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Brewmaster in tournaments


Jafar

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My plan is to try 1 or 2 Akaname near Brewmaster at all times.  That way I can easily use his healing flip with nearby models and have the Akaname eat the poison.  Trying a bubble of models near-ish Brewmaster to roll over enemies.  I've done it in the past with moderate success, so I think it's just going to take a little tweaking to the crew to make it work fully.  Don't have to worry about enemy killers if I can heal easily enough without a downside (other than the AP lost).

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Well just tried Brewmaster against Jack Daw and got my crew's green hides kicked.

Jack Daws lockdown was a lot more impressive than mine.

 

Tried proxying Moon Shinobi and Akaname. The Moon Shinobi hits outside his weight class with the changing :-fate to :+fate, but he lost half his health just advancing up the board and the other half after he got 1 attack in (managed to kill the dead outlaw though on the charge). 

 

The Akaname also both died really quick for me. Once they got lured into Jack Daw's bubble of no cheating they weren't able to do anything or escape. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm still on the fence about Lovelace.  I'm concerned her auras don't really offer anything different than just having Sparks nearby.  Just wanted to throw my opinion on that before I revive this for a question.

So I got the day off for my tournament on the 30th, and Brewmaster will be going all in.  I just had a though and I'm wondering if I should have it as an option.  Never done it before, so I wanted to see if anyone has.  Slightly heavy investment.

 

I'm thinking of hiring Lenny and Mancha.  My original plan was to have Mancha, since his Challenge action should really give me some good synergy with what I'm already doing anyways.  Now I'm considering adding Lenny to get that Ram in for Mancha.

I don't remember the name of the Brewmaster upgrade, since I've never taken it, because it seems counter productive to how I usually run him.  He gains an action to paralyze anything with at least 3 poison on it.  The plan is to have Lenny and Mancha near Brewmaster so that Brewmaster can paralyze a model, and then Mancha can attack and get the auto finisher trigger to kill it.  I'll still have a decent amount of poison going on, since I need targets to be at least at 3.  This allows me to have the contest going on as well as an added pain in the ass, without it being my overall focus for the game.

My main concern with this is that once the opponent knows what I'm doing, all they have to do is activate that model to clear the paralyze before Mancha can activate.  Which means I'm better off targeting models after they've activated for the turn, unless I can get two things paralyzed at the same time.  I'm not sure it's the most effective way to run it, but it's another option with me struggling to find a good use for my favorite theme on a master.

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2 hours ago, Four_N_Six said:

I'm thinking of hiring Lenny and Mancha.  My original plan was to have Mancha, since his Challenge action should really give me some good synergy with what I'm already doing anyways.  Now I'm considering adding Lenny to get that Ram in for Mancha.

I don't remember the name of the Brewmaster upgrade, since I've never taken it, because it seems counter productive to how I usually run him.  He gains an action to paralyze anything with at least 3 poison on it.  The plan is to have Lenny and Mancha near Brewmaster so that Brewmaster can paralyze a model, and then Mancha can attack and get the auto finisher trigger to kill it.  I'll still have a decent amount of poison going on, since I need targets to be at least at 3.  This allows me to have the contest going on as well as an added pain in the ass, without it being my overall focus for the game.

My main concern with this is that once the opponent knows what I'm doing, all they have to do is activate that model to clear the paralyze before Mancha can activate.  Which means I'm better off targeting models after they've activated for the turn, unless I can get two things paralyzed at the same time.  I'm not sure it's the most effective way to run it, but it's another option with me struggling to find a good use for my favorite theme on a master.

I imagine what will probably happen more than you doing sweet paralyse instakill tricks with Hold Their Hair Back will be just getting Mancha Roja to the fabled neutral damage flips or even :+fates by only attacking enemies who have Swill on them, that way you get around Mancha's main weakness of a min damage of 2.

Brewmaster is just about the only Master I even consider Lenny with anymore (I've really gone off him, even pre-errata) because of the added mobility with no extra downside via One For the Road (I am so not sold on poisoning my own folks, so the immunity helps there, although I guess now you could just use an akaname), and the Dumb Luck Bayou Gremlin tactic for killing stuff (if they're on negatives, Sh4 doesn't matter!). Sadly it never works as well as I hope it will :(

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Well I'm an idiot anyways, because the Finisher trigger is on :crow , not :ram .  Just got home from work to get to my cards.  So I could potentially bring Lenny along for some assistance on mobility and Big Target, but otherwise I could save 9 stones by not bringing him.  Maybe with Old Cranky so I can just burn the stone for the crow instead.

