Necromorph

Honestly, I love my Mercs...but I have way more fun playing Mcm tbh. That's really about it. I mean, competition wise they're pretty close.

Meh, I don't think you'd really need the scrap or corpse counters, accept for the initial one to make the 2nd Waif. It would be kinda like a Swarm of Stolen and Remains running up the board with Hamelin and Nix, with Levi and Alyce providing ranged support. Could be pretty good....but also really boring.

I agree...slaughter is Hamelin's bane. Funny note on Levi tho. In that game, when he killed my Waifs turn 5, I had won Initiative and Killed Levi off (he didn't get to kill himself the last turn and I needed him dead for his scheme) and after he killed my waifs he said, "So does that count for my Assassinate?" I had a good laugh, and he complained because me killing Levi and then him killing my Waifs didn't count as him "killing Levi." Was a small moral victory in an otherwise painful game.

Hahaha...sounds awesome. I'm sure your opponent was thrilled, Oh goody, Hamelin.......and now Hamelin with 17ss /wrists.

Yeah I feel like there is a similar ability mechanic out there but I can't remember what it is...and I don't remember a post but it may have been before my time.

He looks like the illegitimate love child of a stitched together and Kirby.

Haha...awesome thread, didn't realize there were so many of them out there now.

Yes and no. He will get there, but the problem is that once he gets there he will likely get killed if they have anything melee oriented (which they should have at least something...Peacekeeper, Executioner, Lady J, etc). He's not very survivable once he starts taking hits, but he's great for making them take a step back and say "Aww hell, I'm gonna have to let that thing get close before I can deal with it". Ha, actually the first time I ever used it against Perdita I thought I could use it near cover to make a little shield for the rest of my crew. He then proceeded to charge it with Francisco, and then Obey Francisco with Abuela and essentially 2shot my Rider...was quite depressing.

I always hold it if I can, for that very reason. Now if I'm forced to do a triple negative flip I can only get lucky and flip the red joker. Only problem is when I play Levi...he has to discard his entire hand every turn that he dies and comes back...so no dice on that with him.

Meh, to be honest, I always thought you could cast it while in b2b. You cast Irresistable Lure, the model in base contact makes a move of 0", which is technically ending in base contact and thus initiating a damage flip. Granted, most stuff isn't alive after 1-2 of these, and they wont be able to target you to make parting strikes, so I guess you could just cast-move-cast...but I always played it that you could cast it even if they were already in base. It's not like an automatic hit, you still get a chance to resist it, and there's a chance that Hamelin could flip weak for 0 dg /shrug, I don't really see the problem...unless you're Gremlins...but they're screwed against him anyways.

Guh, that's nasty. Yeah, they are a pain...make my poor Levi unbearably frustrating to play. Hamelin will be my primary mode of taking on Guild, but he can still find himself in hot water if you get a bum strat (like slaughter) or go up against Perdita...outcasts are just as a huge disadvantage against her in general.

Meh, I guess you can start with a FC on the table, but idk if I ever would. I usually end up with a RN and 1-2 FC on the table by the end of the game, which is usually enough to handle just about anything....not to mention the other models I bought with those extra ss. /shrug, to each his own.

Nah...Hoffman is hit or miss...the Mercs games I always just have bad luck with crappy strats and usually don't have enough stones to bother reflipping....plus the viks don't ignore armor...so yeah. Without Austringers Hoffman is very manageable. With Guild, I feel forced to play a certain way against them. Their shooting is just so strong that the only way you can take them is to bum rush them with as much nasty stuff as you can and accept the fact that 50% of your crew is dead by the time they hit. Once you hit, most of their models don't really have much Df and go down hard, but getting there could cost you the game if you don't have enough models to finish your objectives, especially against Hoffman and Perdita. Idk, basically, I'm competitive, but I try to play Malifaux to have fun, and play Infinity to be competitive, but it's hard to break that line of thinking. I just don't have fun when my opponent doesn't have to do anything to win, and I have to bust my ass and rely on fate (har har) to do what they can do by just sitting there and flipping cards to shoot you. As for Austringers themselves, I'd have to start a whole post about how I think they should be cuddled into the ground when they get v2 cards, but I'll refrain from doing so here.

