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Current "tech" for Enforcer Brawl


gribble

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I'm going to be participating in the Enforcer Brawl at BonesCon, and I have a few ideas for models I own that I'd like to play. But I thought it'd be interesting to canvas opinions for what the current state of play is for the best model to bring?

I figure there are a number of boxes you want to tick if possible:

1) Survivable. Ways to avoid the big melee beaters (decent ranged damage, Manipulative, no charge auras, Horror Duels, handing out Slow/Paralysis, etc), and/or defensive tech like Hard to Wound/Kill, Armor, etc.

2) Hitting hard. Three min damage and/or a decent moderate/severe damage with easy ways to get :+fate on damage flips.

3) Mobility and threat range. You want to be able to avoid the battles you don't want to fight, and initiate the battles you do want to fight.

4) Ideally, more than 2 AP (or pseudo-AP) per turn, things like Swift, Nimble, ... Expert or even Rapid Fire and Reactivate.

5) Ways to mitigate other models defensive tech - Immunity to Horror/Willpower Duels, ignoring damage reduction and/or Hard to Wound/Kill, resistance to shooting, etc.

Stuff that doesn't seem so important:
1) Summoning (just doesn't work).

2) Blasts or incidental damage, as unless you can isolate or kill a model, you don't really want to be softening it up for the other players.

3) Offensive conditions, as again you don't want to be softening up models for other players, or have it die at the end of turn from condition damage.

4) Marker creation and manipulation (scheme, scrap, corpse) all have little or no use in a brawl.

And the things I'm not so sure about:

1) Burying? I'm not really sure about this one. Technically it's a one-shot kill, because most players will choose to just sac the buried model, but if they don't... it's kind of a wasted ability and worse you may end up unburying them some time/place that is unfortunate.

2) Card manipulation? You have a hand of 4 cards, which should be plenty for a single model... but then again, having the right card at the right time could be crucial.

I'm mainly looking at Outcasts, and there are some obviously good candidates - Killjoy, Strongarm Suit, Lazarus, the 4 Riders (well, at least the Hooded and Dead... probably not Mechanical and not sure about Pale), Izamu. And some I'm not so sure about Ashes & Dust (accurate, high damage, good defences... but no summoning... so?), Lone Swordsman (again, not so sure about this guy... because you'd basically be giving up -3 points every turn, so you have to make sure you're scoring well), Mr Graves (ignores a lot of defensive stuff, and has good defences and offensive output... but maybe too fragile?), or even some really left field stuff like Midnight Stalker (very good defences, and the ability to "snipe" damaged enemies) or a Freikorps Trapper (a lot of mobility and long range attacks, again ability to snipe enemies).

Keen to hear general thoughts, thoughts on the models above, and likely models I'll see from opponents, and also which upgrades are considered good?

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Honestly the most important thing imo is to be cheap. The extra +1 point when you score against a more expensive model is super useful. My go-to is Raphael LaCroix with Dirty Cheater. Armour and Hard to Kill make him a very unappealing target. Reckless allows him to never be on full wounds so you don't give away many points at all, and with the recent errata, he is one of the cheapest Enforcers in the game, giving him the +1 point against basically everyone.

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9 minutes ago, The Colour Red said:

in enforcer brawl, when you respawn, do you respawn with any discarded upgrades, or are those only one use? (looking at you, recalled training)

You get your upgrades back, so yes, you can use RT after each death.

 

 

11 hours ago, gribble said:

2) Blasts or incidental damage, as unless you can isolate or kill a model, you don't really want to be softening it up for the other players.

3) Offensive conditions, as again you don't want to be softening up models for other players, or have it die at the end of turn from condition damage.

Not necessarily. Getting the first Wd on an undamaged model is a point for you, and a point that someone else can't get. Most enforcers that people take into this are going to be hard hitting but fragile, so those missing Wd won't affect their ability to live through someone else's activation. Additionally it can lead you to the cases where an model does live through someone elses activation, HtK being the biggest one for this, and pick off the kill getting you 3 points.

 

 

11 hours ago, gribble said:

Lone Swordsman (again, not so sure about this guy... because you'd basically be giving up -3 points every turn, so you have to make sure you're scoring well),

Only if you don't kill your target, which when you pop RT and with his triggers isn't that hard to do. Plus being only 8ss means he's going to be getting that +1 point on a lot of other models.

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2 things I've learned about enforcer brawl.

1) Ask if there are any deviations from the normal rules.   I've done a few brawls where they change some of the basic assumptions of the game (decided that reckless doesn't deny points anymore) which totally messes with your choices.  Learn those things ahead of time and plan for them.

2) Never underestimate being far more annoying then you're worth.  I've seen someone do really well playing Yin and hiding in a bush near the action and basically being "too annoying to kill" while picking up the odd snipe here and there as the fight raged around her.

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14 hours ago, gribble said:

Thanks everyone for the feedback! Some great points I hadn't considered.

If you had to pick from one of the models highlighted in my first post, which would you choose and why?

Lone Swordsman, purely because of how good RT is with it in enforcer brawl.

As an aside, the Midnight Stalker looses a lot in enforcer brawl. Doesn't get the fast as there is no "enemy half of the table", and if you end up activating last in a turn you can't do anything as he can't attack models that have already activated.

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Is Howard Langston w/ Imbued Energies still a thing?  I think there are stories about all three different HL models (metal, plastic, and Miss) being in play at the same time.   

Random observations:

  • The terrain markers that the Cyclops has are an entertaining "Do not disturb" shield.
  • Explosive Demise and Black Blood are hilariously fun in Enforcer Brawls for getting 'first strike' points.  So's Bishop's Cage Fighter trigger.  Izamu's A Warrior's Death as well.

As far as the mentioned models go, I think I've seen Lone Swordsman with Recalled Training.  

One really important point about mobility and threat ranges:  The placement for when models return to the game after getting killed only requires the edge of the base to be that distance from the table edge.  So you end up seeing a lot of times where a model gets killed, gets a lucky flip on its return side, and it gets a revenge kill when it activates.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I highly recommend Strongarm Suit w/ Bigger They Are - since all models bring upgrades, he's effectively at Min4 and w/A+2 he's highly survivable.

Additionally, I also recommend Sue w/Return Fire. There is nothing more satisfying then killing the model that attacked you for full points.  More over, his "Hurt" ability generates extra cards for you, which is a huge deal when your hand is 4(i think it's 4) AND it denies your opponent's first blood scoring off him.

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So, the event happened over the weekend. I ended up playing Lone Swordsman and did pretty well.

Lessons were:

1) Sue is ok (I didn't play him), but dies a bit too often to be a top pick. The player with him was able to get some good use out of return fire, but he just wasn't able to do enough to be a top contender.

2) Izamu is also ok, but our one (up against Lone Swordsman, Bishop, Killjoy, Sue and Envy) didn't fare too well. He got a few kills, but also died an awful lot.

3) Bishop is a beast. His defensive trigger accounted for more than a few opponents, and being able to pick the best of Df or Wp to attack is immense. Overall winner of the event was Bishop.

4) Papa Loco was a PITA to deal with. He wasn't hugely successful (he died too much), but his low cost meant that he still ended up tied with the more conservative Lone Swordsman.

5) The surprise package was the Pale Rider. He absolutely carved up our first table (including Bishop, LS and Killjoy). Will have to try him out next time.

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