Patzer

Both are outstanding in their own right. Tots are dirt cheap, only for 4ss, and are surprisingly sturdy thanks to their df 6. They hit more than ok: ml 5 1/3/4. That damage track is very respectable for a 4ss minion, and the fact that they are ml 5 means they can actually hit a lot of things. Blackblood can make attackers somewhat honest, but is not a life saver. Pounce is always a nice thing to have too. Lynch can speed them up like crazy. The Ace of Masks will let them go 20" in a turn, nearly without any fuzz. Dreamer can use them as nice fillers, although there are no great synergies between them. With that said, Tots are outstanding stand alone models who can fend for themselves. The same is true for the Insidious Madness. They are very speedy with a walk of 7, with incorporeal. They will go wherever they want, very fast. Incorporeal and df 6 makes them quite sturdy too, but once they get hit, they usually go down. All of their WP debuffs and Horror Duel shenanigans are right up Neverborn's alley, they provide with a ton of synergy in other words. This is especially the case for the Dreamer who can summon them and likes to force plenty of WP duels. A running mate of his is often the notorious Widow Weaver, who thrives while having Insidious madnesses around. Lynch can certainly use them too, while the synergy is not as direct.

The Monkey on my Back idea is quite cool, Laika. I really feel they should have Grab and Drop though.

Good stuff Adran! Really liked the sneaky move with the Guilty. Have you gotten any mileage out of Montessor another time? To me, he doesn't add up.

Scout the Field can be very good. Strongarm Suit and Von Schill can charge, while engaged, and without LoS. That can be crucial in certain games. In Close and Flank Deployment, that extra push can get a model into a very good shooting or charge position. Once again, works very well with Augmented Jump. The Specialist gains some much needed speed, and ignores Cover with its ranged attack so ignoring LoS for a turn can be crazy good. Sue got a built in plus flip (negating the cover), and can potentially dish out minimum damage 4 if you got some Rams in hand. So hard cover won't bother too much either. He is pretty slow too, so the free movement is welcomed. Lazarus likes the extra push as well, and can wreak havoc without needing LoS. It is not for every model, but it can be very useful in the right situation. It is a very nice complement to Oathkeeper.

Sold.

Why do you guys feel the Executioner is so bad?

Strongarm Suit is everyone's answer to the Mech Rider! It can catch it and it can ignore damage reduction. It also has a fairly ok ranged attack who can pass out Slow, which also will make the Mech Rider a little bit easier to catch.

I am just a little amazed this is news, that is why I asked. First thought Zfiend was referring to something different. Kogan Style, good point on targeting HtK-models! I like Vendetta a lot, due to that you can tackle it in different ways. Either being really sneaky and not hitting the target first, or by tagging something that you know must commit and get 2vp for it. The latter is better in low scoring scheme pools, cagey players, or if you are confident that you can deny a strategy point.

The scheming player notes one of her non-Leader, non-Peon models with a Soulstone cost greater than 0 and an enemy model with a Soulstone cost equal to or greater than her chosen model. If the noted friendly model’s first Attack Action in the game is against the noted model, score 1 VP and reveal this Scheme. If the noted enemy model is not in play at the end of the game, and this Scheme has been revealed, score 1 additional VP. If the noted enemy model is killed by the noted friendly model, score 3 VP (whether or not the Scheme was revealed). This Scheme may not be revealed at the start of the game. Interesting. Can you explain that interpenetration, because I can't really see it