I've been the same way with Lenny for a long time.  I only really used him with Ophelia for a while, but I don't play  Ophelia as much as my other masters.

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I'll play around with some options.  I was wanting to throw Sammy in, too.  That way she can take the upgrade to paralyze something and Brew can still get 3 Swills going.  The crew was getting a little expensive at that point and I need to trim up space for scheme running and things like that.  I figure at least Mancha and Cranky, probably Fingers as well, but that's already half the crew.

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Okay brain trust, tournament is this Sunday and Brewmaster is coming to the entire thing.  Schemes and Strats went up today.  I have an idea of each round, but figured I'd throw myself to the wolves and see what everybody else thought.  Apparently I got a :ram on these games, because by pure Dumb Luck, it seems like I'll have a good shot at the first two games.  Game 3 is a different story.

 

Schemes n Strats:

Round 1: Extraction with Standard Deploy
Schemes: Claim Jump, Dig Their Graves, Frame for Murder, Show of Force, and Search the Ruins

Round 2: Guard the Stash with Flank Deploy
Schemes: Claim Jump, Leave Your Mark, Eliminate the Leadership, Hidden Trap, and Last Stand

Round 3: Reconnoiter with Close Deploy
Schemes: Claim Jump, Accusation, Dig Their Graves, Hunting Party, and Set Up

 

Round 1 I'm looking at Frame for Murder on a priority target.  Wesley is usually a good option, and have Burt Jebsen in crew to pass attacks onto Wesley when they come from a Master or Henchman.  Possibly just toss it onto a different model, but I am typically a fan of FFM.  I could go hard and just put it on Whiskey and slingshot it at the master.  Obvious yes, but they can deal with the attacks if they don't want to kill it.  Probably Show of Force along with it, since Whiskey will have his upgrade and Fingers will probably have on Drinking "Problem" at least.  Not a bad bet for Extraction anyways, I'll just have to worry about the opponent also doing it.

Round 2 I don't like the schemes on, so I'll probably do Leave Your Mark and let the First Mate out to play with it.  He's also very good at doing Claim Jump on his own as I've seen in the past, so that's a possibility as well, and maybe have some cheaper models go for LYM.  I'm considering bringing Mancha for this one instead of Whiskey and see if Brewmaster can paralyze the leader with Hold Their Hair Back, and let Mancha just outright kill the leader.  Long shot on that one, so I'll probably go with the first two I mentioned.

Round 3 is obviously going to be an issue do to having to spread out for Recon, but Accusation shouldn't be hard at all, and I can fall back on Claim Jump if I don't come up with a better idea.  

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Round three - since it's Reconnoiter, I'd guess that there is a super high chance of meeting a Summoner. Since it's Close deploy, you could try being super aggressive. Get the enemy on negatives and kill the Master with Francois on turn one (using a Gracie taxi, most likely). Summoner might have a pretty elite support crew so shutting down the Master (heck, just giving them Swill should hamper the summoning a lot) might give you a real edge.

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I like the idea of being aggressive with him.  I haven't used Francois in many moons, so I think that's the idea for that one.  Maybe bring an elite kill heavy list and just have Brewmaster Swill from a distance while my beaters pick the crew clean.  Or attempt to, anyway.

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Alright, I think I have my stuff figured out enough to at least have fun with a chance of victory.

 

Round 1 I'm looking to do Show of Force and Search the Ruins.

Brewmaster (Stilts)
Old Cranky
Mancha Roja (Dirty Cheater)
Fingers (Drinking "Problem")
Merris LaCroix
Burt Jebsen (Dirty Cheater)
2 Stuffed Piglets
Slop Hauler

Since round 1 is the main round where I'll be mostly bunched up, I figure a Slop Hauler tossed in would help a little.  Merris shouldn't have a problem solo'ing Ruins as long as I don't over extend her too early, with Fingers helping if necessary and flipping enemy scheme markers to deny them Ruins or Dig Their Graves.

 

Round 2 will be Leave Your Mark and Claim Jump

Brewmaster
Fingers (Drinking "Problem")
First Mate (Treasure Map, Where the Captain Can't See)
Iron Skeeter (Hovering Airship)
Whiskey Golem (0 cost upgrade)
Wesley
Sammy LaCroix

With his upgrade, Whiskey might have a good shot at holding a marker on his own.  I'm also considering dropping out that Iron Skeeter for Sparks, which would allow Whiskey to get a couple of attacks in a turn plus get his defense up to 7.  First Mate and Fingers run my schemes, and First Mate definitely shouldn't have a hard time denying my opponent, since round 2 is scheme marker heavy.

