Rathnard

Hmm, I like your thinking with the Akaname. The only problem I have with it is that my Taxidermist has usually been lobbed into the enemy crew by turn 2 at the latest. That, and I'm usually not lacking in corpses to summon pigs off of, whether it's from the dead stuffed piglets or the hapless victims the Taxidermist just murdered. Still, I think I'll give it a try, especially since it's the only Sz 1 model I can think of who can drop a scheme marker after being thrown by a pigapult. Re: stacking glowy after turn 2, I'm finding the same thing. It's rare that I'll be able to get more than 3 enemy models (if that) into range of the two shockwave markers. So he instead tends to move offensive shockwaves, to both buffing his crew with Fast and launching scheme markers into space. That said, by turn 3 my opponent is usually trying to get Wong into melee, so sometimes he's not even doing that! Same. No matter what kind of list I take, I always make sure I've got some way to move Wong around so that he's not having to waste AP walking or attempting to Reposition out of engagement with his Iron Fan! You're welcome! As much as I like posting in magenta, I'm not so cruel as to force everyone to read a 5000 word manifesto in that colour. TBH you're probably right. I've not had a lot of experience with the other Bayou Masters, so it was probably a bit presumptuous of me to claim that Wong had the "steepest" learning curve! Having since looked more into the others, I feel like you're right about So'mer - he's got quite a few moving parts to his crew. Brewmaster though... there's a bunch of setup with his crew to get the poison engine going, but beyond that he doesn't feel quite as complicated as Wong to me. Agreed - I'll probably edit that bit accordingly. Hmm. I hadn't thought of using Rage Machine to attack & miss your own models - I'll have to give that a try next time I take the mechapig! Whether it's drawing cards or inflicting extra damage, Wong can get alot of value from having Glowy on enemy models. But otherwise you make a fair point. If nothing else, I'm hoping it becomes some design space that Wyrd will build upon with future models/upgrades. Like I said above, the self-damage throughout the Wizz-bang keyword can make Wong's crew pretty brittle, which is why it's so important to bring at least a healer or two to keep their health topped up. The payoff is significant though - Fast and free suits is not a small thing, and it seriously ramps up the the damage potential of the crew. I did indeed. I won all three of my games to come second overall out of 18 players - a result I'm very pleased with! Here's a quick rundown; Game 1; Size: 50 - Pool: 5 Leader: Wong Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit Totem(s): Olivia Bernard Hires: Gautraeux Bokor Pigapult Taxidermist Burt Jebsen Swine Cursed Swine Cursed 2 Played vs Rasputina with Plant Explosives. Pigapult shot the Taxidermist & Burt at flanking Hoarcats to wipe them out, while the Swinecursed each hunted down Rasputina & the Ice Dancer. The game ended 7-1 to me, having scored power ritual (duh) and Hold up Forces. The latter scheme I'm starting to think is great for Wong, thanks to movement shenanigans with the pigapult (of course) and the piglet that comes out of any slain Swinecursed. Game 2: Size: 50 - Pool: 2 Leader: Wong Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit Totem(s): Olivia Bernard Hires: Gautraeux Bokor Taxidermist Inferiority Complex Pigapult Gracie Gluttony Bayou Smuggler Twelve Cups of Coffee Played vs Von Schill in Turf War, and superior mobility won the day for me, scoring 4:3 at the end of turn 3. The Bayou Smuggler and Gracie tag-teamed the Freikorp Scouts, but not much else died thanks to all that armour and all those damn Librarians. So instead i flipped Turf War markers and scored a point each for Breakthrough & Harness Leylines. In retrospect Deliver a message would have been much better - Harness was too many scheme markers to poop out when combined with Breakthrough. Game 3: Size: 50 - Pool: 6 Leader: Wong Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit Totem(s): Olivia Bernard Hires: Gracie Mechanized Porkchop Swine Cursed Inferiority Complex Swine Cursed 2 Gautraeux Bokor Lightning Bug This was vs Brewmaster in the Strategy I was dreading - Reckoning. I don't rate Wong in this strat, especially when the scheme list was almost entirely kill-focused. As expected, it boiled down to a big ugly fight in the middle. Fortunately however, I managed a 7:6 win, edging out with 3 points for Reckoning and scoring full points for both Vendetta (Swinecursed vs Whiskey Golem) and Dig Graves. Wong didn't achieve much thanks to Brewmaster with Coffee dragging him into his bubbles, but the sheer power of the pigs helped me grind most of his crew into dust. Overall, I'm really pleased with how Wong and his Wizz-Bang performed over the course of the day, although I still made plenty of mistakes. Game 3 especially was a mess - I completely forgot to Fzzzap my own crew in turn 1 to load them with Fast. My positioning was just all over the place too, the worst being Wong, who should have hidden behind the pig-wall and played support instead of trying to Fzzzap the enemy crew (he was the opponent's Assassination target, of course!) On the whole, Wong seems to do well in Plant Explosives and Turf War, as well as most schemes involving scheme markers and even a few that don't (as above, Hold up their Forces is pretty good for him). I have a better opinion of him in Reckoning too - he can take a pretty brawl-friendly crew, just so long as Wong himself concentrates more on supporting his crew rather than hurting the enemy! I'm convinced Corrupted Idols is his worst strategy though, thanks to his tendency toward a high model count, no inate advantages for winning initative and difficulty in rapidly redeploying his crew.

