoughts reading the card and upgrade and what he can offer the masters given his upgrades and abilities. I'm not a great player so take it with a grain of salt

Edited December 14, 2015 by MEGAHORSE

[Kogan Style]

I nearly always run the Emissary now unless the board/strategy doesn't favour it. I play primarily Seamus and Molly and tbh I prefer the generic upgrade over either of the two Master Specific ones. I find the  to attack flips so much more useful to the crew (especially Seamus' crew where the Mad hatter is likely away from his crew causing havoc) Belles with  to lure? Nurses getting two cards to choose from with Take your Meds? Shikome getting more buffs? I really feel this is where the Emnissary shines for Ressurs, our 5ss options just got a lot better, and they were already the best in the game for 5! (I'm aware Shikome are 8, and Autopsies are 4) 

The Auto Scheme marker trip is very handy, makes for a surprising Spring the Trap/ Plant Explosives option. Shards are the go-to Zero with a free Mindless Zombie at the end which Sets Seamus up for the next turn.  

[Sholto]

So far I have been having too much fun making Sybelle, Bete Noir, Dead Rider etc into Horrors to try the generic upgrade, but I should give it a spin. That said my crews tend to be elite-heavy, but having some hard-hitting Dead Doxies and Hanged would be worth a try. It also gets around Stubborn on other Riders, meaning that Belles can Lure them on Turn 1 without having to Focus. They'll hate that!

[Fetid Strumpet]

Quite enjoy the return of Rocket Belles(tm) if you bring both Sybelle and the Emissary. Always enjoyed that last edition if you had Molly and Seamus in the same crew and activated belle near both of them and the belles went shooting off on first turn. Not always the most effective positioning wise, but always amusing to see someone go, "They went how far now?"

[oryxwild]

I feel angry about the emissaries... Wave 3 seems like serious power creep to me. I imagine that the tournamnet scene will have 60 players, and 50 of those lists will have an emissary. I hope I'm wrong =D

[Fireuser]

They are good for what they are, but they are not for every scheme and strategy combination. Some Master's confluxes are honestly more aimed at being fun and thematic rather than super competitive, but mostly those Masters are a bit ahead of the curve anyway.

Mostly play with them a bit and see their strengths and weaknesses and I think you will find them to be fair 10 ss models and nothing more.

[MEGAHORSE]

I feel angry about the emissaries... Wave 3 seems like serious power creep to me. I imagine that the tournamnet scene will have 60 players, and 50 of those lists will have an emissary. I hope I'm wrong =D

While the Emissary is very good, the opposing factions also get their own fun new powertools. It's like any other wave of releases for a game, we need to shake up the meta and shore up weaknesses inside of certain factions/masters/models and help give new tools to old ideas and problems. Or, like giving us new models that help us do something NEW rather than just stick to the same playstyle we've always had. I think Sloth and Harry do that for us, theyre 7-8 cost enforcers that change the way we approach a situation. Heck, if you look at our Wave 2, and compare it to wave 1, you have the same sort of "woah, what happened here?"

While you CAN take the emissary and do well, it may not be best for every scenario. Will it help you will x scheme or y strategy? 

These also help make campaigns more interesting by having new models to buy and unlock new, broken, and fun combos  

Edited December 16, 2015 by MEGAHORSE

[Fetid Strumpet]

Also the Emissary isn't good enough to be auto include for every resser list. You can get along quiet well never owning an emissary, and not even in a "well, you CAN do well without it, but you'd do better with it" kind of way. It's a good solid model, but it is no more critical to own than Izamu, Yin, the Dead Rider or any other powerful resser model. It seems to be very good, but I've had it killed by turn 2 multiple times, and while it has helped win games it has never been the OMG that model is the model that won the day.

[Obeisance]

So I was flipping back and forth between this post and Crossroads, wondering why the Carrion Effigy didn't have all these rules.

... oh. Emissary, not Effigy.

No wonder I didn't understand, previously, why this model was recommended to me. =p

[oryxwild]

Also the Emissary isn't good enough to be auto include for every resser list. You can get along quiet well never owning an emissary, and not even in a "well, you CAN do well without it, but you'd do better with it" kind of way. It's a good solid model, but it is no more critical to own than Izamu, Yin, the Dead Rider or any other powerful resser model. It seems to be very good, but I've had it killed by turn 2 multiple times, and while it has helped win games it has never been the OMG that model is the model that won the day.

This is comforting to hear. I do have some trust that in the grand scheme of things, we'll find that most, if not all, models have a place in various lists, and that list composition will come down more to personal taste than "x model is better than 90% of other options, 95% of the time." A lot of what I read about the emissaries is like "holy shit, this is so crazy" or "this has been finding its way into all my lists lately", and basically seems like they may become the next mech rider. 

[jonahmaul]

I don't think the Carrion Emissary is an auto-include although I have seen a lot of Emissaries around (I've yet to actually get one on the table myself) but I definitely do feel like Wave 3 in general is a power creep and that Wave 4 is going to be more so.  In some instances it feels like they've brought up some of the weaker Masters with Emissaries in particular and plugged some holes (for example Winged Plague giving Outcasts a lower cost scheme runner option) but there's definitely a creep.

[DoctorWhat]

I use him almost as much as I use Anna Lovelace in my Ressur games, notably with Kirai, Yan Lo, and Seamus.

He just does so much that complements them, hits like a truck, and handles some extra activation/board control.

 

However, I do not feel that Wave 3 was power creep at all, I felt that it was balancing. Emissaries provided some new tools to masters that needed it. What did you think was super strong in Wave 3? Anna and Ice Dancers were definitely, but they provided a lot of perks to Tara and Raspy, who feel much more complete with them. I highly doubt Wave 4 will do any creep as well (especially looking at Aionus)

[jonahmaul]

Ice Dancer, Big Jake and Forgotten Marshall are all a bit stupid and should not have made it through playtesting in the form they did.

[Kogan Style]

What's wrong with the Marshal? He only makes my lists for Reckoning and Collect the Bounty, what do you find stupid? 

[DeleteAccount]

42 minutes ago, Kogan Style said:

What's wrong with the Marshal? He only makes my lists for Reckoning and Collect the Bounty, what do you find stupid? 

Have to echo this, I remember testing him and being all over the place, but at the end of the day having only a peacekeeper to show for it.

Anna is the big one I'd say and more because she is extreme, either hard countering or having half her abilities be irrelevant.

[jonahmaul]

He's got good attacks, two excellent (0) actions and when he dies you almost certainly get a free model out of him.  He basically costs 2-3 SS given the 4-5 SS model that you're getting for free.  It's crazy good for the cost (don't get me wrong, I built a proxy immediately!).