Only Perfect

Sounds like a blast. Wish I could make it. For some reason all the good stuff happens on drill weekends!

I have played all beast crews in some high ss games but the more you play marcus the more you will see that he doesn't necessarily need any beasts at all to make him work the way he is suppose to. I totally agree the the rattler isn't for ranged. Look at some of your merc options or the gunsmiths. if you want a ranged punch. I also only usually include the rattler if I want to stick a terrifying model right in the opponents face. in other words unless your fond of him you won't really miss him if he doesn't make it into your list. Shikome and silurid are, like sephiroa said, great options. Marcus and shikome have better synergy than Marcus and any arcanist beast I can think of actually.

The big problem I have with this list is that it is really easy to poke a hole in. kill a silurid or even a night terror and you lose speed in the silurids case you star losing the other sliruid too. Personally I would drop either the night terrors or the sliruids and stick with one set of objective grabbers. I would also include a convict for range support he can be really nasty with the right hand

First off I like the thread! I think that this is more of a problem for arcanists than anyone, b/c fluff wise they are super diverse. Sure the outcasts are but their masters are designed to work with......well, what they work with. The arcanists on the other hand can find some pretty cool synergies else where in the faction, but they come at the cost of a "fluffy" list. I too fall into the same trap. Mainly because I play Marcus and take very few arcanist models to begin with but yeah totally guilty. This is soon to change however with the new box set as most of the box has multiple uses.

Summary = some battle reports, a little rules disscussion, and variuos "Marcus is awesome posts". It's and "all comers" thread

I think mythicFox's post that looked something like this explains it. "Begin Damage Begin Wounds End Wounds Begin Killed End Killed End Damage As a result Damage begins before Wounds and Killed and ends after Wounds and Killed." In a fluff sense it kind of works too. You know the beast doesn't have time to react to Marcus hitting it. Oh yeah sry for hijacking this thread. We should move it some where else if you guys aren't content. As for me I'm satisfied.

Ah good point with the onslaught! I'll have to look it over.

The wording on stuff like this has to give the guys at wyrd one of the biggest headaches ever. Until this post I was content to just suck it up and play the two hit rule (once for primal reaction and once for the kill). I don't do the rules thing a lot on account that I usually fall in the "don't really care until it happens" group, but this is a big factor in both Marcus' scheme and his manifest requirement. It would be nice for something set in stone, because from what I can tell everytime it has came up on the forums here it is about 50/50

I see what your saying Buhallin and I don't entirely disagree. You seem to be looking at just the damage though, and in the above example Nix was able to be pushed, trigger horrific burns, and heal, all with 0 wounds which would imply that the primal reaction would have more than enough time to go off.

Retired you say? Surely you just mean he will take a vacation.

Sorry for my confusion but the conclusion most of the community has come to about marcus and his primal reaction trigger is that if he one shots a model it never gains thee beast characteristic bc it dies. However this post seems to state that that isn't the case, unless I'm missing some thing. I blame my confusion on the lecture I just got out of. Can you maybe clear that up for me?

I use the model I have done a wing swap though. I not a fan of the sculpt myself, another reason you don't see me running 2 of them lol.

yeah load that board up with terrain , but over all a very good video bat. rep.

The aMarcus thing is basically personal preference. aMarcus is so much more support than basic Marcus so I include him in lists that need that support more. If I can't, or have to over extend to get aMarcus out by turn, lets say 3, then I find myself fighting a losing battle that isn't really worth it. As to the way he works I find I still like to play "guerrilla" style with aMarcus, but with his abilities to cause so much chaos in the enemy lines and still be able to drop 2 different beasts on them the same turn he does a lot less of the attacking himself and depends more on the amount of beasts you have. In short although he can cause trouble both late and mid game I see him as way more effective mid game. Maybe it's just play style. @brdparker yeah it is always good to hit raspy fast. With most of your beasts being kinda soft at range put the hurt on her before she can you. That does bring up a question though. paying for 2 shikomes with Marcus isn't that kinda restrictive, expensive, so on? I generally run one and some times if I'm not sure I need it, I just use Myranda who might waste some turns if I do want her to transform but nets me a ss and is more versatile.

Thanks for the replies guys. I still have to say without a marshal on the primal reaction subject I hope it's ruled as one hit but i can defiantly see it both ways. With the current sentiments I'll keep playing it by the 2 hit rule. I have to say I'll use the avatar a lot less that way though.

In between 30 and 35 for me. I feel like 30 keeps the pacing of the game better and makes crew selection a bit more crucial, but 35 is where you get full use of your higher ss models. Oh the choices!

Got my game in and again failed to really use the beast trigger on the plus side I felt a lot better about only using one at 2 ss. It didn't do much but I think one raptor is my "go to" if i have the extra space, just for the off chance I do beast a key model. It's hit or miss but for 2ss it's allowed to be. A big thing that came up in my game tonight was the stupid primal reaction trigger. Has there been an official ruling on the timing? b/c granted it seems like after damage, but that could still put it before the model is killed (which is also a reaction to damage the way i see it). I know it is wishful thinking but without an official ruling to look at it seems like it makes Marcus' avatar manifest kinda to hard for what the avatar is actually capable of bringing to the table. (not that it's all that hard. It's just kinda more outta the way to the point of why bother.)

I grabbed some raptors last night myself and looking maybe to get a game in tonight (other than the little trial game I did last night). Last night I poked around with fielding 2 out of the box and found myself a little tome starved half because of bad luck half because of Marcus. Hopefully I'll get a better feel for it tonight with maybe just one to try to hit a key model with beast.

After a few games with my new aMarcus I have come to the conclusion he is extremely easy to manifest at least for my play style, but I do hate the feeling of wasting the 0 action on the second feral unless I'm alpha-ing on the 2nd turn which usually isn't the case b/c that would take some crazy positioning.

While I do agree somewhat with the ht 3 stalker thing you're still comparing the 40mm base to a 50mm for the cerberus. Right off the bat I don't think I can name another model with stalker and leap other than these two very useful for positioning and sneaking in a little extra threat range. Am I missing some models there with my limited experience?

I proxyed a BoD (not something I usually do) a few days ago with marcus and I have to say I wasnt disappointed. Leap becomes a bit easier with her ca and I think the fact I loved best is that she is a grave robber, combine this with a spawn mother and some sliruids in marcus' case and you have an effective anti resser group. In tinas case the speed even minus an inch on the leap is invaluable. I love my kitty but I hate to say when BoD comes out the cerberus will be even more situational than he already is. My opinion of course.

After a short leave I'm finally back! ( more details of a couple returning games later). The t-shirts are sweet though now I'm just gonna need my number on the back.

lol sry i didn't mean op that was @ooshawn..... sigh you guys know what I mean (I hope). Looks like it's time for me to go to bed before this thread turns into me talking to myself.

Not to mention this kinda seems a little like rage because of a bad showing with him. Not a shot at the OP, I just feel like you should slow down a little and get to know aMarcus a little better. There is no way you got a complete perspective on him after just a weekend. (btw sry for 2 posts i got a little happy with the reply button!)

While I am not at Gen Con and don't yet have the book in my hand I can't help but to feel your being totally unfair to poor Marcus. I'm still very new to the game and play with some guys that have been playing quites sometime and I have had pretty good luck with him as long as i keep my eye on the true goal of the game.