I've used one twice now, both times in a Wong crew with 12 Cups of Coffee. In the first game he helped achieve Harness Leylines & Breakthrough, before Perdita's crew blew him away (along with the rest of my crew! ). In the second game he tied up a Friekorps Scout before killing it (with help from Gracie). Getting tied up in a brawl that included Von Schill and two Librarians prevented him doing much more, but he lasted longer than i expected thanks to his ability to use Soulstones. In both games i don't feel i got full use out of him, partly because i kept forgetting Showboating. But he never felt like a waste of stones either, even with the added expense of the coffee upgrade. I'll agree that there are probably more efficient options for scheme/anti-scheme duties, but i think he gets added value from his card cycling abilities, and some unexpected resiliance from his ability to use Soulstones. So yeah - my initial impressions of the smuggler are luke-warm at best. But I'm not ready to give up on him quite yet!

Here's a few thoughts I had for new masters; Big Game Hunter: Quite probably the big knife-wielding guy that was shown a few weeks back Tomb Raider: Could be Neverborn character in McCabes story. McCabes own thematic shift toward a more black market-type role would leave room for such an archeotype too. Cartographer: I really love the idea of this. I'd imagine they'd take a mobility-type role, not dissimilar to Colette. Book Hunters: Arcanists and/or Ressers who have joined the Explorers League to seek out arcane knowledge. Mr Settler: Just a family, trying to build their damn homestead and raise some damn animals without having to fend off eldritch horrors every few days. This would be the terrain marker-based crew, putting down fences and the like to keep their (unusually aggressive) cows safe. Dora the Explorer: No idea on gameplay. I just want to see a disturbingly optimistic Latino girl with her backpack and boot-wearing monkey.

That's the plan, yes. I'm currently working on part three, which consists of crew builds, what to do Turn 1, stacking Glowy in turn 2 onwards and other combos/synergies.

Well despite starting 2 months late, this challenge has been a wild ride! With the SS gained I feel like painting all my terrain has felt a bit like cheating. But if nothing else it's been good motivation to actually get a proper table's worth of terrain complete - something I've been trying to do for years! Needless to say, I'll definitely be signing up for next year! Anyway, for the last month i thought I'd try to go out with a bang; Basically all the models i still need to do for my Wizz-Bang crew, a house and some concealing fog terrain to finish off my table. Hopefully the later will be more than just painted MDF!

@Caedrus So here's what i managed to finish for November; 10x Witchlings (proxied as South Wales Borderers for my TOS Guild Company) and Sammy LaCroix for 57SS total. I'm annoyed that i didn't finish the damn First Mate, but he'll at least be done for December. Hopefully. Finally, just a reminder that i painted 54SS for October! --- EDIT: Oh damn, i almost forgot these; A few Christmas-y Barricades to spruce up my table. Area is equivalent to 10x 50mm bases, so 50SS. So that brings me to 107SS for November, and 54SS for October.

(And part 2 is up).

Good point @wizuriel. I'm going to go into more detail on the mechanics of actually playing Wong on the table, later on. Turn 1 activations is on the cards, but a section on triggering Hard Knock Life in subsequent turns is probably a good idea. Here's a draft; ;) Hitting your own models with Wong's Fzzzap is definitely the easiest way to trigger Hard Knock life from turn 2 onwards, and I find you can often do it whilst hitting enemy models engaged with them for maximum efficiency. But beyond that, you've got a few other options; Blast damage: Lightning Bugs, Bokor, Alphonse and Burt can all blast onto friendly models with their attacks. Alphonse and the Bokor are probably best at this, if only because they don't rely on a projectile attack to do it (and can thus hit things already in melee). Shockwaves: Burt's "Clockwork Grenade" is a quick action. So as long as you don't need to use Reckless (not hard if he's already been made fast), you can just throw a grenade back at a couple of your own models before he runs off. The Pigapult is an other option - hurl a (eg.) Taxiderrmist in to assist another model from your crew, and they both trigger Hard Knock Life from the resultant shockwave. Attacks from the Chaff: If necessary, you could always just attack your own models with a cheap Stuffed Piglet or Bayou Gremlins. It's not like they're doing anything else important, right? In fact the Bayou Gremlin might be great for this. He's as cheap as an upgrade, gives you a card when he dies, and two of his "Boomstick" triggers can help you damage more than one model at a time. Other: The Rampage trigger on the Swinecursed could be used to inadvertently damage a friendly model he pushes through. Also Olivia's "Tossed Sparklers" is an easy source of Glowy, especially if you Assist right after to remove the burning. There might be other obscure tricks like that...I'd have to dig around. What all this comes down to is that you'll never be able to trigger Hard Knock Life on your crew anywhere near as efficiently as you can in Turn 1, before your crew has started spreading out. There's a few ways to easily do it within your own crew (eg. attacking with your own chaff). But in subsequent turns you're otherwise relying more on triggering Hard Knock Life incidentally, while attacking your opponent's models.

(Reserved for Part 3!)

