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Competitive McCabe


Impact UK

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Back when I ran him I sometimes used Francisco to make him super defensive for a turn and ran him straight into a concentration of enemy models where he caused trouble until the rest of the crew caught up. With clever soulstone use he can last pretty well even against dedicated beaters. You need to conaider where you want his dismounted model to pop out as well so it can keep several models engaged when they take out the horse.

Me and my clubmates haven't caught up with all the wave 5 releases but facing him lately I always run into to a reactivating thrall. A monster hunter is probably also very nice for reactivating.

The new disguised + don't mind me cloak makes his crew very flexible and can slow down many melee beaters.

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7 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Back when I ran him I sometimes used Francisco to make him super defensive for a turn and ran him straight into a concentration of enemy models where he caused trouble until the rest of the crew caught up. With clever soulstone use he can last pretty well even against dedicated beaters. You need to conaider where you want his dismounted model to pop out as well so it can keep several models engaged when they take out the horse.

Me and my clubmates haven't caught up with all the wave 5 releases but facing him lately I always run into to a reactivating thrall. A monster hunter is probably also very nice for reactivating.

The new disguised + don't mind me cloak makes his crew very flexible and can slow down many melee beaters.

I have acquired the Nightmare addition so I guess I will be wanting to run some Mounted Guild Guard in the list if possable (rule of cool and all that LoL).

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46 minutes ago, Impact UK said:

I have acquired the Nightmare addition so I guess I will be wanting to run some Mounted Guild Guard in the list if possable (rule of cool and all that LoL).

I still haven't assembled mine so I haven't run mounties but I believe both thralls and Francisco can tag along with their charge.

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Franc and Mounted Guard are a nice duo. Guard charges takes Franc with him, gives him the Def aura, chain activate, Frank flurry. tried this combo 2 times, worked quite nicely but both modells died soon.

Reactivating Thrall is also nice, but deep in the enemy lines he dies as well - some times befor reactivating.

Cheap minions like guild guard or hounds with sabre upgrade, also nice on paper - but then they die.

I`m thinking of a McCabe playstyle that doesnt rely on alpha strikes. That doesn`t take expensive henchmen, gives them badge of speed and throws them into the enemy meat grinder. That doesn`t take cheap minions that die to a single hit.

I`m thinking of a rather defensive playstyle. Taking good, mid costed minions that you could potentialy reactivate. Who can take some punch, who can get the sabre to enhance their mellee abilities but have some nice other abilities to which can work without sabre upgrade. All the book 5 minions come to mind. I mean reactivated monster hunters are awesome for the first round to force the enemy to you or they get shot to pieces. Investigators are disguised, have awesome abilities and can get the sabre when they are force to mellee someone. Maybe quellers are rather redundant because you have armour ignoring with the sabre. Maybe to get around incorporeal at range with monster hunters. The riotbreaker are tough, can make schemes hard to achieve for the enemy and also get killy with sabre. Also domador and rotten belle would synergize well with this kind of playstyle. Imagine a reactivating belle with lures and sabre pounces...

Anyone got some similar thoughts?

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With perfect positioning a belle will get two strikes before needing to move because the enemy is in base contact but most of the time you will only get one strike.

Before trappers increased in price they were quite nice but with monster hunters in the game at two soulstones less trsppers have a hard time in comparison.

Even if you have ranged superiority most games end up in melee for me at least. You don't always need to send your beaters into a horde of enemies, some strats pretty much force you tospread out, symbols of authority for example. In those games you can usually pick their symbol-runner off with your nimble reactivating whatever.

The cheap hounds played defensively can enable a slight outactivation depending on the opposing list and if you win the initiative and have companion that can give you at least three activations in a row which is usually good for taking on a major enemy threat. Still a bit of a gamble of course.

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Lawyers might be fun. They are a steal at 5ss and if you're throwing a saber around their situational attack is less of a drawback.

I don't have my cards in front of me, do Field Reporters have Reference the Field Guide or something? If so, then they are durable for their cost (disguised, manipulative) and can stack rams for crit strike on the saber.

Otherwise you're pretty much describing my Lucius lists. Wardens, a Death Marshal, Pathfinder, Dashel, etc.

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18 hours ago, Ludvig said:

The cheap hounds played defensively can enable a slight outactivation depending on the opposing list and if you win the initiative and have companion that can give you at least three activations in a row which is usually good for taking on a major enemy threat. Still a bit of a gamble of course.

How does that work (the chain activation)?