 

Round 3.  Accusation and Hunting Party

Brewmaster
Old Cranky
McTavish
Francois (Stilts)
Burt Jebsen (Dirty Cheater)
Whiskey Golem (0 cost upgrade)
2 Bayou Gator

I'm taking the advice of my associate Math here and going aggressive after the leader if it's a summoner, and the crew if it isn't.  Bayou Gators should do fairly well with melee expert if Brewmaster hangs back and swills priority targets.

 

Just a quick thought on each round.  Things will probably have to switch around depending on the opponent's declared faction, but more or less this is what I'm looking at.  Any replacement suggestions are welcome, I'm sure I didn't think of everything.

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With Sammy and Fingers in the second list, as your opponent I would avoid any Scheme Marker Schemes like the plague so I think that Treasure Map and Where the Captain Can't See might not see much action. Last Stand and Eliminate the Leadership look like very nice Schemes for the opponent there and I'm not sure how well you can deny them the Strategy since your killing power is quite limited (though there is such a huge amount of weird manipulation going on that I'm having a somewhat hard time judging how that game would go based on the list). So maybe Stilts for Brewie for this one as well?

I do like the lists for the first and the second round quite a bit.

Rooting for you!

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On 4/4/2017 at 1:48 PM, Four_N_Six said:

My plan is to try 1 or 2 Akaname near Brewmaster at all times.  That way I can easily use his healing flip with nearby models and have the Akaname eat the poison.  Trying a bubble of models near-ish Brewmaster to roll over enemies.  I've done it in the past with moderate success, so I think it's just going to take a little tweaking to the crew to make it work fully.  Don't have to worry about enemy killers if I can heal easily enough without a downside (other than the AP lost).

I'm looking at those Akaname stats and just wondering in what role to use them in Brewie's crew. So far I can see them doing this:

- speed up Brewie (when he uses One for the Road on them) and Moon Shinobis

- suck off Poison from friendly models helping to negate 'Poison-penalty' from Another Round or Whiskey Golem's Smokey Finish

- dropping scheme marker when they have +2 and more Poison on them so they can do some scheme running from time to time.

Anything else I missed?

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Main thing I've always found when running Brewie and wanting to do well: take Fingers in a schemey pool, Whiskey in a more smashy pool, and give Drinking 'Problem' to whichever one you take to push one or two key models towards Brewie.

Don't take both of them. Too many stones for too few models.

Don't try to Drinking Contest too many things. I've had good success locking down one or two key and/or scary models, beyond that, things get dicey.

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Oh yes, I have plenty of experience with Brewmaster in.  Not much in tournaments, so I've been trying to test out his effectiveness.  I'm determined to play him successfully in a tournament, but really I just want to have fun this time around.  I get stressed out when I'm trying to win, so I just wanted to play a master I really like and just enjoy myself.  Especially if my opponent has never fought Brewmaster before.  It's fun to watch people squirm and try to figure a way out of the contest (there isn't one).

The most success I've had is from locking down a master drinking and potentially one other model, sometimes two depending on who I'm fighting and how well they're dodging the contest.  I use fingers for healing and scheme running as much as I can.  He's such a pain in the ass to lock down.

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I'm pretty new overall to Malifaux, and I chose Brewmaster and Tri Chi as my first crew.

It's been a steep learning curve, especially as I've been wanting to use pretty much only tri-chi models 'cos I like the style.

I've been to two tournaments with Brewmaster now (including Twatifaux in Melbourne recently), and I think I've worked out some basics.
Started getting a lot more wins with this crew.

Things that are important (for me):

  • Brewmaster's aura is only a bonus. I don't plan with it, and certainly don't try to make it work at the expense of any other options. Swill is just too strong.
    People often don't realise Swill causes a negative flip on ALL flips and duals. That means healing flips, everything. It will lock down an opposing master far more surely than the aura, and make them much easier to kill. And it stacks. Swill +2 on a target, then lured towards your crew with a Performer? Brutal.
  • I now take close to no upgrades for Brewmaster. He exists purely to spam Swill, and the occasional Obey.
  • Moon Shinobi can be launched massively on their first turn with the help of Akaname.
  • Two Akaname, two Moon Shinobi. Akaname poison both Shinobi and one of themselves, which moves up the field. Each Moon Shinobi get's it's 0 push towards poison. Then moves 5" twice. Then gets the poison push at end of turn. 17" total.
  • A Moon Shinobi with a double positive flip (Swill + 2) launched into the enemy lines, engaging 3 or more models is brutal. Extra bonus if the model is your Framed for Murder choice.
  • Fast moving Fingers, Moon Shinobi, and Whiskey Golem can really lead to board control against some masters.
    I also rarely take upgrades on Fingers. The double to healing flips is nice, but if he's off running schemes it's not worth it. If you turtle down, sure.

