The Good, The Bad, and the Wyrd

[asrian]

Had my first game with Parker tonight vs Gremlin Zoraida via Vassal.

Deployment: Standard 
Strategy: Headhunter 
Schemes:
Show Of Force
Leave Your Mark
Public Demonstration
Set Up
Convict Labor (Always)

My List: (Took Leave Your Mark & Set Up-Fingers)

Parker -- 4ss
 +Oath Keeper - 1ss
 +Scout the Field - 1ss
 +Tally Sheet - 1ss
Doc Mitchell - 3ss
Mad Dog Brackett - 9ss
 +Lucky Poncho - 1ss
Hodgepodge Effigy - 4ss
Hodgepodge Emissary - 10ss
 +Conflux Of Conflict - 0ss
Ronin - 6ss
Ronin - 6ss
Sue - 8ss

Gremlins: (Took Show of Force & Convict Labor)

Zoraida -- 5ss
 +Hex Bag - 1ss
Fingers - 10ss
 +Hide In The Mud - 1ss
Survivor - 5ss
Survivor - 5ss
Survivor - 5ss
Merris LaCroix - 6ss
 +Hide In The Mud - 1ss
Sammy LaCroix - 7ss
 +Crystal Ball - 2ss
 +Hide In The Mud - 1ss
Slop Hauler - 5ss

Caveats (and excuses ) - 

I knew going in that I was playing Head Hunter and that all my ranged attacks would work against me, but didn't really care as I wanted to try out the crew anyway. I screwed up quite a few things, mainly in the way of forgetting draw card auras, gain soul stone on discarding an upgrade once, etc, but it's a learning experience. 

Reasons for crew selection: 

I only took 1/2 a bandit crew (Parker, Doc, Mad Dog) to ease my learning process as I knew I would make initial mistakes and already had all of Parkers upgrades to potentially worry with. The other 1/2 of the crew was just a test for Soul Stone/Card draw gain with models I knew functioned well. Ronin could self-sac to deny heads and gain me cards/ss. effigy could 0AP to buff Parker for SS gain and provide soft cover. Emissary could help boost my own scheme drops if needed, or feign Convict Labor as well as cast at range to ignore cover and pass out trinkets to make my models more effective (like regen on Sue and Companion on Doc). He could also 0AP to allow a mid turn card draw for the cost of 1SS. Sue could allow more card draw, and do his usual tool box tricks and anti-cast auras as needed (which helped vs Zoraida & Sammy immensely).

I chose the upgrades on Parker that I did as I could burn 2 of them (for SS gain and use) while replacing them with his 0AP Five Finger Discount during the turns. I knew going in I was basically forfeiting Show of Force though with my lack of adequate upgrades, but as I had not taken Set Up once since it came out I said screw it. That, and I purposely chose Fingers as he can heal, change my markers to his (not a big deal for Parker to turn them back), and has a Chatty aura, so figured he would be around long enough and that my opponent wouldn't see it coming...and I was right on that.

Match - 

The game ended a 6-6 tie that we called on Turn 5 as we were both tired and it was a fun game overall, so I was happy to end it there. Could have gone either way had we had more turns though.

I'm not going to give a play by play of the game as it's very late and I'm very tired, though I will try to give a more detailed report next time I do one of these.

First and foremost, I liked the crew. I didn't get the most out of Parker or Mad Dog, but Emissary with Doc beside him for +Flips from the Conflux upgrade kept my crew alive way longer than it should have been. Parker scored full points for Set Up turn 3 by first having Mad Dog kill something at range (drops a friendly scheme marker when he kills something), and then Parker hit Sammy to drop an enemy scheme marker, ending the activation by discarding 2 cards to turn nearby enemy markers to friendlies for the scoring points. 

Parker's ability to drop enemy scheme markers kept screwing up my opponent. I kept hitting his gremlins and dropping his own scheme markers near his Convict scheme markers denying him points due to proximity (my opponent lamented not taking Sammy's move markers upgrade). An uncontested Ronin on the southern part of the map ran up a flank to score 2 of my Leave Your Mark schemes (until Fingers said enough and ran like hell down to stop it).

I thought the crew and the game was fun, but a head spin for me trying to not only keep up with all the multiple layers of card/ss cycling. It was difficult to not forget one bonus here, or to figure out which upgrade to grab there, though that will come with time. I found a strong need to balance which upcoming model/action is most needed as the crew is card hungry for things like moderate to high cards or discarding for abilities. This crew is definitely going to reward knowledgeable players who take the time to learn which upgrades/actions to use when.