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@lusciousmccabe I usually companion into Francisco, for me the ability to companion is probably equally important to his buff. The buff requires positioning that isn't always practical but companion on a model with his level of facebeating potential is lovely. Something cheap with the saber starts off the turn and Francisco joins in which gives two activations at the start of a turn. If you outactivated the opponent your last activation on the turn before was hopefully the saber carrier smacking something.

If you outactivate you can afford to use a cheap model like a wastrel/hound/reporter to carry the saber. It's a big gamble and you usually want to have at least have one of those oneoff bonuses to initiative. Against an opponent who can cheat initiative the tactic is not advisable.

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One of my favorite things the few times I used McCabe was a nimble Executioner.  It really let me pick off the models I want to pick off.  

Field reporters really like the saber because it is no big deal for them to discard a ram for the additional damage.  That makes them really scary.  Shame they can't charge.

This thread is making me want to play McCabe.

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Wastrels get better cards back when they drop cards for rams and have a charge value. They do have some pretty glaring weaknesses but I love the models so usually bring one with McCabe since I think he's the master who makes the best use of them. They're probably not a competitive choice but oh well.

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18 hours ago, 4thstringer said:

This thread is making me want to play McCabe.

Well it is helping me with that push to start building the crew.

12 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Wastrels get better cards back when they drop cards for rams and have a charge value. They do have some pretty glaring weaknesses but I love the models so usually bring one with McCabe since I think he's the master who makes the best use of them. They're probably not a competitive choice but oh well.

Wastrels may not be the best but I did like to take a couple and could probably make room for at least one in a list.

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I always loved Nightmare McCabe's box and once i was planning to get this box and based crew on it but i failed to see how Sidir would fit there as all would be so mobile he would lag behind... And with 'discount' Pale Rider this crew would look so awesome... :)

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8 minutes ago, daniello_s said:

I always loved Nightmare McCabe's box and once i was planning to get this box and based crew on it but i failed to see how Sidir would fit there as all would be so mobile he would lag behind... And with 'discount' Pale Rider this crew would look so awesome... :)

Sidir was very unpopular back when most henchmen were 9ss. Not sure why he was one of the few niners left untouched in the winter errata. I realise it would be greedy to have him dropped as well but right now he looks like one of the absolute worst picks in a guild list.

I do think Sidir/Cherry is pretty comfortable lagging behind, the sh and ranged tactical are better than the ml attack. In the rare event of a bunched up enemy Sidir can have some fun with the tactical, especially if McCabe used his netgun. Despitr having played McCabr myself for a long while I find myself forgetting about the netgun when facing him. ;)

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38 minutes ago, daniello_s said:

I always loved Nightmare McCabe's box and once i was planning to get this box and based crew on it but i failed to see how Sidir would fit there as all would be so mobile he would lag behind... And with 'discount' Pale Rider this crew would look so awesome... :)

Those outriders need a little bit of ranged support I guess but it would be nice if McCabe could taxi him around a little.

32 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

Sidir was very unpopular back when most henchmen were 9ss. Not sure why he was one of the few niners left untouched in the winter errata. I realise it would be greedy to have him dropped as well but right now he looks like one of the absolute worst picks in a guild list.

Sidir should be a solid Henchmen but for me he always seemed to let me down, maybe it is that 40mm base holding him back LoL.

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It's probably not the base but more that he has low damage output for a guild model at that soulstone level and no extra stuff to set him apart from the other contenders.

If you make him even more expensive he can save a friend but he isn't very durable and is usually left too far behind the models you are trying to save.

If he had by your side on his base card and/or a ram on his melee or the tactical was a 0 action or anything little to push him up he might be more popular.

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30 minutes ago, Ludvig said:

If he had by your side on his base card and/or a ram on his melee or the tactical was a 0 action or anything little to push him up he might be more popular.

Agreed, something like this would improve his chances of seeing the table top.

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My usual McCabe list usually involved the emissary and the loot bag upgrade to pay minimum for the upgrades to save on soul stones.

started to take the pale rider now he is cheaper for the late game damage he can bring with the glowing sabre.

McCabe is still hugely competitive but I think too many people cant see pass nellie

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2 hours ago, longfanz said:

I would like to start playing him as well, is he better in guild than in Ten Thunders?

Difficult to say, I've heard some people swear he is a lot better in thunders. I think thatis mainly because they have Yasinori, Sensei Yu, the shadow emissary as well as kamaitachi. If you stack a shitton of ap on an already amazing model that model will mess people up. Kamaitachi also interqcts incredibly well with McCabe's mechanics. Guild have very capable discount beaters but not anything at the Yas power level and less/worse ways to give more ap to the same model and the lousiest general totem in the game. We also get Francisco for a downright silly defense on McCabe. :) 

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