I try and include most of the below in 50SS games:

Brewmaster, stilts.
Fingers, no upgrades
Whiskey Golem, zero stone upgrade
Apprentice Wesley (helps spam Swill, targeting Moon Shinobi)
Two or three Moon Shinobi
One or Two Akaname
Performer
Maybe a Rooster Rider. Maybe.

 

Admittedly, this is limiting my choices deliberately, but I enjoy it this way.

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11 hours ago, Math Mathonwy said:

Well, that's a pretty hardcore approach to Malifaux!

But good stuff, thanks for sharing!

I think that the limitations of the bubble is something that becomes apparent to everyone once they play a while. I do enjoy Binge, still, though.

Do you find Akaname good models?

 

9 hours ago, daniello_s said:

Same question here ;)

Cheers guys!

I like the Akaname. They're cheap, and can provide some reasonable utility to the crew, situational anyway.
"Filth Eater" has saved a few models from a McMourning expunge, that's for sure.

The biggest downside I find on these guys is a lack of mobility. Surprisingly, most of the Tri Chi models are crazy mobile - loudest squeals, poison pushes, "where'd you get that?", Nimble.
When I'm not doubling down on the Brewmaster's bubble and turtling (which means most games), these guys have trouble keeping up with the rest of the crew.

That's ok though, they're also best when they are just behind your lines anyway, once you get stuck in.

My thoughts:

  • They take poison and give up free scheme markers for it.
    This is great, because when you no longer care about Brewmaster's bubble, there's poison EVERYWHERE that you can put to good alternative use
  • Their "Spray Filth" isn't about hurting enemy models, it's about providing free pushes for the Moon Shinobi's "Where'd you get that?"
    I'll often ignore the "With Great Enthusiasm" trigger, because I prefer the free scheme marker
  • They make poison very mobile. You can start slinging it everywhere, remove it from any model if required, and concentrate it where you might need it.

I don't expect much from them overall, but they tend to do their jobs. Plus, I think the models are cool.

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Tournament was today.  I think there were ten of us?  I didn't get an official head count.  However, I ran only Brewmaster with the lists I posted above (except a small change on the second game), and I ended up taking second place.  Games went to turn 4, turn 4, and turn 3.

First match ended up as a 9-9 tie against Titania.  My list against Titania, Nekima, Dopplegangar, Thorn, Tooth, Mysterious Effigy, and an Insidious Madness (I think that's the whole thing).  He successfully got all 3 from claim jump, which ended up being the down to the wire thing I was trying to stop.  Had Fingers successfully disengaged on turn 4, he would have flipped a scheme marker and denied a point.  Brewmaster locked down Nekima and Titania pretty effectively, and with Mancha getting challenge up, it kept my slop hauler alive a lot longer than it should have been considering he did Dig Their Graves.

Second game I ended up 7-3 victory.  It was completely blind luck that I ended up removing the Iron Skeeter from my crew and adding in Sparks to help boost the Whiskey Golem, because my opponent brought Hoffman and Sparks basically shut that crap down turns 2, 3, and most of 4 before he died.  My plan for Guard the Stash was to have the Whiskey Golem (fast) hold one stash marker on his own.  With Barrel Up attached and Fingers nearby with Drinking "Problem," the idea was to get two attacks and use the fast AP to get his +2 Df to keep him alive, and heal 2/4/6 every time he attacked.  Unfortunately, Joss got severely lucky and Red Jokered the damage against Whiskey Golem, which there was no defending or healing back.  Brewmaster locked down a Peacekeeper, Guardian, and Hoffman a good portion of the game.  He kept Swill +1 on Johan until turn 4, basically removing his chance of getting conditions off the rest of the crew.  I was also very lucky that my opponent took Last Stand and then instantly killed the only offensive damage model I brought, effectively guaranteeing he'd never get a single point from that scheme.  Fingers stopped him from getting Claim Jump by just flipping scheme markers he put down, and the First Mate croaked Joss off of the second Stash marker to deny points.  First Mate was supposed to get me Leave Your Mark, but he had to replace Whiskey Golem, so I ended up only getting 1 point from LYM the entire game.  Brewmaster held the other marker on his own.  I let him die after I activated him on turn 4 so Wesley became the new Brewmaster, giving me a couple extra AP and Hangover casts, which probably got me the extra points.

