Mr. Lynch

[mpangelu]

Is the ability to throw out brilliance cuddled heavily now or am I missing something. Seems it is much much more difficult now.

[DeleteAccount]

Is the ability to throw out brilliance cuddled heavily now or am I missing something. Seems it is much much more difficult now.

It is harder, but you are also less dependent on it. Or at least that's my sensation from using him.

[Joel]

I've used lynch with no brilliance models - still works fine

[Fenton Crack]

It is harder, but you are also less dependent on it. Or at least that's my sensation from using him.

I too am getting a sense that Lynch is less Brilliance dependent, and that is was a conscious choice to make him so. I feel that while it may be harder to go Brilliant, he has been made a more well rounded master that can be played with a bigger choice of models for his crew, rather than the fluffy standards.

It makes me wonder if other traditionally fluffy crews, like Colette and Kirai will be designed to have them less dependent on their core mechanic to encourage diversity in their crew builds.

[Kalkris]

I've played three games with 2.0 Lynch so far outside of playtest and I am inclined to disagree with all of those who say Brilliance is too hard to impose unto an enemy model. Hard to retain, perhaps. But not hard to impose. All of his models have some way to put Brilliance on an enemy model. Illums have Scintillating Cloud (which is the most difficult means because you need a mask and have no SS to use), Becks have Promises (which is an auto-trigger so no problem there), Huggy has Tendrils (the most reliable and efficient way to put it on short of Becks) and Lynch himself has his gun's Coast Bullet trigger. That's what he has so far, so that's everything (as I dunno about Wave 2 stuff).

The pros and cons to the brilliance enablers:

Cloud:

good things: it can make *multiple* models brilliant.

meh things: it has a meh natural stat of 5.

bad things: needs a suit (albeit one you should be stockpiling) and can be resisted. cannot use in melee. Brilliance leaves at EOT (under normal circumstances).

Promises:

good things: auto-trigger with no competing triggers. natural 6 to start. can fire into melee even though it has a range higher than 3.

meh things: Beckoner's Party ability is not within the range of the attack, so Brilliance might go away at EOT. Needs a TN which requires a 6 or higher, but 6 isn't terribly high.

bad things: Attached to a semi-frail body (Df4, Wd7, no reduction tricks - unless the foe is brilliant).

Tendrils:

good things: good range for melee. auto trigger with things you can do afterwards. Can follow up by making Huggy make Brilliance permanent.

meh things: Huggy cannot make leaders perma-brilliant. There are competing triggers (which are not necessarily priority #1, but still).

Bad things: Range of only 3". Brilliance leaves at EOT under normal circumstances. Spends AP of a killing machine who isn't spending it killing.

Bullet:

good things: natural 6 to start. On a Master so the mask can be reliably attained. Lynch could also discard a mask for the same reliability. Lynch can follow up with more pain afterwards (especially Final Debt if the Woke Up With A Hand upgrade is taken).

meh things: no auto-trigger. Lynch usually goes last if WuWaH is taken so he can get extra cards, so effect usually doesn't last long.

bad things: running out of SS. Brilliance ends at EOT under normal circumstances.

I had a fantastic series of games with Lynch the past few games I had and it was not terribly difficult to make things brilliant. It really was just keeping the enemy Under the Influence that was annoying, but not difficult (if you discount the interim between EOT and Beckoners spamming Promises).

Discuss?

~Lil Kalki

[TarlSS]

TT Archers seem very strong with Lynch, Using an ace for rapid fire can be nasty.

[Mason]

I've found that Lynch's Play for Blood is more reliable than coated bullet for tagging models with Brilliance.

He's much less reliant upon Brilliance this time around, which is pretty nice. It gives him a chance to run around with non-Darkened models without making it a suicidal choice.

[Kalkris]

I've found that Lynch's Play for Blood is more reliable than coated bullet for tagging models with Brilliance.

He's much less reliant upon Brilliance this time around, which is pretty nice. It gives him a chance to run around with non-Darkened models without making it a suicidal choice.

Oh, I wouldn't argue against the latter point. I think that is a great thing. Also I had just totally overlooked Play for Blood, but that is also a good point. That said, I feel like Lynch is better going last unless it is imperative that he do not, so him spreading the Brilliance is not as effective overall.

~Lil Kalki

[hackdZ]

I've only played a handful of games with Lynch post-beta, but I honestly still like him better as Neverborn rather than TT.