First off all, thanks to all who have posted, and pointed out corrections. Happy to see this gathered some interest! Onto the good stuff. I said in the previous post that it was time for a run down of Jack Daw's crew, but that have to wait a turn. Hope you don't come after me with torches and pitchforks. Instead I will write about my first game with Daw (while I still can remember the nuances of that game). We decided to play a 40ss game, since it was a first time go with our respective master for both players. I picked Daw, my opponent Lucius. I was a little bit scared of this since JD and crew doesn't like to be shot at. There were plenty of terrain scattered all round the board, providing with plenty of (ht2 hard and soft) cover. Between the rubble there was some shooting alleys. The centre had mostly soft cover. The perimeter of the board there were houses, one could go through them but all the windows where shut. We had standard deployment. The schemes Turf War A Line in the Sand Assissinate Breakthrough Deliver the Message Vendetta The crew I went with: Outcasts Crew - 40 - Dustup Jack Daw -- 4 Pool +Drowing Injustice [0] +Firing Squad Injustice [0] +Guillotine Injustice [0] +Twist and Turn [2] +Writhing Torment [2] Freikorps Trapper [6] Hodgepodge Effigy [4] Johan [6] Nurse [5] Papa Loco [7] +Oath Keeper [1] The Guilty [5] While my opponent took: Guild Crew - 40 - Dustup Lucius -- 5 Pool +Legalese [1] +Secret Assets [2] Death Marshal [6] Francisco Ortega [8] +Wade In [1] Guild Guard [4] Guild Guard [4] Guild Hound [3] Guild Rifleman [5] Guild Rifleman [5] After revealing crews I was happy to see that there weren't too much shooting, but Franc and the Death Marshal would definitely mean big problems. I thought a bit about taking Deliver the Message, but in the end I opted for Breakthrough (announced) and Vendetta (Trapper on Death Marshall). My opponent revealed Deliver the Message and kept the other hidden. I had to deploy first, and I placed most of my troops in the centre, Papa on the left flank, while the Trapper was placed on a ht 3 rubble somewhat near the middle on the right flank, with a healthy view of the board. My opponent deployed similarly, but one of the Guild Guards and the Dog were placed at the left flank. The trapper put a dent into his positioning, and he had to deal with it quickly. Turn 1. Mostly positioning. My opponent managed to nifty move his troops into cover (Lucius moved them around like crazy), but he over extended the Guild Hound slightly who my Trapper was able to one shot with a lucky damage flip after triggering Critical Strike. My Guilty made Johan Tormented. Most of my forces moved into cover. Papa were behind the last hard cover just behind the centre line on his flank. Jack was 13" away from him near the middle. Lucius also tried to shoot Papa, but I lucked out and flipped the red joker. Turn 2. I really wanted to get the initiative on this turn, otherwise Papa would be in a though spot once again. The Guild Guard were closing in on him, and I didn't wan't him to either be killed by the combined effort of the GG and Hidden Sniper, or simply tied up. 5-7 flip to my opponent, I burned a stone, flipped an 11, my opponent did the same and flipped the same. We re flipped and it was 10-9 to my favour. My opponent decided to let it go. I activated JD, walked twice in order to be within 7" of Papa, took my 3rd AP to copy his Throw Dynamite on the GG. It connected for 1 damage. Then the fun stared. First I made Papa Walk once with Twist and Turn. Then Papa activated thanks to Companion and burned Oathkeeper. He pushed 3" off Writhing Torment and were getting awfully close to the heart of the opposing crew. He walked 4" and were within range of the GG, Lucius, and a Rifleman. I used the "blow me up"-thing twice, which killed the Rifleman and Guild Guard. Lucius got out of it unharmed, but that took Soulstones and cards. My opponent answered with an aggressive placement of Franc, who boosted Lucius. My Trapper then scaled off some wounds of the DM. It then engaged my Trapper and tried to box it. I managed to stay out thanks to a 13. Lucius went mental later in the turn. He snipped some wounds of JD, made a rifleman kill my Hodgepodge, had the left GG walk once, and made the DM pine box my Trapper. My Guilty started to run out on the right flank while the rest of my crew headed into the middle. The left GG engaged Jack. Both scored for Turf War. The GG could deliver the message the following turn. Turn 3. I won initiative. I had Jack in a pretty good spot, with LoS to Lucius and my own troops. I hit the GG with Guillotine Injustice and made it walk away with Twist and Turn. I then made Lucius get the Drowning Injustice after a lucky flip. With my last AP I made it through some rubble. Away from most dangerous things. Drowning Injustice hampered Lucius a lot. The Duels had drawn some card out of opponents hand already, so he wasn't too eager to loose more, neither was he eager to take wounds of Lucius. He thought about taking damage with Lucius in order for the GG to get back into position to Deliver the Message. I explained that Writhing Torment would still push the GG away, so he wouldn't be able to do it anyway. So he opted for having Lucius dropping the Curse and let the GG walk down