Third game was a 6-3 victory against Sandeep.  I played pretty aggresively.  Unfortunately, Brewmaster didn't get a whole lot done that game in terms of Swill, but my crew was able to get the job done on their own enough.  Sandeep only ended up summoning a couple of gamin the whole game, which were eaten alive by gators and Burt Jebsen to score my Hunting Party points.  Sandeed was accused a couple of times for extra points there, and I kept Brewmaster on my side of the board for Reconnoiter.  Francois held my back-right table quarter for 2 turns, and the melee brawl was mostly in my back-left table quarter.  The brawl was close enough to the center of the board that none of those models counted toward the scheme, so I tossed the Whiskey Golem and Burt up the left side of the board into my front-left table quarter and they ended up holding that the first couple of turns.  That game only went to turn 3, though.  At the end of turn 3, Burt had to go Reckless and haul ass across the board to get into my front-right table quarter after Francois died.  He didn't score me the quarter, but I held two other quarters and he ended up tying my opponent's model count and essentially blocking him from scoring it.

 

All in all I had a ton of fun, which was the overall goal of playing Brewmaster this tournament and then somehow ended up doing better than I do when I select my crews in an attempt to win.  So that's a super win as far as I'm concerned.  Made a few mistakes here or there, but obviously nothing too bad.

 

Next tournament?  All Mah Tucket.

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  • 2 months later...
On 27/04/2017 at 0:26 PM, Cadaver_Junkie said:

I'm pretty new overall to Malifaux, and I chose Brewmaster and Tri Chi as my first crew.

It's been a steep learning curve, especially as I've been wanting to use pretty much only tri-chi models 'cos I like the style.

I've been to two tournaments with Brewmaster now (including Twatifaux in Melbourne recently), and I think I've worked out some basics.
Started getting a lot more wins with this crew.

Things that are important (for me):

  • Brewmaster's aura is only a bonus. I don't plan with it, and certainly don't try to make it work at the expense of any other options. Swill is just too strong.
    People often don't realise Swill causes a negative flip on ALL flips and duals. That means healing flips, everything. It will lock down an opposing master far more surely than the aura, and make them much easier to kill. And it stacks. Swill +2 on a target, then lured towards your crew with a Performer? Brutal.
  • I now take close to no upgrades for Brewmaster. He exists purely to spam Swill, and the occasional Obey.
  • Moon Shinobi can be launched massively on their first turn with the help of Akaname.
  • Two Akaname, two Moon Shinobi. Akaname poison both Shinobi and one of themselves, which moves up the field. Each Moon Shinobi get's it's 0 push towards poison. Then moves 5" twice. Then gets the poison push at end of turn. 17" total.
  • A Moon Shinobi with a double positive flip (Swill + 2) launched into the enemy lines, engaging 3 or more models is brutal. Extra bonus if the model is your Framed for Murder choice.
  • Fast moving Fingers, Moon Shinobi, and Whiskey Golem can really lead to board control against some masters.
    I also rarely take upgrades on Fingers. The double to healing flips is nice, but if he's off running schemes it's not worth it. If you turtle down, sure.

I try and include most of the below in 50SS games:

Brewmaster, stilts.
Fingers, no upgrades
Whiskey Golem, zero stone upgrade
Apprentice Wesley (helps spam Swill, targeting Moon Shinobi)
Two or three Moon Shinobi
One or Two Akaname
Performer
Maybe a Rooster Rider. Maybe.

 

Admittedly, this is limiting my choices deliberately, but I enjoy it this way.

Hadn't read this till now, but I've got to admit - it's where my thinking had started to head re: getting some serious work done with Brewmaster. Swill is the real deal, and it can make monsters out of mediocre attackers, so there might not be as much need to take the Manchas, Burts and whatnot, when Bayou Gremlins, Gators and Shinobi can be so elevated.

Haven't got/tried Akaname yet, but i was also thinking that pairing them up with Moon Shinobi ought to work. And later, they can potentially move twice and drop a Scheme marker in one activation.

Got a tournament in a month's time, so I'll give this a go and report back (if i can scare up some Akaname before then!). My mileage may vary ;-)

Edited by Bazlord_Prime
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