I feel like he gets much more mileage out of the NVB upgrades. (I don't think I need to explain just how powerful Nexus of Power is on HD, not too mention it makes Jacob that much more survivable so long as he remains in LoS. Soulstone to prevent damage/auto-squeel + Healing...awesome!)

My only complaint (and it's a minor one) is that there aren't too many Wave 1 NVB models I feel mix really well with Jacobs (thematic) Crew. Besides the aforementioned Teddy, and the Doppleganger.

I personally haven't tried the doppleganger yet, but Mimicking Something Like Final Debt, or Play for Blood make her feel like a solid piece to me. You could even use her for additional card cycling by mimicking Jacob's Mulligan Action.

I also really liked Tuco with Lynch in 1.5, but again he's a wave 2 model, so until we see some beta statistics it's all speculation.

Edited September 22, 2013 by hackdZ

[Hateful Darkblack]

Played a 40ss gunline with Ten Thunders Jakob Lynch this past weekend and it worked very nicely. Jakob with upgrades, Huggy, two Beckoners, a Ten Thunders Archer, a Monk of Low River (for objective grabbing), and an Oiran. It worked nicely, though if I did it again I'd want to switch the Oiran out for another Ten Thunders Archer.

Huggy stood up front and did a lot of melee, while the Beckoners called new enemies out to fight with Lure, and made sure they had Brilliance. Ten Thunders Archers can fire into melee without problems, so it worked out nicely. Jakob Lynch did card manipulation and fired into melee, and of course brought back Huggy as needed.

It worked pretty nicely. I'll have to keep it up to see how I can improve it.

[Joel]

I've only played a handful of games with Lynch post-beta, but I honestly still like him better as Neverborn rather than TT.

I feel like he gets much more mileage out of the NVB upgrades. (I don't think I need to explain just how powerful Nexus of Power is on HD, not too mention it makes Jacob that much more survivable so long as he remains in LoS. Soulstone to prevent damage/auto-squeel + Healing...awesome!)

My only complaint (and it's a minor one) is that there aren't too many Wave 1 NVB models I feel mix really well with Jacobs (thematic) Crew. Besides the aforementioned Teddy, and the Doppleganger.

I personally haven't tried the doppleganger yet, but Mimicking Something Like Final Debt, or Play for Blood make her feel like a solid piece to me. You could even use her for additional card cycling by mimicking Jacob's Mulligan Action.

I also really liked Tuco with Lynch in 1.5, but again he's a wave 2 model, so until we see some beta statistics it's all speculation.

I'm afraid the doppleganger can't mimic actions from leaders - but if lynch is leading she can borrow Huggy's tendrils.

[hackdZ]

I'm afraid the doppleganger can't mimic actions from leaders - but if lynch is leading she can borrow Huggy's tendrils.

Ahh, I stand corrected. I did have a niggling feeling that copying Jacobs spells might be too strong.

On the other hand, she still seems like a fairly solid back-up support piece...even without Jacobs spells.

[TarlSS]

Would Lynch + hannah be strong?

She'd be a very expensive mercenary buy at 12 points..but Lynch has a free Huggy D, and drawing more cards is always good. Plus I guess you can use her to lure too.

[Patzer]

Would Lynch + hannah be strong?

She'd be a very expensive mercenary buy at 12 points..but Lynch has a free Huggy D, and drawing more cards is always good. Plus I guess you can use her to lure too.

Isn't Hannah 11 if she is hired by Lynch?

Anyway, I think Hannah should have good synergy with Lynch. Arcane Reservoir is always nice. Huggy's obey spell could be a valible target for Making A New Entry.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Ezyryder

[ukrocky]

Played my first 3 games of m2e this weekend at a tournament and used Lynch in all 3.

First game - The old Master of the Hill strategy...I took...some...schemes (Will edit in when I get home and have a book to reference). Vs Perdita

Second game - The old line in the sand strategy, I took Outflank and another one. Vs Rasputina

Third game - The old beatdown strategy, I took assassinate and murder protegee. Vs Neverborn Jakob

I used the same crew in the first two games, with a different set up in the third game.

Games 1 & 2;

Lynch - 4SS

- Woke up with a Hand

- Bring Huggy Back

- Cheat Face Down

Hungering Darkness

- +Ve Flips vs Brilliance

Ottoto

- Give Torakage Smoke Bombs + Dissappear.