the Flank away from JD. He shot JD with Hidden Sniper for 3 more wounds. Franc then made it after JD, but missed the swing. Johan charged him and could get him down to his Hard to Kill. The Rifleman tried to shoot the Nurse but missed. The Nurse answered with Paralyzing Franc and walked once, about at the centreline. My opponent only had two cards left in his hand at this point and decided to activate his GG. He threw the Cards thanks to the Curse and walked twice. My Guilty kept on sneaking up the Flank. The DM then activated, lost the WP duel to my Trapper and couldn't box it again. I had a high ram left in my hand, so I activated the trapper scorched a card for its (0). Then managed to kill the DM. Netting me 3vp for vendetta. Both scored for Turf war. Score was now 5-2. Turn 4. My opponent won initiative. Activated the GG. Ditched two cards for Guillotine, walked once and dropped a marker. I then activated Jack. Made the Nurse walk once with Twist and Turn. I then walked through some rubble, shot the Rifleman with Suppressed Memories, attaching Firing Squad to it. I shot it once again with the same attack; leaving it on 2 wounds. Thus, it would be unable to attack anything. My opponent activated the Rifleman and turned the upgrade. My Nurse then walked once and hit my Guilty up for +2 walk. My opponent then activated Franc. I answered with putting him out of his misery by a flurrying Johan. Lucius then made the Rifleman fire at the Nurse with a Focused shot, she got hit but triggered Hands Off in order to get an additional push. Lucius couldn't get hidden sniper off, but made the Rifleman walk within 2" of Jack, just outside of the Rifleman's ml-range. Lucius also had to get out of his hiding in order to not lose a VP from the strategy. Guilty walked once and Dropped a marker. The Trapper walked after the Guilty. Both once again scored from Turf War, score 6-3 to me. Turn 5. My opponent won initiative 5-3. I used my last Soulstone and flipped a 6 (!!!!). My opponent were out of Soulstones at the point too. I activated Jack. Got Drowning Injustice back from Lucius, killed the Rifleman with my first AP. I then charged Lucius. First attack connected, and I attached Drowning Injustice, dealning 3 damage on a moderate. He tossed a card for Highest Authority, but had to cheat for the duel too. My opponent then activated the GG. Dropped Cards, and placed another marker. My Guilty did the same. Lucius then activated, got pushed back a little bit by Daw, he then used Highest Authority to get JD on a negative for the Disengaging Strike (which was a mint move, take notes everyone). He then walked twice towards the Guilty's markers. He couldn't take another Walk since that would kill him, but that step would have made him be within range of both scheme markers the Guilty had placed in the far away corner. My Nurse and Trapper would still have been able to put down enough markers for the Breakthrough. Still, sneaky move! And that was pretty much game. The unrevealed scheme was of course Breakthrough. I scored the whole full 10 vp, while my opponent got 5. Post game thoughts. Jack Daw performed really well. The amount of movement he can provide for his crew is ridiculous. For example, there were a lot of times I didn't plan how to use Johan properly since he usually needs to spend a lot of his AP moving. With Jack moving him around, he suddenly could be so much more than what he usually is. This has me drooling over what he can do with Taelor and Lazarus! The game was closer than what the final score might show too. There was a lot of chances here and there for my opponent to score off his schemes, but Jack proved to be very slippery. The Papa Loco-bomb provided to be quite good. I first thought about letting the Nurse give +2 walk to Papa, but Jack's pushes was more than enough. My opponent said after the game that he didn't expect Jack to be able to move him that far a head. In hindsight he would have committed Lucius and a Guild Guard to care off Papa, but once again, Daw made the crew very hard to pin down thanks to all of the pushes. My opponent also thought that taking Deliver was a mistake. I cannot disagree with that. Besides some nifty Neverborn tricks, there aren't a lot of models that can pin down Jack in order to get the message delivered. All he had to do was to get models Tormented and he was safe. Another thing my opponent expressed was a real pain was playing with a lot less cards. The Curses depleted his hands completely. He didn't want to Soulstone for more cards at times since if his hand would be good, it would only mean that he would have to throw away good cards. Speaking of the Curses. He said that he would much rather would have had his models paralyzed. The Curses just made its' carriers life miserable, and that spilled over to the rest of the crew when you account for all the cards that where discarded. All and all, I really liked what Jack could do. The anti-McCabe description is quite spot on, but it misses that he still has plenty of crew support too. The Curses were a real pain for my opponent, and the really changed the outcome of the game. They are a bit tricky to get into a constant flow, I feel like getting a proper feel for this is a big part in unlocking Daw's potential. Until next time // Tom

