PokiePrawn

Anyone tried (proxie) him with Levi? There seems that he and his Ashigaru may have some benifit for Levi with the ability to protect him and objectives while being fairly hard to kill, doing some damage and not breaking the bank. Any thoughts?

There are a couple things I have done against Pandora. The usual advice is blast and aura damage to take her out, but I have not been able to get that to work. First, my advice is avoid her. Kill off her fast objective grabbing minions, send some mindless junk to slow her down, and complete your objectives. Maybe not the most fun thing to do, but it works. Second, if you have to kill or engage her, I have always sent a couple fast minions up to her and tried to kill her with volume. Woes are easy to kill, then she can't win all the WP duels, and will burn SS/high cards to do this (this also prvents her from using them to attack). If you bombard her with zombies, punk zombies, necro punks (all summonable) then really only need 2-4 good hits to do the trick. If she is still alive, you may have to send in a SS minion or master, cheat high and hope for a good SS flip. If you do hit, make sure it counts. That being said... I have never actually killed her, but pushed her on the defensive enough to keep her on her side of the table in contain power (I used Levi and had SPA's, punk zombies try to do the job). Good luck. She is considered one of the least fun masters to play against, but I have enjoyed the chess like nature of my games against her.

Perdita, Chompy both do lots of damage at range, and can easily kill off a Vic or a couple members of your (small) crew. They are then often unable to be attacked back. They also have mobility. Outactivation crews can hurt the Vics. Terrifying can be hard to overcome with some of the Vic's crew. Ranged crews can be tough to catch, but I have never actually lost to a mostly ranged crew, so I guess that one depends.

That rule is interesting in some ways, but creates such potential for cheese I think it should just be removed. Could it be changed to an uncheatable resist, or within base contact, or your opponent gains a vp for every soul sacked? Easy fixes that might take the cheese out of the rule. Also, for those Master sacrifice/kill strats (deliver a message), can there just be some rule about killing your own master results in 2-4vp? That way it is still possible, but unlikely to help you. Just some thoughts. It makes some strats/schemes pretty useless to play if they can be cheesed so easily. I know the argument about not wanting to play with players who do that, but there should be some easy solution in a more competitive environment.

Yes he is. His box is also good (insert Lawyer argument here). You do likely need at least one Austringer and a couple other Warden/hounds/guard/riflepeople to make him tournie competitive. But, for casual games you can win with Ryle, a Guild Guard and the Guard Captain. Play in a 20SS game and you should be fine. Lucius augments and improved his minions, so the more options he has the better he can perform. I love him.

Another cheesy thing is the sacking your models for SS (can't remember the name of that ability). There are a lot of cheesy ways players can manipulate that. It might be nice for tournaments to put in a rule not allowing those actions.

In my 2 games he has lived and earned my MVP in the first one (he actually didn't do that much, just the rest of the crew sucked). He is hard to position, he needs to be close to the action and in range of rats, enemy models, but also somehow protected. I kept him safe by Obediencing dangerous models away from him and cheating high to avoid hits. One good magical attack will kill the puppy. Also if you activate him and can get other models at a negative flip that is great. As for my general thoughts after my 2nd game is that he is effective, but can be tricky to use in game play terms. I had to have lots of counters, markers etc to remind me who was at negative flips, who was -2 wp/de, who Nix is/isn't getting plus flips against, and finally blight counters. There is also the rats summoning and sacrificing models to make it even harder to work things out. These issues will likely come with some more practice, but my opponent was a bit frustrated with the mountain of details. As for Hamlin himself I had him move up and attack in my 2nd game and he didn't die (almost). He is pretty tough, and has a lot of wounds that he can get back fairly easily. I tried to Black Staff people to death my first game, and this game I just ordered his minions around (aided by Stolen). It was effective, but I have not used either his power Ruffian or his ability to make someone Insignificant yet in either game. I do find I run out of rats. I get one Stolen a turn who turns into a rat which I need for spells, but most of the dying is taking place outside of Hamlin's or the RC's 6 inch range so my swarm just shrinks making things harder to do.

I always wait for your reports. Keep them comin!

Thanks, that Wiki needs a-LOT of updating. After reading all these comments I may give the little guy another shot.

If you have the models, you can either save them and maybe use them in a brawl, or use the models and convert them into another model (desp merc, even convict gunslinger etc). As for more than 3 in a 35 (for example) scrap, I don't think they are going to be useful.

I have never used it, but I think the Strongarm is stupid good. If you look at his points... he is the same as Hans, Rusty Alice, and cheaper than Jack Daw and Taelor. He is only 2 points more than a trapper! He does everything! I think Wyrd has overall done a good job preventing power creep, but the Strongarm might be the best point for point model in the game. Again, I am saying all this without ever actually using him, so... I guess it is a little early. It might be the Teddy/Killjoy/Peacekeeper syndrom where the other player sees it and just uses everthing on the table to take it out.

