Slow Grow League Advice - "Master" = Henchmen, which one?

[Gloom]

Hello fellow Rezers.

I'm still really new to the game; in fact, I've yet to complete/finish a full 35ss game.  I've done the first few 2-Player Box scenarios, and had one full 35ss game that I had to quit in Turn 3 because it was my kiddo's bedtime so we had to leave our FLGS.

PART I:

I have my first slow-grow league game tonight.  I chose Nicodem, but we don't get to use a 'Master' until later in the league.  Our "Master" is a henchmen of our choice.  I'm gradually collecting all of the "Nicodem must haves" (hory shet there's a ton of them! ), but I'm looking for ideas, opinions, strategies, etc. for which Henchmen (that I own) should act as my Master.  Here's what I have for Henchmen thus far:

+ Mortimer (of course) ~ I'm considering him because he'll likely be part of my lineup.  Chatty seems like good objective control, plus Found-A-Bone, and Fresh Meat.  Poison is always a bonus as well.
+ Sebastian ~ poison pain and more.
+ Madame Sybelle ~ Board control, movement shenanigans, and other shenanigans like discard & peon.
+ The Valedictorian ~ Movement, trigger control, and good damage.

I love all of them and don't know what to do.  
 

PART II:
The first game or two is 25ss, and that value also includes your Henchmen-as-Master.  As far as crew building goes, here's what else I have available if you'd like to chime in on advice, ideas, strategy, etc.

Enforcers:
~ Bete Noire
~ Yin The Penangalan
~ Rogue Necromancy
Minions:
~ Student of Viscera
~ Nurses (2)
~ Carrion Effigy 
~ Rotten Belles (3)
~ Punk Zombie (3)
~ Student of Steel
~ Student of Sinew
Peons:
~ Graveyard Spirit
~ Vulture

PART III:
For what it's worth, I have Necropunks waiting for me at my FLGS to pick up, but I doubt I'll have time to build them before my game tonight.  I'm pretty picky about 'cleaning' the models and washing them before assembly.

Here's what's on my 'Buy List' each week for the League, in this order:
= Hanged
= Drowned
= Mindless Zombies
= Crooligans
= Canine Remains

Other purchases I'm considering - just because I like their look - are:
Carrion Emissary
Flesh Construct
Gaki
Dead Rider
-Maybe Izamu (I like Rogue Necromancy for a beat-stick though)
-Maybe Guild Autopsies

[mojopin]

Taking mortimer with no summoning engine is not worth. I LOVE sebas but too fragile to stand some hits. That leaves sybelle that have ranged attack, autokill trigger, targets both wp and df, terrifying... And it will synergize well with Yin and Rogue necromancy. That would be my choice along a rotten belle

[Gloom]

2 hours ago, mojopin said:

Taking mortimer with no summoning engine is not worth. I LOVE sebas but too fragile to stand some hits. That leaves sybelle that have ranged attack, autokill trigger, targets both wp and df, terrifying... And it will synergize well with Yin and Rogue necromancy. That would be my choice along a rotten belle

You make sense; honestly, the reason why I thought of bringing Mortimer was just so I would get more familiar with him.  I've yet to use Sebastian because I just built him (bought just him from Gadzooks), but I have played with Sybelle and I like her.

So no Valedictorian?

 

[Gloom]

So far my slow-grow league 25ss crew is:
+ Sybelle (8)
   *Bleeding Tongue (1)
+ Rogue Necromancy (10)
   *Pack (1)
+ Rotten Belle (5)
=== 25

[Clement]

Having to include your henchman in the cost means any soulstones you get for taking that henchman are literally free money (you sure on this?  It's non-standard for crew creation and HEAVILY favors the 0 cost henchmen like Hungering Darkness and Viktoria of Blood).

 Sebastian may not take a punch particularly well, but he'll have 6 free soulstones to chew on to keep himself up, so as long as you don't throw him directly into the heart of the enemy crew he actually should be fine.

Relating to that, he's quite frankly amazing at killing minions with his bonesaw.   Don't be fooled by the 2/3/5 curve....  there's 3-6 extra poison damage waiting for them before they activate.  Whatever he gets his mitts on will likely die horribly unless it can spend soulstones or has a bonkers number of wounds.

[Gloom]

6 hours ago, Clement said:

Having to include your henchman in the cost means any soulstones you get for taking that henchman are literally free money (you sure on this?  It's non-standard for crew creation and HEAVILY favors the 0 cost henchmen like Hungering Darkness and Viktoria of Blood).

 Sebastian may not take a punch particularly well, but he'll have 6 free soulstones to chew on to keep himself up, so as long as you don't throw him directly into the heart of the enemy crew he actually should be fine.