Jack Daw—hanging with the hanged man himself Introduction Disclaimer, this turned out to be quite a long post, but I blame Jack for having simply too much to do. What follows is quite a close detailed look at Jack. If you don't fancy that, skip to the end and read my summary thoughts. Jack's got, as we will see, plenty of stuff on his plate. He's got a lot of actions and abilities that lets him disrupt the opponents plans and buffing his own crew. There is no shortage of movement effects or card manipulation here. Tormented The Tormented characteristic is really important for this crew. Jack can hire any model with the characteristic without any additional cost. On top of that, there are plenty of Jack's action and abilities which applies only to Tormented models. Jack and his crew have some ways of spreading the torment, with the Curses being the most infamous one. On that note, let us continue with looking a bit closer at the hexing ways of Daw. Curses The Curse upgrades is what makes Daw really unique. Think of him like an anti-McCabe. The latter wants to buff his own troops by handing them his upgrades, while Jack gives his upgrades to enemy models which will in turn give them some of the games worst debuffs. All of the Curses have a cost of 0. Regardless of how many upgrades you will hire, Jack can always take at least two Curses, ignoring the upgrade limit. When Jack is carrying the Curses they are treated as being "face down", meaning that they won't grant him any of their effects. Other models with a Curse upgrade attached can take a (2) action called Penance, which lets them flip the Curse "face down" if they discard a card(!). All the Curses will give its carrier the Tormented characteristic, which comes into play with several of Jack's actions and abilities. Daw can dish out his Curses in two ways, with his ranged attack with a range of 8" as well as his melee attack. Neither require Jack to do damage to his target, since it triggers after succeeding*2, but it still requires to get the (inbuilt) trigger off. The Curse will then move to the target. He can get them back by when a carrier is killed or sacrificed, and he also got an ability which lets him discard a card at the beginning of his turn to strip a model within 8" of a Curse upgrade. Let us now turn to the Curses. Drowning Injustice The carrier will suffer 2 damage (which may not be reduced) each time it takes a tactical action other than Penance. The carrier will also suffer 2 irreducible damage whenever it fails a simple duel. What really stands out with this Curse is that it lets you think twice about what a tactical action is. It is not only what is usually referred to as tactical actions, the ones that may be listed on a card, but Walk, Charge, and interactions are all tactical actions too. DI seems to have a lot of uses, thus a lot of valid targets. It can completely immobilize a nippy scheme-runner for a turn (enough time to chase it down). All pure summoning actions are tactical actions, so this can make a dent in several summoning engines. Some thoughts on particular master who shouldn't like to have DI on them. A summoning Dreamer can be really hampered by this Curse since he doesn't have a lot of wounds, same is true for Kirai. The ever so irritating Colette with her Prompt action is another master that will not like DI. All and all, I feel like that Drowning Injustice is the upgrade I rarely would leave at home. It got so many uses, and the fact that it can put a real dent in many masters' plans is just awesome. Guillotine Injustice Good bye minions and peons! If it is attached to a minion or peon, when the carrier activates its controller must discard two cards or be killed. If the opposing player wish to flip the Curse with Penance, that is another card, making it a sturdy tax of 3 cards. Besides gaining the Tormented characteristic, the Curse will not grant any other ill effects. The two card tax is more than enough to make this Curse worthwhile. I really like this upgrade too. The fact that it really disrupts the opposing players activation control is outstanding. This is further enhanced by that Jack can take GI back and attach it to another, unactivated model. Once again, really neat tool to mess with summoners with. A great way of dealing with high cost minions too, like the Dawn Serpent, Students, Shikome, and Hanged. Firing Squad Injustice Its similar to DI, but FSI will instead deal 2, irreducible, damage if the carrier makes an attack action. If the carrier suffers damage from an attack action, it will suffer +1 damage. This will greatly hamper offensive models, while also giving your own crew some limited damage buffs. It is quite a straightforward upgrade to me. Tag a model that you don't want to hit you, or paint a target on something for one of your own beaters. After giving the upgrades a closer read, I think that I will go with all three most of the time. Guillotine