I have tried to use him to pick of totoms, or daydreams, and your right, he just can't do it. He is doing 1 point of damage per attack unless you get really lucky. He needs Critiacal Strike. He is also kind of dead meat, often being unsupported by the rest of the crew. He does have a couple other minor abilities such as scout that can be ok, but overall I can't use him in a competitive list.

In my only game with Hamlin, I got one shot off against Mei and then was in melee the rest of the game. That was exactly the problem against fast masters. He actually held up OK in melee, but not great. I actually used him to tie up Mei the Rail Golum and Kang long enough to allow my other minions to get a tie, but it was a rough day. Next time I am going to keep him a little further back and use him more to counter attack against models that get through the rat line. Can we order the new V2 (V3?) cards from the Wyrd store yet?

I think it is clear there are a lot of good options for him. Depending on the strats etc, you can do well with any of the above suggestions. Try a few out and see how it goes... then let us know!

The Guild Captain is not fast... but both Lucas and Lucius can move him around. He can really take a beating in melee. If you have him that gives you a 5 SS pool. You can also drop one Austringer and pick up Sadir or a couple of other Westral/Stalker/Guardsmen type models and a totom (Student of Drill). With Lucius I don't use more than one Austringer.

His shrug off and duty abilities seem pretty useful against big Z or poison crews. His ring of fire could be good if he had more AP... his gun is good, but I think he probably has better uses than to just shoot. The problem I find is the vics don't really bunch up, and tend to spread out as each model is sort of able to fend for themselves, limiting his use. I am going to try hard to get him into a game and have a more informed opinion.

Has anyone ever found Harmless to be particularly useful? Having several models that have harmless, I have never been able to get any benefit, and actually have been hurt by the ability at least a couple of times (Chompy!). The test at best costs your opponent a mid-card and those that have harmless often have low wounds or defense, so they may not need another one. So many abilities get around it (wicked, terrifying, etc) and it only lasts until the model does something – often limiting the model’s ability early in the game. If compared to terrifying and other abilities is there any advantage to it? Am I missing something?

Understanding that strats and schemes may vary, is this a pretty standard workable Hamlin post changes list. I am having a problem getting the balance between starting with rats, stolen and rat catchers on the table. Hamlin Nix (7) Candy (8) Obedient or Arcane Effigy (3 or 4) In a 35SS game, this gives me about 18 or 19 SS to divide between rats, stolen, rat catchers and a SS pool. I was thinking something like… 3 rats (6) Rat catcher (5) Stolen (3) SS 4 or 5 I do have some guild hounds and canine remains also… Thanks for any help.

Nice list, but if you want to do a themed crew, don't take the rider or Lazarus. Taelor instead of one ronin, the desp merc and a SS might be a good switch. I think Taelor is great. Also, you could get the Librarian who is also girl. I have never used Venessa (model not out yet) so let me know how she goes! I am dying for some feedback from her.

OK, that is good to know. I think I am going to pick him up. He sounds like he might work well with both Guild and TT, giving him a lot of options. Actually, I just thought of a question. When he is in melee range he gets a bonus to his defence. Does this bonus stack with the defence bonus you get if someone tries to shoot you in melee? Example, he is in melee range of 2 guys, giving him +1 defence. If someone shot at him would he be at +3 defence (1 for his ability and 2 for the rule for being in melee)?

A very cool tournie! I like hearing the logic behind your choices and it sounds like but for some bad luck against Jacob you would have won the whole thing! I am hot and cold on the Austringer, and reading your report might convince me to drop them in my Guild lists!

I have a Sue who I have tried several times to get into a game, but it is soo hard because it means no Von Shill. There is just almost no reason to not take him with the Vics. He is the perfect yin to thier yang. He does pretty much everything except hard hitting melee combat, and that is what the Vics do! My typical list at 35 is Vics, Von Shill, Taylor, student, Ronin and Frei Specialist. With only 7 models being out activated can be a problem. Overall it has done very well for me.

Thanks, that is very helpfull!

1. Stiched - as said before, they can do everything well and are cheap. They combo with Neverborn masters with devistating effect. 2. Twins - as said before, are melee monsters, come back with ease, heal, can do it all well and are a steal a 7 points (keep in mind Hans is 8!). 3. Night Terrors - objective mission winners that have some many other little abilities that make them great. 4. Marrionettes - another minion that can do it all and are great melee monsters. If they get the jump they can get objectives with ease and take out almost any model (s) in the game easily. Clearly models that are cheap, are able to do it all, have at least solid attacks, and able to get objectives and have board control are important. These models do it all and then have great synergy with thier masters as well.

I really want to get McCabe, but... with Lucas running around giving out slow and paralyzed, I am worried that the game becomes unfun for my opponent. Is he a fun master to play against, or is all his enemy crew debuffs just frustrating? I am not arguing for or against him on a competitive level, just in terms of a fun master to play against. Thanks for any comments.