Relating to that, he's quite frankly amazing at killing minions with his bonesaw.   Don't be fooled by the 2/3/5 curve....  there's 3-6 extra poison damage waiting for them before they activate.  Whatever he gets his mitts on will likely die horribly unless it can spend soulstones or has a bonkers number of wounds.

Interesting you should ask because my opponent (also new to Malifaux) had heard from the same Henchman that he did NOT have to include the SS cost of the Henchman chosen as Leader (Master).  So the rule book says you use a Henchmen for the Leader (in lieu of a Master)  for =/< 25ss, but - apparently - the Slow Grow League rules (Shifting Loyalties?) say you DO count the Henchmen/Leader's SS cost into the 25ss count. 

I wondered if Sebastian would survive attack(s) if I didn't deliberately throw him into the mix.  Thanks for the input there.

Just my luck, my first opponent played Guild, so my first ever full complete game of Malifaux I got my ass handed to me (14VPs to 5VPs, if we were adding them up correctly), and I couldn't even try to overwhelm with numbers because no Nicodem, and no Mortimer.

[Clement]

1 hour ago, Gloom said:

Interesting you should ask because my opponent (also new to Malifaux) had heard from the same Henchman that he did NOT have to include the SS cost of the Henchman chosen as Leader (Master).  So the rule book says you use a Henchmen for the Leader (in lieu of a Master)  for =/< 25ss, but - apparently - the Slow Grow League rules (Shifting Loyalties?) say you DO count the Henchmen/Leader's SS cost into the 25ss count. 

I wondered if Sebastian would survive attack(s) if I didn't deliberately throw him into the mix.  Thanks for the input there.

Just my luck, my first opponent played Guild, so my first ever full complete game of Malifaux I got my ass handed to me (14VPs to 5VPs, if we were adding them up correctly), and I couldn't even try to overwhelm with numbers because no Nicodem, and no Mortimer.

Something is up with that score.  The most you can score from each of your two schemes is 3 points.  The most you can get from the strategy is 4...  So your max possible points is 10.

[Gloom]

2 minutes ago, Clement said:

Something is up with that score.  The most you can score from each of your two schemes is 3 points.  The most you can get from the strategy is 4...  So your max possible points is 10.

Ok, well - like I said - we're both newbs and our Henchmen had to step out, so we were winging it with that most helpful (serious sarcasm alert) Rule book with it's awesome  "bounce you all over the effing book before answering your question" method of answering your question; hell, the Index doesn't even do its job.

When we read the rule book we both flipped two cards for the schemes - so he had 4 different options to score points where my two cards were both RAM, so I only had 3 options for scoring points.

My opponent and I were the only ones there to (officially) kick off the league, so the Henchmen has since said (as of an hour ago) we're going to scrap that game and start new next week using a different rules set.  So, the Deities of Malifaux have smiled upon me... this once.  

[Daysleeper]

1 hour ago, Gloom said:

Ok, well - like I said - we're both newbs and our Henchmen had to step out, so we were winging it with that most helpful (serious sarcasm alert) Rule book with it's awesome  "bounce you all over the effing book before answering your question" method of answering your question; hell, the Index doesn't even do its job.

When we read the rule book we both flipped two cards for the schemes - so he had 4 different options to score points where my two cards were both RAM, so I only had 3 options for scoring points.

My opponent and I were the only ones there to (officially) kick off the league, so the Henchmen has since said (as of an hour ago) we're going to scrap that game and start new next week using a different rules set.  So, the Deities of Malifaux have smiled upon me... this once.  

You only flip one card for the strategie and two for schemes.
The resluting pool of 1 Strat and 5 Schemes (one is always availible) is used for both players. 
Every player then chooses 2 schemes to play and the strat counts for both.

[Greebo]

The rulebook actually isn't that bad if you've read it once as a whole. If you know the structure it is not that hard to find the exact rules. 

You flip for schemes for the whole game. 2 cards give you 5 schemes of which each player chooses 2. You always have "a line in the sand" and then you check your cards for suits and numbers. If any of those is doubled you have the doubles scheme (distract). 

So each player has 2 schemes (which he chooses freely from the available 5) and both together have a strategy. Scoring is capped at 3 or for, as explained by @Clement

 

Edit: ninja'd

[Freman]

In a Shifting Loyalties campaign zero cost henchmen cost (I forget the exact number) but something like 13 minus their soulstone cache. Something like that anyway. Viktoria of Blood worked out to 10 stones if I recall correctly. If you're playing regular games led by a Henchman then you shouldn't be paying for the Henchman leader (you pay for any non-leader henchmen of course).