CapnBloodbeard

On here there are a few recommended builds for their upgrades etc. Basically, Ash can be used to pump up Blood so she's going to hit hard, then throw her in. You want 5-7 stones in your cache for damage prevention. also, if you throw them in the middle of a few models, it's worth burning a stone for Whirlwind Unless you're going to throw them in to do some major damage, try to activate them late in the turn. Don't be afraid to take an extra turn to reach your opponent to keep them in cover, partcularly if you're facing a shooty crew. Don't forget - it's all about the strategies and schemes. Make sure you're as familiar with their cards as possible - they can be tricky because their buffs depend on how close they are to each other. It can do your head in a bit. Vanessa is good at healing, but that's both her AP if she heals. And she goes down very, very easily. Personally, I think Malifaux Child is a better addition than Student of Conflict, and then Vanessa can heal her to heal all the sisters.

I struggle against Misaki. You can't keep away from her because she has too many movement buffs. She hits like a truck and can cause you pain from a distance and she has no glaring weaknesses. I don't think I've beat her yet. The think with 10T is that they have a lot of positive flips to things. These cause pain. Much, much pain. If your opponent is facing a lot of positive flip modifiers from his opponent, then he is severely disadvantaged. It can take a while to realise just how hugely that can impact the game. Can also be very unfun when you don't win any duels. Librarian will help heal von Schill - between that and his 'shirt comes off' he should be more resilient. Misaki's totem heals her which is very annoying - but can be taken out easily, especially by the librarian. You can try to block Misaki from charging your master by positioning him behind a minion......maybe. Have enough SS in place to reduce damage. If you're losing all the duels against the opponent, then just focus on getting on with the schemes instead of wasting time on duels you can't win. If she is coming after your minions then that just may allow your master to put a hit on her.

what are you using for winged plagues?

If you have Accomplice and Ash is in range of blood then this will fix some of those problems....of course it's not always practical or beneficial to keep them that close to each other. I haven't used Fury at all almost - I mistakenly went for the additional + flip. I've learned that the difference between + and ++ is negligible, and a bad move if the black joker is in the deck still.

I like to take Malifaux child over Student - I'm not a huge fan of the 3 model slingshot anymore, but it's good to have the flexibility for Ash to pull Blood up. With accomplice, sometimes you can make good use of their expensive move that pulls all sisters in as well to attack, good way of moving Blood up to about 8" or so. companion is great for the sisters. Blood - Mark of Shezuul (it's expensive, and to be honest it usually doesn't come into play, but when I don't take it I'm guaranteed to miss it. But I will ditch this if I'm tight on AP), oathkeeper maybe (if I've spent a bunch of AP buffing her, I want her to have an extra AP to use it in case I get unlucky and waste all that AP) Ash - survivalist (too squishy otherwise, and the + to healing flips is sweet), fury (min damage of 5 - I've had times where big models have withstood quite a few hits because I kept doing min damage), synchronized slaying (only for accomplice - another + is fairly pointless on blood, though it can help on Ash). Not taking Spirit as much these days. At a recent tournament I discovered how useful it is to increase the minimum damage rather than simply increasing melee....had I used Fury more, it would have turned some of my games around. I try to have 6-7 SS for these two - between reducing damage and whirlwind (or reflipping initiative/cards if they're in a precarious position) These days I like to have Vanessa hiding somewhere or dealing with minions out of the firing line and Child near here, so he can just heal Vanessa to heal the others.

I've only played him once, but I like the idea of running Hans in my Viks crew. Mainly because if they get into melee and don't actually kill the other model, they're in a world of trouble if that enemy model activates again before they do. hans might make the difference there.

Yeah he's really good value. slowness is his main problem. Probably even a bigger problem than with the trapper, given the lack of ranged attack.

You don't find running 2 big hitters leaves you with too few activations? While Vik of Blood is a 'free' model, the sisters are so upgrade intensive that the saving is almost negated that way anyway. so with 2 big hitters, you can easily end up with only 6 activations.

A hill would be more likely to be severe though, wouldn't it? Different kettle of fish to climbing. I like to think a model can climb on a charge. Theatrically it makes sense. I think the laws are a little ambiguous on this.

You only use the red joker's suit if you flip it on the attack flip. We're talking about the damage flip here - the suit is irrelevant. You're using the ram from being built-in, and any ram you may have flipped.

Yep. 'Friendly models' = includes same model (assuming they have the relevant characteristic) 'Other friendly models' = cannot include same model. (can replace friendly with whatever else you find on cards)

That's all situational though, isn't it? F'mann is better in some situations than the trapper, same with Strongarm suit v lazarus Disagree on survivalist. Df6, Armor 1 and a reasonable (not overly high) number of wounds). Kind of tough, but could be tougher. Survivalist is great with librarian. As it is, it means your opponent needs an extra AP to kill him. Heal with librarian or rip the shirt off, and suddenly it's going to take another AP at least as you're out of the 'hard to kill' zone. That upgrade could easily see vS withstanding another few hits. Also, with the + to healing flips, it gels oh-so-nicely with the librarian and ripping the shirt off. Taelor v strongarm - again, depends on the schemes/strats and your opponents. SS is a better addition in some cases, taelor in others. I've often taken I pay better on vS in the past, but depends how I'm going to play the models. vS probably pushes a bit too far up for me to keep using it on him if I have Taelor on the table.

