Fuhatsu and Steam Gatling Bursts

[Erik1978]

I bought Fuhatsu, almost done painting him. I like the model although a cannon like that should be a bit more impressive IMO.

With focus his normal Steam Gatling Burst becomes decent. Not Envy-good but decent I think.

But does anyone ever use Steam Gatling Burst? A (2) Shooting action that can't be cheated. Sure there is the possibility for blast, and an additional shot if you have thrown a soulstone in the mix, or KNOW there is a red joker(or high RAM) in the top 3-4 cards but apart from that, it seems not worth it?

[Gennosuke]

9 minutes ago, Erik1978 said:

But does anyone ever use Fuhatsu? 

Fixed that for you

Anyway, in any case I find the (2) AP action extremely situational and subpar. Just another reason to not use Fuhatsu

[Tokapondora]

I've always wondered why anyone'd use Fuhatsu when Lazarus exists. One SS extra, sure, but he can be pushed, has a built in Ml attack, blast on his (1), min damage of 3 and double blast at severe on an attack flip that can be cheated, auto-fire to make up for the possible refiring trigger, also has a self heal, more health, can copy an action... He's Fuhatsu but better in every single way.

[Erik1978]

Yeah, a shame really. A gun twice as big but doesn't have better range nor damage. 

[Eclipse]

The different utility that Fuhatsu brings becomes more apparent if you take an overall look at his kit.
If you simply want a durable gun platform then sure, Lazarus all the way. As pointed out above he can be used better by the faction as a whole.
On the other hand, Fuhatsu is useful as threat and a lock-down piece. He can sit on an objective and protect it with his ranged attack and durability. The opponent can not push or lure him away - they have to kill Fuhatsu to gain access to the objective. Keep in mind F. will be using his 0 upgrade 2" engagement, Armor, Hard to Wound, (0) heal and SS usage while TT has numerous ways to protect and heal their models. As always, try to handle anything that ignores Armor and/or HtW with another piece
As for the (2) action - it is a huge gamble, even more than doing a Lone Swordsman 'You Shall Not See Another Sunrise' without good cards in hand
One way to make it better is to give Fuhatsu Fast and/or Focus; especially easy in a Shenlong crew, for example. Using Focus (and/or maybe Recalled Training :)) is especially useful as with Leveticus the + flips should last for the whole action and all actions potentially generated by it. Fast is useful (even if the models who most commonly give Fast also do pushes and these are wasted here) as it allows Fuhatsu to reposition before using the (2) action; OR with combination with Focus (Shenlong crew again) you can (2), then (1) shoot with Focus.
I am not saying this is the best model or the best play you can make every turn with Fuhatsu. I am, however, saying that I like gambling from time to time and so Fuhatsu brings me a lot of fun this way