Part 2, in which I talk in more detail about the hiring options available to Wong! Keyword Models Olivia Bernard A fragile totem, but great at supporting the crew by interacting to place scheme markers, buffing models with Tossed Sparklers and using the Assist action to remove Burning etc. The Shockwave-buffing Lovely Assistant ability is powerful, but likely to get her killed before you get close enough to use it. Throwing Olivia into the crew before bombing them with explosive piglets and Shockwaves is potentially a devastating combo. But 90% of the time you’re best off keeping her safe in a support role. Alphonse LeBlanc Wong’s high-damage, beatstick Henchman with a side order of push effects. Glowy Tokens can be spent for damage prevention, making Alphonse a solid target for stacking Glowy. The Toss action can push models 10” for some strong movement tricks, both in disrupting your opponent’s crew and repositioning your own. Sammy LaCroix As mostly a support Henchman, Sammy’s strengths lie weakening or moving enemy models, drawing cards and replacing enemy scheme markers with flying/stuffed piglets. That last part makes her a solid choice for any game where you expect your opponent to drop scheme markers everywhere. The card draw from her Petty Illusions ability is especially useful to Wong’s crew, given how often you’re randomly damaging your own models. Burt Jebson The independent all-rounder. Burt is decent both in melee and at range, and between Agile and Reckless, can be a capable, independent scheme runner. Combos of note include using his free Clockwork Grenade action to damage multiple friendly models for extra Glowy/Fast, and using the trigger on his gun to push a friendly pig (eg. Gracie) 8” toward the target. Ideally you want to load him up with some Glowy, then send him off for flanking duties. Pigapult I can’t understate how strong the Pigapult is, mainly thanks to it single-handedly solving the Wizz-Bang crew’s mobility issues. Full Load lets you redeploy friendly Sz 1 models anywhere within 18”, damaging nearby enemies with a Shockwave in the process. You can fire Stuffed Piglets into clustered crews for mass-shockwave tests, or hurl Lightning Bugs, Taxidermists or Burt Jebson at isolated flankers to take them out and achieve your own flanking objectives in the process. Most games, I’ll spend the first turn shooting Stuffed piglets at a cluster of enemy models, Flying Piglet Absurdly cheap scheme runners. Easy to kill, but mobile enough to achieve flanking objectives as needed. The scheme marker they drop upon death is a nice bonus. They can also be summoned by a Taxidermist or Sammy, which may be better than hiring them depending on your access to corpses or enemy scheme markers, respectively. Gautreaux Bokor A mid-cost support minion. They’re the best in-keyword option for healing your Wizzbang crew (like those damaged by Wong to trigger Hard Knock life!). The pulse to grant Shielded +1 is invaluable for improving your crew’s resilience - something a Wizz-bang crew can struggle with in kill-heavy strategies. Unfortunately the Bokor lacks Blast Resistant, making it a little harder for him to gain Glowy Tokens from friendly Shockwaves or Pulses without crippling themselves. The Obey action has a high TN for the Bokor, making it tough to use consistently. But making other models take an action of your choice has some significant and powerful implications both for boosting your models and disrupting your opponent. Lightning Bug A cheap, ranged minion. They lack the resilience for frontline combat, but can move scheme markers around with a free action, and deals damage equal to their Glowy in a pulse upon death. This makes them ideal scheme runners/disrupters, especially when thrown into enemy flankers by a Pigapult for that sweet shockwave damage. Lightning Bugs also have a healing action, but its above average TN makes it too unreliable for consistent use. Stuffed Piglets Basically (un)living bombs that come free with a Taxidermist or Pigapult. You can use them to tie up enemy models who’d rather not risk getting damaged, but are usually best hurled by a Pigapult for multiple damaging shockwaves per pig. Not usually worth hiring in (unless you want to abuse the Pigapult for laughs), but absolutely worth summoning or getting for free with a Taxidermist/Pigapult. Swinecursed Wong’s frontline melee fighter. Like Alphonse, the Swinecursed can spend Glowy to reduce incoming damage. They are otherwise a bit more brittle than Alphonse, so you definitely want to pile on the Glowy Tokens. In melee they can hit like a truck, thanks to triggers for extra attacks, irreducible damage and Rampage (push 5”, models you go through take a Mv duel or suffer 1 dg). They also have no less than two Tactical Actions to push friendly models (either away from the Swinecursed or away from an engaged model), which makes them great bodyguards for Wong. They can both move him into range for his Shockwave barrage, and get him out of engagement once your opponent tries to take him down. I’ll rarely build a crew without at least one of these. Taxidermist A deceptively brutal fighter with a side of Stuffed Piglet. Between