Injustice being probably the one I would leave first. Although that being a very though decision. We will see, might change my stance on this completely. Overall, all of the Curses look utterly disgusting! They will constantly throw different looks at the opponent, who will need to react to them in some fashion. Often by getting to choose between bad and worse. Getting the Curse machinery to work well will be a high priority for me. I have played with McCabe before, thus a bit used to the whole concept of maximizing the potential of throwing upgrades around. Just have to think about it in a different fashion. Movement One of Jack Daw's strong suits. He got plenty of movement tricks, both for himself as well as models around him. His ability Oldest Magic, lets him ignore other models during any movement or Push. It is basically the same thing as incorporeal. Jack's got a walk of 5" and a charge of 7", so he can move about fairly ok inherently. On his ranged attack, Jack's got a trigger called The Ghost of Malifaux, which lets him be placed in base contact with the target. Jack can place himself on the other side of the target, and that should make the movement be closer to 10". He can target friendly models with this action too in order to get out of bad spots, and run for Breakthrough or Entourage. Also on the back of Daw's card we can find the (0) Driven By Injustice. It targets a model within 16", and if Daw wins the duel all Tormented models within a pulse of 8" will be pushed directly towards the target. It is important to note that it is not a may, but all models must do the push. This can be great for enhancing the speed of Jack's crew on turn 1. Have to be careful with its uses though. On the 2ss upgrade Writhing Torment, Jack gets even more Push effects. When another Tormented models activates within aura 6" of Daw, Jack may Push it up to 3" in any direction. This is great for further enhancing the speed of Jack's own crew, or get enemies of objectives. On another 2ss upgrade called Twist and Turn, Jack gains a Obey-like (0) action, named after the upgrade, who can only target Tormented model. This can let enemies as well as Daw's own models take a walk action. Offence Jack Daw isn't really great at dealing damage himself, but he can certainly do some harm with the right set-up. Daw's range and melee attack are both CA 7, which is nice and lets him hit most of the time and will get past incorporeal. The melee attack is resisted on DF, and the range on WP. The latter is also missing a gun symbol, thus it can be used in melee. It also got a trigger which lets the opponent discard a card if able. Keeping to theme with the amount of hand destruction the Curses brings. This gives him some variety in what stat to go after on enemies. On his melee attack he got a trigger called Remember Injustice. This lets Daw take back a Curse upgrade after damaging, which will also deal 2 additional damage. This is great for sniping out Hard to Kill models. In a charge Jack can attach FSI on a model with the first attack and deal some damage, on the second attack, Daw can get the upgrade back and deal +1 damage as well as the additional 2. So lets say that he hits for minimum damage on both attacks, but gets all of those triggers off. It is still a total of 7 damage, which will ignore Incorporeal, and probably solve any problems Hard to Kill might provide. Granted, Daw can also keep the upgrade on the target on the second attack, and swing a third time if he got the last AP to spare. All and all, Jack can at least snipe a model a turn if he must. NB: All the Curses are applied after damaging. Since Daw's got fairly low weak damage, getting Curses on targets can be prevented (hah, didn't see that pun coming) by Soulstone users. Although, this plays into providing choices for the opponent. Burn a Soulstone or gain a Curse! The Twist and Turn upgrade can unlock a lot of Jack's offensive potential. The (1) attack action lets Daw take a (1) action on target Tormented model. It may not declare triggers or list a model by name. You will need an 8 of any suit to get it off, which can be a little card intensive. Yet it great potential. Jack can copy Papa Loco's Throw Dynamite or Whisper From Beyond of the Hanged. Friendly models can also be tagged with the Tormented characteristic, thus he can also shoot with Lazarus' Grenade Launcher or wield Taelor's Relic Hammer. The (0) Twist and Turn only needs a 7 of any suit, and lets a Tormented model do a (1) action instead, with the same restrictions. This can be great for either getting friendly models into position, or land another blow, as well as turning enemies on each other. Defence Jack Daw's got quite a weird stat-line, but he got plenty of abilities and a sturdy amount of wounds to keep him alive. The ability Oldest Magic will put all enemy attack and damage flips at a negative while aiming at Daw. So this chancels out