He probably did know I was playing Levi, as he know's I haven't had much luck with my Mercs againstg him, and I usually avoid playing Hamelin because everyone hates playing him and I don't want to look like I'm trying to easy-mode the league. Thus, that leaves me with Levi, and yeah, it was rough...and since the majority of the terrain we use at the LGC is a mix of forests and old Mordheim buildings, there's plenty of little corners to throw Austringers into where you can't get at them unless you fight your way past their entire crew to get behind them. I guess the meta at the LGC, including the terrain, is kinda a huge buff to Austringers. Although, what idiot is going to put them out in the open or on top of a rock pile just to be theatrical, they are far too easy to protect. IDK, Guild are kinda ruining this game for me. It's not that you can't beat them (I have plenty) but playing against Guild is like climbing uphill through a pile of sh*t, even if you get to the top and win...guess what...you're still in a pile of sh*t. It's just flat out not fun when you have to try 10x harder than your opponent to achieve the same outcome...especially where Levi vs. Austringers is concerned.

Yeah...game didn't go so well, I think we tied, but idk...I had somewhere to be after the game and my opponent was taking forever to do his activations (turn 4 took us an hour) and it was probably the least fun game I've played, so I had to pack up fast and jet after the game...which is saying something because I never have fun playing against guild. Basically we flipped shared Claim Jump, and so I decided to go the "outactivation"/objective saturation route by taking Levi, Alyce, Guardian, and a bunch of Necropunks. So...he took 2 austringers. The rest of his list is irrelevant as they are just so brutally overpowered for 5 pts it's not even funny. I nuked down ryle and Francisco, but he managed to kill all of my Necropunks going for the Austringers, and then managed to Austringer Levi's Waifs down before I could pop the Armor +4 aura from the Guardian on Turn 5 (Actually I think the only thing that didn't die to Austringers was 1 Necro and Levi himself). I ended up losing Alyce turn 6 and I had a Guardian on the Objective and he had Hoffman near the objective with an Austringer close behind Turn 7 when it ended. I should have stuck to my original strategy of using Daw, at least I could have killed 1 Austringer to take the pressure off of Levi so he could have continued the Nuking cycle, but I really didn't think he was going to bring 2, but I had no way of knowing until we started deploying.

Yeah, to be honest I would never "start" with a Flesh Construct on the table, you can make 1 turn 1 by killing your totem if you do it right. Also...you can try the Nurse for a bit, but honestly I would ditch her for a Belle, you'll get much more use out of it.

They come down to two things for me, 1) List Composition and 2) Mastering the Vik's companion abilities (Like Sisters in Spirit, and Sisters in Battle). 1) As for list composition, the first thing you should keep in mind is that you NEED soulstones. My rule of thumb is 5 minimum, and as a new Vik player you would probably way to have 6+. They are far to fragile to NOT have stones. I guess as far as list composition goes, the Mercs almost always have a model for any situation you may find yourself in. The key is learning which models work and when. This is something you'll need to figure out, but I can list some models that I use often. -Von Schill -F. Librarian -F. Trapper -F. Specialist -Convict Gunslinger -Taelor -Hans -Desperate Mercs (proxy for another week or so) -Student of Conflict -Ronin 2) Mastering things like Sisters in Spirit is key. Even opponents who have played against the Viks before are often taken by surprise when one Vik slingshots the other across the board and right into their face. SiS can also be useful for capturing objectives, or swapping models on the fly to try and screw up your opponent's plans for containing them. Second, Sisters in Battle is what you use when something needs to die right away. Most people use SiB:Fury, as 5/6/8dg flips (especially paired with the sword Vik) are absolutely brutal. However, using this ability can take away precious (1) actions needed for SiS slingshots and will slow you down. Again, it's all about learning when to use what ability. Also, remember that when you do things like use a model to heal/buff 1 Vik, it applies to both (As does Sisters in Battle). Realistically, the Viks are pretty straightforward masters, and then need support from their crew. Their straightforwardness can make them seem easy to counter, but if you can master the art of timing and pick a crew that will support you for the job at hand, they can become incredibly devastating masters.

Yeah, idk, I might get rid of Daw for something else. My Hoffman friend loves to play lots of tough I2I models, so Daw would only be good for spamming aura's...which wont work well if he's too close to Hoffman. I might go for something more killy, but I can't think of much that I could take that would ignore armor...so I might just go for a rider or Desi to tie him up while Alyce and Levi set up to bring the pain.

6.

So I'm gonna :tj: to ask something sort of unrelated about Levi. So I feel like Levi would be incredibly strong against Hoffman (due to all of his direct Wd spells and Alyces' anit-construct ability) and I might be playing him in our League soon, and I want to know, has anyone used a Guardian with him recently? So, I was thinking of running with something that would screw with him a lot and possibly give him a taste of his own medicine: Levi-0 Alyce-8 Guardian-7 Jack Daw-9 Canine- 2 Necropunk-3 (if it's an objective game) TOTAL- 29ss The idea isn't to use the Guardian for Levi, but to use it for Alyce and one of the Waifs. See, I have this fear of Austringers with Levi...as they can make your day very very bad. So the idea is to keep one Waif and Alyce near the Guardian (Armor +4 Alyce /drool) so you know Levi will be coming back, and so that Alyce can stay alive long enough to make up her points. Jack will do what de does best, spamming his auras and nooses. The Necro...well...best 3pt model IMO, and they're damn good at capturing objectives.