Critical Strike on his melee attack, easy suits via Glowy and Fast from Hard Knock Life, a Taxidermist can dish out some serious damage. Adding the Inferiority Complex upgrade significantly boosts their killing power, thanks to the free Ram (for Critical Strike) vs cheaper models! He can also hunt down mobile models with a ranged attack that will teleport to the target on a severe (again, not too hard to achieve thanks to Glowy giving you the Puncture trigger). The free Stuffed Piglet makes the Taxidernist even cheaper than his SS-cost suggests, and the opportunity to summon yet more Stuffed/Flying Piglets can be invaluable for improving your damage output and scheme running. With merely “average” resilience for his cost, the Taxidermist is best utilised for hunting isolated targets, or supporting your tougher fighters on the front line. Non-Keyword Models Gracie The Bayou’s Armoured Personnel Carrier. Gracie’s Ride With Me action is great for repositioning Wong, either to move into blasting range or get out of melee. She’s good (though not amazing) in melee and Armor +2 with healing potential make her very tough. Despite her low Mv she’s surprisingly quick, with Ride with Me and two walks giving her 13” of movement. Don’t take her if you expect to face anti-armour. Otherwise, she’s hard to pass up. Slop Hauler Offers excellent healing and Pig-focused support. Feed the Piggies is thankfully easy to cast and is perfect for mass-healing the incidental damage Wong deals to his own crew. With Hitch a Ride he follows friendly Swinecursed or Gracie up the board, all while either healing or boosting their lethality with attacks that apply Adversary (Beast). The Slop Hauler is also one of the few Bayou models with a trigger to apply Staggered, which synergises with Wong’s Mv-based shockwaves. Finally, a Slop Hauler can summon Piglets from nearby corpses or scheme markers for added disruption. All these innate synergies make them well worth the +1SS Tax for hiring one into a Wizz-Bang crew. Lucky Effigy A cheap, hardy minion that can be hurled by a pigapult if necessary. He has an attack to apply Slow to troublesome enemy models. Aura of Luck, while risky, can reduce the crew’s reliance on your control hand. Lucky Emissary The only Bayou unit that can apply Staggered at range, giving it some natural synergy with the crew’s Mv-based shockwave attacks. It’s fast, tough, dangerous in melee and can impose lots of simple duels to further damage the victims it rolls over. The Emissary also has a trigger to ignore Armor and an action that pushes, then destroys any markers it moves over. This makes it very useful vs certain Armor or marker-heavy crews. Gluttony Your go-to henchman for marker-heavy games. Can discourage/prevent scheme marker placement with his Sin tokens, but his ace in the hole is Maddening Drums. This pushes models to a marker, deals damage based on how many markers they’re in contact with and then removes those markers. It’s handy for removing scheme markers, but most effective against crews that spam Pyre markers, Ice Pillar markers and similar such things to disrupt movement. Bayou Gator A solid alternative flanker to the Lightning Bug. The Gator exchanges the Lightning Bug’s range and versatility for better resilience (mostly thanks to stealth), mobility that’s not dependent on other models and better damage output via its melee attack. The lack of Wizz-bang synergy is a potential advantage, since it can work independently for no loss in effectiveness. Just stick him on a flank (possibly with 12 Cups of coffee for added mobility) and hunt down some lunch. Mechanized Porkchop A tough, armoured melee fighter who actively supports your front line. Rage Machine is a great aura that will let you improve the accuracy of friendly melee attacks and inflict that 1 dg for Fast and Glowy. Vent Steam is also pretty useful for protecting your front line with concealment. The only issues are his 50mm base and 0” engagement range, both of which might cause trouble if your trying to fit him into melee with your other large-based fighters. Sparks LeBlanc Evasive ensures Sparks can’t be harmed by Wong’s shockwaves, and Analyze Weakness is great for negating one of Wong’s weaknesses – Armor and Shielded. Upgrading Stuffed Piglets with “Bombs in yer Belly”, then shooting them at the enemy with the Pigapult is as brutal as it is hilarious. But alot of Sparks' value comes from his ability to support constructs, and make use of scrap markers. For Wong, this means he’s a good counter-pick for construct-heavy Masters (eg. Hoffman) and that you’ll probably want to pair him with the Mechanized Porkchop. Bayou Smuggler The Smuggler is useful for two things – card cycling and scheming. “Showboating” and “Tides of Fate” both effectively let you discard the low cards in your hand for hopefully something better from your deck. As for scheming, they’ve got a broad range of actions and abilities that let them move or remove scheme markers. Moving Scheme markers is particularly useful for Wong, since a Smuggler can shift a scheme marker dropped with “Launch from Space” into contact with terrain, thereby helping you achieve Search the Ruins.

