Stryder

Okay, for those of you who wanted Seamus advice, here it is:

I view Seamus as what I would term a 'Skirmisher'. That is someone who hangs around on the edge of the main fray picking off any models that look weak or try to make a break for it, and eliminating enemy scheme runners. This makes him one of the few masters that can conceivably win a game using the strategy of scheme denial rather than strategy denial. Of course, this means that the scheme pool has to be favourable to this. Stuff like Breakthrough, Power Ritual and Protect Territory are all good things to focus on denying by killing scheme runners. Bodyguard and Entourage are a couple of others he can deny with a little bit of resource input. You can lure your models away from Plant Explosives and Spring the Trap with Belles. Vendetta can be partially denied if your opponent reveals it but fails to score three points on the reveal, and anyone can deny Outflank. Plus there's always Assassinate, an easy one for any half-decent Seamus player to deny. Of course, with things like Cursed Object, Distract, Frame for Murder and Murder Protégée in the pool, this denial method becomes harder to accomplish and in scheme pools which feature two or more of these I would probably pick a different master and crew.

So that's how I would play Seamus. Build his crew to focus on getting ahead on Schemes in the right pools while ensuring you don't fall behind on the Strategy and you'll be maniacally laughing all the way home.

Wanted a battle report/crew breakdown instead? Here it is:

Masters: Final round vs Ben Crowe

Strategy: Reconnoitre

Schemes: We both took (and announced) Breakthrough and Protect Territory. I'm sure there were other options, but meh...

Seamus (3 Cache, total 6 Cache, cost 4 with upgrades)
-Red Chapel Killer
-Sinister Reputation
-Decaying Aura

“Where's Bag of Tools!?” I hear you scream. Personally, I prefer Sinister Reputation for the Live for Pain ability, which is good for finishing off Hard to Kill models. Red Chapel Killer is there for obvious reasons. I chose Decaying Aura guessing that my opponent would play Levi, who can be wiped out with a single focused shot from Seamus so long as no damage prevention occurs. Basically, I was hoping to get the jump on him at least one turn. As it happened, I didn't win a single initiative flip in this game .
Seamus did plenty of other stuff, though. Turn one he placed himself in a solid defensive position and killed an abomination Ben had just summoned by killing my canine remains. Turn two he shot one of Ben's waifs and ended up being engaged by another abomination that used to be one of his 'escorts'. Turn three was probably the key turn of the game. Ben won initiative and had two choices: Either activate Levi and kill Datsuie-Ba, thereby securing the right flank but losing Ama-No-Zako and the left flank in the process, or activate Ama-no-Zako and keep the pressure on that flank and risk losing Levi's effectiveness for this turn. He chose the latter, and Ama-no-Zako proceeded to kill my dead doxy, giving Seamus fast in the process. Datsuie-Ba then charged Levi, hitting him with a tome to trigger Weigh Sins. The flip came up Red, leaving Levi on two wounds with no stones left. Weigh Sins went through, and another lucky flip comes up moderate to kill Levi. Seamus was my next activation. Ben's last waif was in sight and range, but Seamus was engaged on the wrong side of the abomination. I used one action to walk around it, then spent a stone for masks and backhanded the abomination. Ben flipped Red, forcing the fail. Thank god for fast...Seamus tries again (spending another stone) and this time manages to get away, shoots the waif with his final AP and puts Levi out of the game for good. Turn four he turns the doxy's corpse into a belle and walks into another quarter, winning it while leaving the Belle behind to tie another, denying Ben a strategy point. Turn five he walked some more and dropped a Breakthrough marker.

Copycat Killer (Cost 3)

Woot, extra gun. I took this because I had three stones and another waif-killer is never a bad idea.
Did nothing turn one, but proved very useful by triggering 'With a Flourish' against Ama-no-Zako near the end of turn two, forcing Ben to ditch two stones to keep him alive, leaving him with none. Did nothing turn three, but tied up a hodgepodge effigy and flesh construct at the end of turn four, allowing Seamus to drop his scheme marker uninterrupted on the next turn.

Datsuie-Ba (Cost 10 with upgrades)
-Spirit Beacon
-Spirit Whispers

I predicted Ben would play Levi on one thing: Our strategy was Recon, which has 'Mech Rider' written all over it. Fine. You pump out metal gamin, I turn them into gaki and get a free seishin to boot. Winner-Winner!
Datsuie was probably the most important model in this game for me. She killed Levi, stopped the flood of metal gamin and held an entire half of the board to a standstill with only a canine remains and whatever she could summon as support while facing off against a hunter and the Mech Rider. A key part of this was the fact that seishin do count for denying Protect Territory. By the end, there were so many seishin (the full five) and gaki that Ben was forced to play for this scheme on another part of the board rather than focus on strategy, which ultimately cost him the game. Near the end of turn four a fellow master's player cast a cursory glance at the game, pointed at my mass of seishin and remarked “I see Datsuie's been busy!” Boy, was he right...

Night Terror x2 (Cost 6)

I love night terrors. They're probably the most used models in my entire collection. Absurdly cheap for something that tough, irritatingly fast and minion status means they still count for strategies like Recon and Turf War. Also useful in Squatter's Rights for just sitting on markers and refusing to budge. In this game, they hung around at the back of the board close to the central divide, ready to hop into one quarter or the other to keep the numbers up. On turn four (a lot of stuff happened on turn four) one night terror charged Ben's Mech Rider and blinded it, allowing my engaged canine remains simply walk away and drop a scheme marker for Breakthrough.

Canine Remains x2 (Cost 8)

These were taken specifically to accomplish Breakthrough. While one of them succeeded (with a little help), the other was...uh...'abomonized(?)' by Levi on turn one. Ah well.

Rotten Belle x2 (Cost 10)

These can be great in Recon. Standing just behind a dividing line and luring things into them will leave opposing models on the line and not counting for any quarter. I also figured they'd be useful for pulling anchors away from Waifs. One dropped a scheme marker on turn one after getting a 'lift' from the dead doxy then got 'Levi'd' on turn two, while the other spent the rest of the game trying (and failing) to do what the dead canine remains should have done...though she did lure Ben's flesh construct onto the line turn four to help deny him a Recon point.

Dead Doxy (Cost 6)

Another good one for Recon. The freedom to push opponents in any direction makes them more versatile than Belles, if not quite as tough or reliable. Taken for the same reasons as the Belles, but as a variation just in case she was needed. Her fate and role is described in various places above.

Seishin (Not hired)

Crowded themselves around Ben's hunter and protect territory markers, making them unusable. Ben tried to keep them down, but eventually had to give it up as a lost cause and was forced to spend AP on other models to drop more markers somewhere else.

Final Scores:
Recon:
- Me: 4 points
- Ben: 2 points
 Breakthrough
- Me: 3 points
- Ben: 3 points
Protect Territory:
- Me: 3 points
- Ben: 3 points
Overall:
- Me: 10 points
- Ben: 8 points

So there's my crew and a brief run-down of what they accomplished and how the game went.

Datsuie-Ba definitely gets the MVP award for the game, she's really effective as a stand-alone model with those two upgrades on her. Seishin will wall her off and not move if she spends a wound to keep them alive, then get one to heal her and open up a nice 'firing lane' for her in the process.

As for the other games...I'm sure Connor and Greg will be able to tell you how annoying Yin the Penangalan can be when she gets in the face of your key models...but those games were a bit messy and I don't really remember them all that well (I've slept many times since then!). Sorry

Didn't get what you wanted? Feel free to fire away with questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Blegh. Fine. I'll write something. Give me a day or two (limited net access ).