I don't like Vanessa. She's too squishy, doesn't do enough damage, and her heal is 2AP vs the librarian's 1AP. She has some positives - looking at the top 3 cards can be good, half the time it doesn't help you though Casting is great if you're against a lot of incorporeal...but again, just take a librarian and get the benefits of the Friekorps buffing. Strongarm is great if you want something that's fairly hard to kill or if you want that Augmented jump again. I quite like him, though I wish his damage output was a bit higher. Specialist.....I rarely use him. He's just too slow and expensive. Some people love him. I don't have any of the others (except the freikorpsmenn, of course)

Always survivalist and shirt comes off for me (survivalist also gives + to healing flip, so matches well with shirt off and librarian healing flips). Oathkeeper...sometimes. it is handy being able to do 2 augmented jumps though.......

Oathkeeper!!!

with the 3AP attack, usually you'll just be better of focussing your attacks. But in the middle of a Gremlin horde or some such it could be awesome. I also use survivalist on him - because I just can't accept vS not being Hard to Kill

With the trapper, be careful of deploying him too far upfield - he'll be targeted and taken out fairly quickly. conversely though, with 'from the shadows' and a walk of 5 he can actually make a pretty decent scheme runner. But don't hold vS back just to buff the trapper. Augmented Jump is amazing. Don't forget you can charge a model and land behind the model (if you have the range). Even if you're already engaged with a model, charge it again to reposition yourself. Don't forget about 'finish the cur' either. These days I have the librarian hide out of trouble a bit but try to keep up with vS to heal him - though that can be tough with her low range. The shirt comes off is a great upgrade. I don't often use his 3AP 'attack everything in sigh' ability, but it can be handy occasionally. I like to play vS fairly aggressively, and use a few SS on keeping him alive as well. Had a game I mentioned on here a while ago where he managed to withstand 30+ AP worth of consecutive attacks in much hilarity

Let's not forget that one of the best upgrades in the game - I pay better - is Outcasts. So, particularly turn 1, you're discarding a card to focus....

Scout the field is 1 SS, not 2 - so 9 SS total. You're right about 'smile, you son of a...' needing an 11 is pretty rough. At least if you hit you're kneecapping somebody (if you want to discard another card), but you may have to cheat.....so easily burning 3 cards just to knock an upgrade off a model.

Hans is good in Show of Force....also, not randomising for engagement is great in a melee oriented crew. Trapper has the advantage that he can run schemes if he has nothing better to do...Hans struggles, but if he's just holding a table corner or something that might not be an issue. I feel like Hans is perhaps 1 SS too expensive. The triggers are situational. Could be brilliant with the right opponent.

In your view, what are the various roles Bishop fills? This sort of strategy is part of list building or ensuring you have set tasks for your models on the table which probably doesn't get talked about enough.

Wyrd have completely nailed their price points on the box sets - I mean, they're completely insidious. It's like any master: "I really want some of the models in that box....so I could spend $30 one just one or 2 models.....but spend another $10-15 and I have a whole other master with a whole new way to play!" rinse and repeat. They're evil. Evil, evil, evil. But it works. Personally it's just some of the bigger models like Hannah that I have difficulty with the pricing - why spend $35-40 on a single model when I can have an entire new crew for just a little more? Guild Hounds are the same - they cost more than Hannah! But I digress. The point is - I wonder how many people buy the vS box set just for those models? They know this is happening, so if it is - why make it easier for us? Though if people are buying the box set just for this, I'm surprised there aren't loads of Schills and Freikorpsmenn for sale all the time... I have the Viks as well, but sometimes Schill is good if I'm reaching the end of a tournament (or it's game 1) and I'm too tired to think about the precise positioning, synergising and activation order you need in many other crews. Kinda just want to throw something into the mosh pit, see what he does and watch him not die that, and sometimes I'd prefer Freikorpsmenn over Ronin, even in a viks crew. But I know what you mean - Augmented Jump is amazing (can charge even when engaged, and leap over terrain/models), but aside from that he doesn't really 'do' anything special.

Agreed. Discard 'a' card. So, only use it once. This one's an autotake for me. Great with the trapper - I don't know that double positive is really any more beneficial than single positive flips, but it does mean that if they're hitting something behind cover they still get positive. But all over the table it's great. Outcasts have too many reasons to drop cards and not enough ways to gain them

I've been favouring Strongarm Suit lately....

And doing things like being able to walk, collect a head marker and drop a scheme marker in the same turn......