Hey all, So since M3E's released I've fallen hard for Wong - he's easily my favourite Master at the moment and I've been trying to get games in with him whenever possible. Given how little people seem to have discussed him, I thought I'd at least make some notes on my experiences with Wong's crew. One thing led to another, and these "notes" have become a... *checks document*… 4800 word essay. Whoops. Anyway, enough introductory stuff, here's part one of my rundown of Wong and his Wizz-bang crew! Feel free to provide feedback or add your thoughts - I don't profess to be an expert on Wong (yet...) just an enthusiast. ---- Tactica Pyrotechnica – Wong Why Play Wizz-bang? Do you like explosions? Irresponsible miss-use of magic and mass-destruction at any range? Well come join Wong’s troupe of magically infused hooligans performers and maul gift your opponent with a pyrotechnic display they’ll never forget! The strengths of the Wizz-Bang keyword come down to three abilities that are found on most of their models – “Hard Knock Life”, “Magical Influence” and “Blast Resistant”. “Hard Knock Life” gives the model Fast and a Glowy Token whenever they take damage during a friendly activation. Fast in itself is amazing, but thanks to “Magical Influence”, the Glowy Tokens can be spent to add suits to any of their duels, which makes any triggers very easy to get. With “Blast Resistant” reducing the damage they take from pulses, blasts and shockwaves, this enables the crew to use such attacks to damage, and consequently buff each other with Fast and Glowy. All of this adds up to a crew that easily buff itself to become very dangerous, but the sacrifices some resilience to do so. If Fast and easy triggers are the Wizz-bang keyword’s main strength, what else can they do? For one the Wizz-bang tend to be great at negating any of your opponent’s defences (more on that later) and they will utterly brutalise any crew that likes to cluster together! This is thanks mostly to Wong’s affinity for mass Shockwaves from his “Fzzzzap” attack but again, we’ll go into more detail below. Beyond that, it’s hard to fit the Wizz-bang into a particular playstyle. They are generally not a mobile crew, but thanks to Fast and the Pigapult that doesn’t have to be the case. Wong’s own playstyle encourages dealing damage from range but again, he’s got access to some great melee fighters who get even better thanks to “Hard Knock Life”. And despite the inherent frailty that comes with “Hard Knock Life”, you can still build a pretty tough Wizz-bang crew by taking models with options for healing or damage reduction. Hand Control and Scheme Marker manipulation are also available to the crew, with Wong in particular being great at both (again, more on that later). The Wizz-Bang crew even has some inherent summoning, mostly in the form of Stuffed Piglets (for exploding) and Flying Piglets (for scheming). The biggest negative to Wong’s Wizz-Bang keyword is the inherent complexity. It requires a lot of setup to take full advantage of Hard Knock Life. The first turn in particular can feel like running a rube-goldberg machine, where you need to choose your activations and actions carefully to maximise the Glowy/Fast on your crew and set them up for an explosive turn 2 (or late turn 1, if necessary!). For this reason, Wong arguably has the steepest learning curve of any Bayou Master. But when you’re raining explosions and piggies down on your opponent, all while tearing their crew apart with Glowy-infused Swinecursed and Taxidermists, you’ll know it’s well worth the effort! So you can’t really talk about Wizz-Bang crews without discussing their Master – Wong. So let’s get into him… The Irrepressible Wong On the surface, Wong comes across as a Master focused on ranged attacks, who drops mass-shockwaves on enemy models to damage large chunks of the crew with each attack. But that barely scratches the surface on where Wong’s strengths lie. He’s also excellent at buffing his crew around him while emptying your opponent’s hand, imposing some effective board control and achieving certain schemes with minimal effort. He also plays a central role in what his crew does, and is especially important for taking advantage of “Hard Knock Life”. So let’s break down how Wong does this by looking at his strengths… Explosive Rain (Mass-damage at range) Here’s the thing about Shockwave attacks. Passing a simple duel to avoid taking shockwave damage is not hard. But passing 12 or more simple duels? That’s a lot harder! This is basically how Wong’s Fzzzzap attack can be so dangerous. With two Shockwave 2 markers, he can easily affect 4 or more models with each attack... more if your opponent’s crew likes to cluster together. On average your opponent will fail at least half of the required Mv 13 duels and whether you cheat those duels or not, the damage really starts to add up. One other thing to note is that Thanks to Crackling energies, anyone who passes a duel from Fzzzzap gains a Glowy token, which itself increases the damage they take by +1 per token next time they fail the duel. This effectively means that Wong is always "damaging" every model affected by his Fzzzzap attack. It's just a matter of whether they're taking the damage immediately, or later on in the game! “Dodge This!” (Circumventing defences) Not requiring a model to target enables Fzzzzap to get around most of the defences an enemy model might have to avoid getting attacked. Stealth, Terrifying, Manipulative, resist triggers, cover, concealment, even Focus makes no difference to Wong’s Shockwaves. He can even damage models outside line of sight, just so long as they’re within 2” of the Shockwave marker Wong places. Needless to say, this can make Wong very dangerous to most models who would otherwise rely on those defensive abilities to stay alive! You Can’t Cheat Everything (Hand depletion) The sheer volume of simple duels Fzzzzap forces on your opponent means that they can’t possibly cheat every duel they fail. Your opponent is thus faced with a difficult choice – take a big pile of damage from Wong across multiple models… or start cheating with decent cards from their hand to minimise the incoming damage. So whether they’re emptying their hand or taking mass damage, either result is great for Wong. I Can Cheat Everything (Card Draw) While “The Glow” is your easiest way to stack those valuable Glowy tokens on your crew, it can also allow Wong to draw a truly obsene number of cards over the course of the game. The way this tends to work is as follows – in turn 1 you’ll use “The Glow” to prime most of your crew with a Glowy token each, before bombing your opponent’s crew with massed Shockwaves with “Fzzzzap”. Once the dust clears there’ll usually be at least a few models with 1-2 Glowy Tokens on them. In subsequent turns your opponent’s crew will likely close with yours. At that point Wong can use “The Glow” to strip some or all of those tokens to start drawing cards. Between the tokens on your opponent’s models and the tokens you can strip from your own crew, I’ve found that you can easily draw 3-4 cards in a single turn. As is typical for Wong, this requires a lot more setup than the card draw you can get with (for instance) Molly or Zoraida. But the potential number of cards you can get with “The Glow” is a lot higher, making it, once again, worth the extra effort! Orbital Scheme-bardment (Scheme marker Manipulation) “Launch