I believe Entropic Transformation was originally worded to say "target model"...so you could have just zapped the pup into a waif, but it was changed...along with some other wording to the spell.

What is it an army of Stolen spamming Abandon, haha. Let me know how the tourney goes.

I didn't say Seamus, or Ramos, or Marcus (all just examples ofc) was bad. What I'm getting at is that it seems like in an attempt to make the masters flexible they kind of crippled some of them, or stretched them too thin. I love Seamus, and I have a good friend who plays him, but to me he seems like he just has too much going on. If he really needs to get something done, you need a red joker or some good luck with ss to pull it off, because he isn't capable of consistent dg output, and I don't know how many times I've seen him miss with that cannon of his and then shrug at a wasted action. Some might say more straightforward masters like Perdita or the Viks are "predictable" because they only have limited areas that they excel in. However, that is where the crew comes in, to fill in the gaps, and allow those masters to focus on what they do best. With more "flexible" masters, their crew can only do so much, and when it's time for them to pull their weight, it seems like they can't get the job done because they can't do enough of what they need to do (dg, manipulation, get from point A to point B, etc). To me it looks like when Marcus (again as an example because he takes a lot of flak) was playtested they said, "Well we don't want him to have too much melee dg AND beast support abilities." So they compromised...and it feels like they compromised too much...his dg is sad (sure it can be buffed...to what the Viks do normally....and there's 2 of them), his one "trick" with alpha is action-heavy, and his beast synergy is decent but nothing to write home about. He seems like a really fun master, and has a lot of cool crew selection, but he just doesn't seem to shine to me. As Biggles said though, it depends a lot on the meta, the league/tournament rules, and playstyle preference. In other words, you could have a very skilled player with say, Marcus, playing against new to average players at a LGC and totally running train on the whole group. If you get him in a "all things equal" situation with another skilled player who plays a "top 10 master"...he might not do so hot...but again, the meta will play a factor. Basically I guess what all this ranting comes down too is this. When I'm looking through the books and reading up on all the masters and their crews, I see some masters and say, "How the hell do they justify making X master so blatantly powerful and Y master so blatantly underwhelming." It's like, if you play X, you will have an easy time against many crews, and might have to try occasionally. If you play Y, you will almost always be fighting an uphill battle to win, unless you happen to come up against the occasional master you actually counter for whatever reason.

I was talking about this with some of my friends and we came to some different conclusions. 1- In a purely competitive setting certain masters, and for that mater, certain factions tend to be less competitive than others. 2- It seems to us that when many of the masters were designed, they were not balanced against each other properly (I know there are some masters that are the counter to others, but I'm talking in general). You can look at one master, say Lilith, a very strong master, and compare her to Marcus, considered one of (if not the) weakest master. In short, it seems like some masters are just flat out worse than others. Yes yes, I know there is danger in comparing masters that fill different roles within their respective crews, but in general terms, I doubt many would argue that Marcus is better than Lilith, for example. 3- This ties in with 2, but it seems like in an attempt to make more unique masters, some of them were designed to spread their influence/specialities too thin. Most competitive masters have 2 things they're good at. Viks-Speed and Melee, Lilith- Melee and Manipulation, Perdita- Ranged Dg and Support, Levi- Ranged Cast and Summoning, etc, etc. However, there are some masters that have their abilites spread too thin. Seamus, Ramos, and Marcus were some we talked about. Now aside from Marcus, I've seen people do great things with Seamus and Ramos, but they are at a disadvantage because they fall into the "jack of all trades, master of none" category. Seamus has strong Ranged, but can only fire once. Decent Melee, but not great. Some summoning, and some manipulation. He doesn't, however, do any one of those things exceptionally well. Ramos has a focus on summoning, but his spells are very difficult to cast (pre toolkit). He has 1 offensive spell, 2 support spells, and a melee trigger, etc. The more roles a masters' design trys to get them to fulfill, the less focused their efforts can be, then less cohesion they have with their crew, and the harder it is to use them efficiently. Often, and unfortunately this results in players picking one or "the best" section of their abilities and spamming the crap out of them to varying degree's of effect. This can lead to the masters being used in a way that ends up being one dimensional. Though, I would like to add that the book 2 masters did a good job of balancing the master selection for each faction to by giving them some variety without any of them feeling overpowered or lacking balance (though Hamelin could be argued for and against, lol).