Gipsy_Danger

Personally I'd like to see a Captain Nemo inspired crew. TOS and fluff confirmed Malifaux has oceans, so it could be feasible

there's a pretty solid starter's guide to Hoffman over on filthyguild.blogspot.com

I never leave home without Field Mechanic, and Arcanist Assets I almost always take

In a competitive setting it can be hard to justify an Executioner because of all the other things we could bring in it's place (as listed above), but for a fun friendly game I think they can be great. After all, who doesn't love playing with/against a fat Wolverine when nothing's at stake?

I can bring terrain with me

I'm seriously excited for this. Between the Avengers and this I can't wait for May to get here

Don't be afraid to use the Austringer's Distract trigger to empty his hand, the quicker you can drain Ulix's hand the easier it will be for you to handle him. Another thing you might want to try to dissuade his hunting down of your Marshalls and help Lady J tank the way you want her to is have Franc El Mayor Lady J and box him. Lady J'll stay at Df 7 with a high willpower until Franc's next activation (and buried models don't activate), toss a couple of Hard to Wounds on her from the Lawyer and she won't go anywhere in a hurry. Also, if he kills the Marshall that boxed Franc then Franc can pop out in Melee range and Flurry whatever attacked the Marshall & keep it from moving onto the rest of your crew. I've used this sort of "Road Block" idea a couple of times before, it'll work a treat if you set it up right

A good starting point to build out of Hoffman's starter box is to get yourself another Watcher, and possibly a pair of Soulstone Miners. Watchers and Miners are my go-to scheme runners for Hoffman, and run well for any Strategy or marker-based scheme. If you're playing Stake a Claim/Squatters Rights for example, 2 Watchers (give 1 Programmed Directive & the other Hydraulics) and 2/3 Soulstone Miners will cover both the Strategy and any Scheme like Breakthrough/Protect Territory/Outflank/Power Ritual/etc. Hunters can do this pretty well also, but if you have his crew box you've already got 2 of those.

If you're playing something more like Turf War/Reckoning then models like a Peacekeeper (god I love Peacekeepers), Ryle, or Howard Langston are good bets. Rail Golems are great also, but as mentioned above aren't the best choice to bring against Mei Feng. Hoffman has rediculous amount of healing, which makes running those elite 4/5 model crews viable. His Modification Upgrades also take what's already good and make them insane (Armour +3 or Nimble Peacekeepers are brilliant, and Ryle auto-triggering Raking Fire is pure magic).

Strategy, Scheme Pool, and table terrain are always the primary things to consider when building a crew, but my general Hoffman crew-frame looks kinda like this:

Hoffman

-Field Mechanic (2)

-Arcanist Assets (1)

Peacekeeper/Ryle/Langston/Joss/Rail Golem/insertbigpunchyconstructhere

X number of Watchers/Soulstone Miners

If you divide your crew into schemers (Watchers/Miners) & tanks (Peacekeeper/Langston/etc) and play for 10 points you should do brilliantly

Hoffman has quickly become my absolute favourite master to play, and I've had a decent amount of success with him in Strategies like Stake a Claim, Turf War, and Reckoning. But lately I've been thinking about how to make him work for Reconnoitre. Wardens seem to fit the bill quite nicely, does anybody have any suggestions or ideas on what else might work? Cheers!

Out of all the Strategies for Malifaux, I always have the most trouble with Reconnoitre. Usually Sonnia's my go-to, but I'm looking for some Out of the Box thinking for an upcoming event. Crew selection always depends on the Schemes, so here they are: ALITS, Plant Explosives, Protect Territory, Bodyguard, & Outflank. So who'd be your Master of choice, and what kind of Crew would you look at running? Any help or advice would be really appreciated, I'd really like to see some other people's ideas on this. Thanks!

He's a regular member of my McCabe crew, I love this guy

I've been having the same thoughts about Power Looping Sholto, a Df6 Armour + 3 Peacekeeper seems like it'd be awesome for Bodyguard. Has anyone had any experience with Hunters?

So I picked up C. Hoffman's box last weekend and now that I've got him put together I was wondering, what does everyone find he's best at? He seems like he could own Turf War pretty well, but what other Strategies or Schemes do you find he's best at? And what do you like to run with him? He seems like a very fun Master to play, any tips or tricks to help me get going?

There's a few people out playing in the Voorhees, NJ area which isn't terribly far from Philly

The last McCabe list I played with was:

McCabe (7 cache)

-Elixer of Life

-Strangemetal Shirt

-Promises

Pale Rider

Peacekeeper

Lone Marshall

Guild Austringer

Luna

That's the full 50 SS list I've been using lately, healing a big model like a Peacekeeper and then giving it Regen +2 and Unimpeded can be fun =D

Austringers, Wardens, Guild Hounds, the Lone Marshall, Guild Riflemen, and Wastrels are all great with him

Excellent advice, thanks for writing it all up!

It doesn't seem like a bad idea, but like others have said you can use her for more than just that. I like the idea of her using the Lawyer's Special Damages attack as well, really bumping up the Fees counter on an enemy beatstick to put them in the poor house just seems like fun to me

Looks like a pretty solid base, the only model I don't like out of all of that is the Scales of Justice. I don't know if I've been playing it right, but it's always seemed a bit underwhelming to me. As far as upgrades go Unrelenting Leader on The Judge can be nice, and Badge of Office on Lady J can be a lifesaver (especially against Red Joker damage flips). Other upgrades can be chosen depending on what's flipped for Strategy and Schemes. Peacekeeper might not be a bad inclusion either for a real tank of a model, and you can't really go awry with an Austringer as well

Guild Riflemen don't lose Focus during the upkeep step

Great points, I agree with Dgraz about sticky-ing this for future reference

Those are gorgeous, nice work

Depending on what you flip for Strategy and Schemes I'd recommend swapping a Death Marshall or Exorcist for 2 Guild Hounds. They're great cheap objective runners when taken in pairs, and they work beautifully for Frame for Murder. Otherwise everything looks pretty solid to me

Divide and conquer. The Ortega's are a lot to take on all at once, but like everyone's been saying if you can take down a few key models you'll have a much better chance. Always go for Francisco and Papa Loco first, and in the early turns against ranged crews sometimes it really doesn't hurt to take up a Defensive Stance if you can because they can't ignore it like they can ignore cover

Absolutely beautiful, great work

Two floors above you Jim, it's Will

For me it had to be the plastic Death Marshalls, I just thought they were some of the coolest models I had ever seen. But then I started falling in love with the whole Guild model line, and now I have 5 masters for Guild lol