into Space” is what makes certain marker-based schemes almost trivial for Wong. Together with the trigger (which you almost always want to get) it lets you discard one scheme marker in exchange for putting down two more, anywhere in Wong’s line of sight next turn. This is perfect for achieving most schemes that require a scheme marker on the table. Breakthrough, Harness the Leyline, Dig their Graves and Power Ritual are all super-easy for Wong. Launch into Space can also help you achieve Detonate Charges and Deliver a Message, though it relies on you keeping the target model in place for an entire turn. It’s worth remembering that you can also use “Launch into Space” to remove corpse, scrap and (importantly) enemy scheme markers, enabling Wong to disrupt your opponents crew abilities and schemes too, if necessary. Reckless on Steroids (Mass crew buffs) Wong is GREAT at efficiently triggering “Hard Knock Life” on most of his crew. Fzzzzap specifically lets friendly models fail the simple duel and for those with “Blast Resistant” (ie. most of the Wizz-Bang), they’ll only take the 1 damage to gain Fast and a Glowy Token. The two Shockwave markers from a single “Fzzzzap” can easily cover most of your crew (especially if they’re still clustered together). In other words, for one action you can give a third action (via Fast) and a free trigger (via Glowy) to most of your crew. In terms of sheer action efficiency, this makes Wong one of the most effective crew buffers in the game! What’s Wrong with Wong? As hard as it is to believe, Wong is not the greatest, most all-powerful Master in the game! Like every Master he’s got some weaknesses. However understanding his limits enables you to know what to look out for in-game, and thus counteract with the rest of your crew. With that in mind, lets see what Wong doesn’t like, and thus how to deal it! “Not the Face! Not the Face!” (Getting Engaged) Given that Wong’s ideal turn often involves spamming his “Fzzzzap” projectile attack everywhere, it’s probably easy to see that Wong prefers to remain unengaged. That’s not to say Wong is useless when in melee. “The Glow” and “Launch into Space” are both still very effective. But after that, Wong’s left to bust heads with his mediocre “Iron Fan” attack. Fortunately Wong does have a couple of ways to push out of engagement, namely his “Quick Getaway” trigger and the “Reposition” Trigger on his “Iron Fan”. Neither are foolproof – “Quick Getaway” requires your opponent to actually attack you while “Iron Fan”, despite having some uses, is rarely what Wong would like to spend his actions on. Not to mention that both require a Mask to trigger. Keeping Wong out of engagement, then, mostly comes down his crew. Swinecursed and Gracie in particular are great at pushing Wong out of harms way for minimal effort, while Alphonse or a Gautreaux Bokor could move the enemy model out of engagement with a Toss or Obey, respectively. The Couch Potato (Limited Mobility) With no innate movement tricks beyond his own Wk 5, Wong is not a quick model. Fortunately, this isn’t too much of an issue. Wong is a primarily ranged fighter and as mentioned above, his Shockwaves have a nasty habit of hitting models who cower behind terrain or outside line of sight. I’ve generally found that once Wong is 5-10” up the board from his deployment zone, he rarely needs to move again to remain effective (besides avoiding engagement, as per above). While Wong could walk up the board himself, it’s usually better to push him into position with Gracie, a Swinecursed or two or Alphonse. This suits both Wong and these models quite fine. Wong gets to where he needs to be, while the “pushers” can stay close to Wong and benefit from his The Glow” pulse. Staying close to Wong also tends to put them near where the heaviest fighting tends to be, which suits these tanky melee beaters just fine. “Shouldn’t you be dead by now?” (Damage Reduction) Armored models (or indeed anyone with innate damage reduction) can be a challenge for most crews, and Wong is no exception. The effective damage output from each “Fzzzzap” is practically halved, although thanks to Glowy you can at least count on a good burst of damage if they build up a few tokens. Wong’s ability to deal heaps of plink damage (lots of independent sources of 1-2 damage) will eventually wear down an armoured opponent. But nonetheless, Armour and Shielded is not the kind of thing Wong likes to see. Fortunately, Wong’s crew have a few innate ways to deal with damage reduction. Lightning Bugs, the Pigapult and Swinecursed all have the “Full Power” trigger to make their attacks irreducible. But with the required Tome and a Glowy Token, it’s best reserved for Focused attacks, where you can maximise the damage and hopefully finish off (or at least cripple) the target in one go. Watch out for the Big One! (Killing Single Models) As previously mentioned, Wong tends to be great at dealing a lot of damage divided across multiple models. But bringing down a single tough target is much trickier for him. Shockwave duels can be cheated, so if your opponent wants to keep one particular model alive and unharmed by Wong’s explosive exploits, it’s not usually that difficult. Wong therefore needs to rely on his crew to take out those problem models. Alphonse, the Swinecursed, Burt Jebson and the Taxidermist can all be pretty lethal. Also Wong’s ability to buff them with Fast and Glowy goes a long way in helping them take on those especially hardy foes. It’s also worth considering Sammy, who’s ability to bury models with her “Glimpse the Void” can take a troublesome model out of the picture. Don’t call the Doctor! (Mass Healing) It should be pretty clear at this point that Wong is very capable of dealing mass damage across most of your opponents crew. This is great for softening up targets to kill later on, but less so if your opponent has easy access to healing. You can probably handle your opponent spending actions to heal the odd model in their crew, but what really hurts are the models with healing pulses, like the Slop Hauler or Low River Monk. Those mass-healer type models can undo a lot of the damage you just dealt, so it probably goes without saying that those are the models you need to kill first! It’s not easy, being small (Size 1) This might seem like a minor gripe but trust me – it’s a much bigger deal than you might initially think! At Sz 1, Wong can’t see past Sz 1 terrain or anyone else in his crew. Placing Shockwaves from “Fzzzzap”, Markers from “Launch into Space” and affecting models with The Glow” all require line of sight, meaning poor crew positioning or even just a low wall can completely hamstring Wong’s effectiveness. Thankfully, this is easily fixed with the “Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit” Upgrade. This bumps him up to a more convenient Sz 2, as well as making him “Disguised” and letting him poop out a Bayou Gremlin if he dies. The free Gremlin is inconsequential, but Disguised is great for a Master who doesn’t like being engaged, especially if Assassinate is one of the available schemes. If the table has no Sz 1 terrain that might cause problems for Wong, then it might be worth leaving the Ghillie Suit behind and just being extra careful with your crew positioning. But every time I’ve taken Wong without the Ghillie Suit, I’ve found myself regretting the decision. So consider yourself warned!