Kang

Beckoner

Illuminated

Torakage

Basically. Kang and Ottoto are both massively underwhelming compared to other beatsticks I played/saw (Ice Golem, Teddy, Judge). The Torakage is absolute trash.

For the third game I dropped the upgrade on Ottoto and the Tora and took an archer instead, who was OK but not massively impressed (Mainly as the old ones were incredible...).

I managed to win all 3 games however with a VP diff of +17 so the old man obviously works...

[TarlSS]

I'm surprised, Kang didn't help vs Rasputina? Torakage were not effective at blocking LOS?

Played my first 3 games of m2e this weekend at a tournament and used Lynch in all 3.

First game - The old Master of the Hill strategy...I took...some...schemes (Will edit in when I get home and have a book to reference). Vs Perdita

Second game - The old line in the sand strategy, I took Outflank and another one. Vs Rasputina

Third game - The old beatdown strategy, I took assassinate and murder protegee. Vs Neverborn Jakob

I used the same crew in the first two games, with a different set up in the third game.

Games 1 & 2;

Lynch - 4SS

- Woke up with a Hand

- Bring Huggy Back

- Cheat Face Down

Hungering Darkness

- +Ve Flips vs Brilliance

Ottoto

- Give Torakage Smoke Bombs + Dissappear.

Kang

Beckoner

Illuminated

Torakage

Basically. Kang and Ottoto are both massively underwhelming compared to other beatsticks I played/saw (Ice Golem, Teddy, Judge). The Torakage is absolute trash.

For the third game I dropped the upgrade on Ottoto and the Tora and took an archer instead, who was OK but not massively impressed (Mainly as the old ones were incredible...).

I managed to win all 3 games however with a VP diff of +17 so the old man obviously works...

[ukrocky]

Kangs threat range was too small vs Tina so didn't do much, and the crew were spread out so the tora couldn't block Los well enough.

[mythicFOX]

Basically. Kang and Ottoto are both massively underwhelming compared to other beatsticks I played/saw (Ice Golem, Teddy, Judge).

I'm having a lot of success with Kang in my Arcanist Mei Feng crews. He's a tank rather than a beatstick. With: HtW, HtK, Healing and stones he's very tough to take down. Combined with his Ml7 shovel he can tarpit very effectively if you need him to.

At the same event I had him tie up Barbaros and three other purple borders for a couple of turns.

[Adran]

Add in his reposte upgrade (and Df 6) he is pretty tough, I wouldn't like to face him on defensive stance

[Darksied]

I really miss and think endless hunger should have stayed a huggy upgrade like it was in the beta. Making me choose between being eternal and huggy being good at what he does seems punitive towards a crew that no one ever said to me seemed op in the beta. It also makes huggy extremely week in henchman only low soulstone games.

[Joel]

I really miss and think endless hunger should have stayed a huggy upgrade like it was in the beta. Making me choose between being eternal and huggy being good at what he does seems punitive towards a crew that no one ever said to me seemed op in the beta. It also makes huggy extremely week in henchman only low soulstone games.

I disagree. When you could put endless hunger on Huggy then it wasn't a choice - it was a no-brainer.

[Skywalker]

But if you play huggy as Neverborn then you can stick the nexus of power on him instead of needing the eternal-ness... As 10Ts I think you are prob better off playing with endless hunger

[zFiend]

I really miss and think endless hunger should have stayed a huggy upgrade like it was in the beta. Making me choose between being eternal and huggy being good at what he does seems punitive towards a crew that no one ever said to me seemed op in the beta. It also makes huggy extremely week in henchman only low soulstone games.

I believe quite a few thought of them being a bit op. That's why they got downgraded some. Not as a punishment, but to balance.

[Helm]

But if you play huggy as Neverborn then you can stick the nexus of power on him instead of needing the eternal-ness... As 10Ts I think you are prob better off playing with endless hunger

This. Nexus of Power is a little crazy, especially since Ml and Sh damage against Huggy ais halved but his prevention and healing are not.

And if you're so desperate to play Huggy, you will likely be playing Neverborn; it's the only way he can take Beckoners.

[Chargy]

And if you're so desperate to play Huggy, you will likely be playing Neverborn; it's the only way he can take Beckoners.

Lies, Lynch can take up to 4 models with the Darkened Characteristic, regardless of faction. Just makes him a bit more versatile. :-)