Focus, for instance. The negative flips will only keep him safe for so long though. Jack will have to respect the threat models with access to plus flips pose to him. On the Writhing Torment upgrade, Jack gains immunity against the Paralyzed condition as long as it is applied by enemy models. I like this a lot. Having your master paralyzed can be such a heart stopper*. When it can be avoided, its pretty mint. Speaking of the Paralyzed condition, Jack's got another great upgrade called Betrayer which gives him Terrifying 13 against Tormented models. This provides a last line of defence against enemies turn Tormented, as well as those who got it inherently. Daw can also take the generic Outcast upgrade Survivalist to really ramp up his survivability. I think that might be a bit over the top, but I still want to try out a build with Betrayer, Survivalist, and Twist and Turn. Misc We are not done yet. Daw got some additional tricks that doesn't really apply to any of the other headlines. One of them is another (0) action, this one is found on his base card, and is called Last Whisper. Until the end of the turn, all non-peon models within an aura 6" of Daw will drop a marker after being killed. This can make some scheme marker heavy schemes quite easy to do. Especially since Tormented models like Drowned and Crooked men both got Finish the Job, thus will drop 2 markers upon death. The Last Whisper aura can in ideal times protect your crew, since the opponent doesn't want you to score for Spring the Trap or Plant Explosives. Summary In so many words, there is plenty to do with Jack. I think it will be hard at times to grasp in what order things should be done to maximize the effectiveness of the crew, while also throwing wrenches at the opponent. After giving only Jack's card and upgrades a closer look something that really stood out for me was the amount of times the opponent needed to discard cards. As long as Daw can get his Curses rolling back and forth in an effective manner, opponents will loose their hands quickly. The implication of this is that a healthy amount of pressure will lead to that the opponent will constantly play with few cards, thus cannot cheat fate as much, leading to tougher decisions, which will hopefully lead to bad decisions Daw's amount of extra pushes is also very welcomed in the fairly slow Outcast faction. Models like Taelor, Johan, Lazarus, and Bishop are all walk 4", but Daw can push them 3" for free with Writhing Torment, and 4" with Driven By Injustice once they are made Tormented. That is nearly a double walk for all of them. This extra speed frees up their own AP, which is mostly pretty darn nasty attacks. I will conclude with that I now, more than before writing this, think that there is no question about Daw being an all purpose master. There are a lot of depth and combinations to explore, and he seems to potentially be very powerful in many different situations. If Daw gets to control the flow of the game undisturbed, I think that will be a real up hill battle for the opponent. An apparent weakness I can see is that he is far from as resilient as one might think. I will have to restrain myself committing Jack Daw where he can get harmed. Another thing that I have to learn is to be more aware of LoS. Plenty of Jack's Actions and Abilities requires LoS. In order to get those great master plan moves to connect, I will need to be very aware of this. Coming from my latest Lilith binge might makes this a wee bit harder too... Anyway, there are certainly a bunch of other bad match ups and settings for Jack, but I think he should be able to hold his own in most of them. At least with a little help from his crew. We will talk about them next time! * Sneaky reference. *2 Thanks to Kalkris for pointing this out.

WTF were you doing then? x)

Doubt I will ^^ I like to have plenty of Soulstones around.

Well... Math had another game plan then ^^

Incredibly spot on! Funny since he is going Lilith for a while. Can't wait to see what you are cooking for me ^^

Everything just hits you once and dies. Nothing comes back. I'll take that over Resser any day.

It is not worse than anything else. I mean how is that worse than all the bs Ressers can pull off?

Haha... Why the Finish hate against the RealGreenArmy?

Hey, you can be on the Gremlin side, don't you have a finished Somer crew?

Sounds cool! Great idea. Might turned them into a real faction for more people.

Next time you do, he will turn you into a Gremlin.

I promise

Why not switch it up a bit! Have a month with a limit of maybe 700, and another with 3000. While keeping the current word limit as the mainstay.

I got two hot takes from this is. First, one of your favourite, Sephiroth, characters is regarded as one of the biggest a-holes in gaming. Second, who is really surprised that you enjoy a Solid Snake?! And thanks Tzarcastic, I got a laugh out of that. Great burn!

Double topic!