Thanks for the episode! It was an interesting listen, but I feel like your lack of experience with the Bayou kind of showed. On the plus side, it's encouraged me to get involved in the dialog about OOK models, so it's certainly not a bad thing. One of the things that stuck out to me is the Spit Hog. It's great on paper, but in alot of crews it's either too slow to remain effective, or most models have more pressing things to do with their quick action than attempt a heal. Basically the Spit Hog isn't that great, especially when you consider its limited role and what you pay for it. If you need a healer, then as @wizuriel implied the Gautraeux Bokor is a much stronger option. The pulse trigger is easy to get with Glowy and Throwing around Shielded can keep stuff alive a little longer. His attack is decent and Obey can be invaluable (again, you've got Glowy for the required suit). Basically with the Bokor you get a healer, plus a whole toolbox of other tricks you don't otherwise get easy access to. The other ones that stuck out to me are the Iron Skeeters and Survivors. The former has some value in pushing up a friendly model, then running off to hunt enemy scheme markers and generally be a pain. But beyond that they're the same cost as Gracie, who seems like a far better deal given her raw killing power and resilience. In any case if you want scheme marker removal, most crews already have an in-keyword option, or there's Gluttony. The Survivor is okay, but he's just a cheap tanky fighter. That's nothing that most crews can't already get (if they even need such a model). Far better to stay in-keyword and benefit from the innate synergies you're likely to get instead. Personally, my own top 5 list would be as follows; 1. Big Brain Brin (as already discussed...literally everything on his card is great) 2. First Mate (also discussed - it both schemes and punches really well for what you pay) 3. Trixie (Ill Omens for Corrupted Idols, Free Loot for scheme marker removal and a brutally effective Lure! With the right objectives, Trixie does work.) 4. Gautraeux Bokor (as above) 5. Whiskey Golem (just for being a fast, tough beatstick) Honourable mentions for me would be: Slop Hauler - Actually worth taking in a beast-heavy Wong crew. Supports the Swinecursed and Gracie really well, and is a very low cost source of mass healing. Lightning Bug - Specifically with Ophelia, who values its healing and scheme marker manipulation, plus can plink it for Fast and Glowy very easily. Sparks LeBlanc - Can strip Armour/Shielded from enemy models, and has some great synergy with any crew that has construct he can buff. Giving Packed Explosives to stuffed piglets, then shooting them with a pigapult is also pretty brutal! Silurid - This is a maybe for me. It's great at dumping scheme markers where you need them, but not much else. It will probably guarantee you certain schemes, but the 12 Cups of Coffee upgrade is already great at turning a random minion into a lightning-fast scheme runner.

Damn, i can't believe it's November already. Where did the time go? Anyway, this month I'm planning to finish off the First Mate & Sammy, and paint up the last unit i have for my Guild (Kings Empire) TOS army - a squad of "Witchling Borderers".

@Caedrus Well, despite making some progress over the months, i only finished one other model, Alphonse, after the previously mentioned Goryshche and House; So that totals 9+25+20= 54SS for October. Sorry it took so long to post this up!

At the moment, my standard crew tends to be something like; Wong w. Ghillie Suit Olivia Taxidermist w. Inferiority Complex Pigapult Swinecursed Gracie Slop Hauler Lightning Bug Admittedly I've not really faced a dedicated ranged crew with Wong, but the Pigapult would probably be key. Bombing the crew with stuffed piglets, followed by hurling the Taxidermist at an isolated shooter should be very effective vs a crew that wants to keep their distance.

A friendly and welcoming Malifaux event for new players and old alike! Basic Details; - 3x Games at 40SS each - Strategies and schemes are available in advance, as detailed in the players pack (above). - Each player selects one Faction for the day and can only hire one Master per crew. Otherwise standard encounter rules apply. - Prizes for Generalship, Sportsmanship, Painting, Worst Luck and of course, the Wooden Spoon! - EARLY BIRD RAFFLE PRIZE! Awarded to one of the first 12 players to buy a ticket. - More prizes may be available, dependent on numbers. - $30 entry, with $5 discount for Outpost 6030 club members. Payable in person at Outpost 6030, or via direct deposit. The players pack with full details is available here. For any queries, just ask me here or on the event's Facebook page.

Well my standard crew these days is Wong, so... Blasts/Pulses: A minimal problem for Wizzbang crews, thanks to having Blast Resistant on most of the crew! If the mass-damage adds up though, the crew does have some healing available from the Lighthing Bugs and Bokor, as well as the Slop Hauler I often take. Armour/Damage Reduction: The crew is capable of dealing mass plink damage, but Swinecursed and Lightning Bugs also have triggers to ignore armour. It can be a bit costly to pull off (requiring a suit and a Glowy token), but with a bit of effort I can push damage thorugh as needed. Stealth: Shockwaves and pulse damage from the likes of Wong and the Pigapult can sort this out, as would the Pigapult throwing a Taxidermist or some other melee fighter into range of the sneaky Stealth model. Hazardous/Blocking Marker Generation: Gluttony and the Lucky Emissary are both great at removing alot of the markers your opponent might try to throw down. A stuffed piglet or other summoned cheap fodder remove the odd destructable marker too, IIRC. Negative Conditions: Olivia Bernard has a bit of condition removal, and assist actions from cheap fodder (summoned piglets of all varieties again) can help keep some of the conditions under control. Beyond that, I *think* Big Brain Brin is the only other decent option? I need to check up on that. Terrifying/Manipulative: The crews Shockwaves and Pulse damage gets around this easilly, as can Inferiority Complex on your key beaters. Bayou Gators could also work as Ruthless flankers in a pinch, and the Pigapult is also Ruthless.

Last night i took a photo of my pledge for this month; Goryshche, proxy for Alphonse, the First Mate, Sammy and a townhouse... ... and then just this morning, i finished painting two of those; Goryshche and the townhouse (the Broken is for scale). With just 3 models left I'm tempted to add to my pledge... but i might just wait and see how much progress i make before leaping ahead with yet more!

^^ Here's the basic recipe i used for the skin. A basecoat of Heavy Sienna over black, a brown ("umber") wash and then highlights of Dark Flesh (an old GW colour) and Dark Flesh mixed with white. I'm not sure what the modern GW equivalents are, but hopefully the pic above should help!

@Caedrus So while i didn't finish as much as I'd hoped in September, it was still a decent chunk of stuff; 6x Field Intel Corp (30), Margaret Belle (15), Zipp (15) and my last 4 Broken (20) for 80 SS total.

For what it's worth, even if the shockwave doesn't damage the model you placed, the trigger still makes sense when you consider enemy abilities like Black Blood or Demise. On the other hand, Full Load works well in conjunction with Hard knock life to give the "ammunition" fast & glowy. AND Wong has a similar ability (uncontrollable magic) which pretty clearly uses the model as the shockwave marker (and hence wouldn't force a shockwave test on that model). Personally i think Full Load damages the friendly model you place, but i can see how it could be interpreted the other way. So it definitely warrants an FAQ.

Yeah, unlike the rest of his crew Wong has no way of gaining or using Glowy tokens on himself. His shtick is more along the lines of giving everyone else Glowy. That Glowy is either used by those models for their own native benefits, or used by Wong himself to draw cards or deal extra damage with his Fzzzap.

Thanks! I do a grey & white zenithal over the black undercoat. Then it's a light drybrush of white over the whole model to pick out details, followed by a heavy coat of nuln oil. The red is painted more traditionally of course! It's a very simple scheme, but it's something i wanted to try out and more importantly, i needed something easy so i could get a full company out relatively easily.

My progress thus far - the last of my 1- commander Guild Company for TOS, and Zipp. With one week to go I'm now aiming to finish the 4 Broken, a townhouse and Gorysche. They're all WiP so if i can get them done, I'll call it a win.

For what it's worth, there is *one* confirmed Australian in the lore - Samantha Thrace. McTavish could also potentially have Australian origins, though he's just as likely to be Cajun (is that the word??) Being Gremlins, Georgy and Olaf are definitely not Australian. But they've certainly appropriated at least two Australian cultural icons. Going back to the original topic, i feel like Wyrd has done a pretty good job of avoiding negative stereotypes or cultural appropriation that might be considered problematic. Wong is probably the closest I've noticed to a negative stereotype, but like Adran said, he's based on a character in a movie. So that makes it...okay? I guess? This is certainly the first time I've heard anyone complain about him. In any case, Wong will likely be a moot point pretty soon - given the new art and his need for a new crew box (What with Mancha joining Zipp like the spineless traitor he is ), i suspect Wong will be getting a revised sculpt sooner rather than later.