Virtus

I hear Hamelin just won NOVA. Hopefully, the list will be shared along with battle reports.

I like hiring a rat catcher, and eventually build up into my second one (they are rare 2). Don't bother hiring a rat king. If you want to spend those 8 points to get a rat king, hire 4 malifaux rats instead for activation control.

The upgrade would have been broken if it allowed Hamelin to sacrifice rats at the start of his activation rather than at the start of the turn. I'm still really excited to use it.

No, Hamelin is not about to be busted. If people would read the Gaining Grounds 2018 rules, they would see that Nihilism will no longer work on Strategy conditions and that summoned models don't count towards the Strategy. If anything, Hamelin took a big hit and may see less play during GG18.

Can Oath of the Freikorps give Oath Keeper to minions?

@TeddyBear Just realize that the whole metagame is going to change soon with the release of new Master upgrades and GG2018 coming soon.

For Parker, something that gives Companion and can ditch it for Accomplice. I think the other way around is asking for too much.

For Hamelin, maybe a Ca that targets enemy WP which gives them negative to all duels for the rest of the turn. Can only target enemy blighted models.

I like Hamelin for Headhunter. Use Pipes to bring an opponent's non-Peon over to your side, kill it, then send a Rat Catcher to go pick up the head. Give Rat Catcher Infectious Melodies if you think your opponent might claim his head.

Has anybody had good success with Human Shield in conjunction with Frame for Murder? I've been theorizing making Doc Mitchell the FfM target since he can generally keep up with Parker Barrows. But at 5 wounds, it'll require some set up to ensure he dies from one redirected minimum damage attack. Coordinated Heist helps make it plausible, but at the same time, if Doc is engaged with a Master or Henchman, it's pretty obvious I put FfM on him. Thoughts?

The Freikorps Librarian can also remove suits.

Parker Barrows' 0 actions have the following trigger: "Changing Plans: After succeeding, take a different (0) Action. This Action may not declare Triggers."
My question is if I were to hit the trigger, must I immediately take a different 0 action, or may I take it later on in the activation? 

Play towards Strategy and Schemes. For example, I play against Gremlins a lot. If I see my opponent is playing Somer with summoning, I look for schemes that grant me VP by killing minions and peons.

Hamelin has been my OG since I started playing Malifaux, which has been about 3 years. He's gotten a lot better in GG17 strats and schemes than he was back with the rulebook strats and schemes. If there is one thing I would recommend for a new Hamelin player, it would be to pick up a beater (Killjoy is who I use if I go that route). You don't really need a beater if you can hand out blighted easily and quickly, but it can be hard to do since Malifaux Rats only have Ml 4. Sure, you can use Rat Kings to start giving blighted since they hit more consistently, but if you do that, then you already lost out on their 1 AP charges against blighted models.

Which leads me to one of my auto-include upgrades for Hamelin: The Plague, since it gives ranged blight on a Sh6 attack. My other auto-include upgrade for Hamelin is The Piper because it helps with the control aspect of his game. Sewer King is the third upgrade I like to take, but it is a more flexible slot than the other two upgrades. I usually take Nix and give him Infectious Melodies and Hollow for AP efficient charges. 

I basically have three ways I play Hamelin: Kill focused with Killjoy, scheme focused with Crooligans (via Sewer King upgrade), and my favorite, yet hardest to use way of AP efficieny focus with Freikorps Specialist and his tactical action to remove slow.

I've been playing Hamelin for years now and haven't gotten complaints over being out-activated. I've only heard two complaints in all my games with him. The first was from a friend of mine with whom I was learning Malifaux with and he complained Hamelin wasn't good (which I'll admit, rulebook schemes weren't his favorite, but I chose to play Hamelin anyway). The other was over Bleeding Disease. For those who complain about being out-activated all the time, I hope you realize it isn't that easy for us Hamelin players. We have a good chance of doing it turn 1 and 2, but from then on out, it's primarily from positioning Hamelin and our Rat Catchers well for the Voracious Rats ability to trigger. 

Parker Barrows' Highwayman upgrade has: "This is Worth a Few Scrip: Once per turn, after resolving an Action that removed one or more enemy Scheme Markers, draw two cards and then discard one card." Since this ability doesn't specify on Parker's activation like his Black Market upgrade does, does this mean that it can trigger off of another friendly model's activation? I'm assuming it can and that it doesn't require any range or LOS.

Mad Dog Brackett has an ability: "Loot Their Corpses: After this model kills an enemy model, place a friendly Scheme Marker in base contact with the enemy model before it is removed." Does this work well with the Dig Their Graves scheme, in that the scheme marker is dropped before the scheme is scored? If so, can I get some timing clarification? I'm assuming it works because the once per turn clause on Dig Their Graves doesn't specify immediately  scoring after killing a model, thus giving time for Mad Dog's ability to kick in. Is that right?

As always, thanks in advance!

52 minutes ago, OctaBit said:

So what do you generally do in a very kill heavy pool? Do you play Hamelin with more of an elite crew focused on obeys?

If I need to kill one particular model, I run Killjoy with Hamelin. If I need more widespread damage output, I run Parker and focus more on Mad Dog's Blown Apart marker along with Parker's repertoire of upgrades. Adding elite models in either list if necessary.

When picking what Masters to play to compliment what you currently play, a lot of it has to do with personal playstyle. For example, DXXXVIII above prefers Hamelin for schemes over Parker, and Jack as a killy Master. I on the other hand like Parker for scheme-marker-placement schemes and Hamelin for condition-heavy schemes in particular, and I consider Jack more as a positioning Master than as a killing-focused Master. Jack Daw probably does kill well, but if I were to look at a killy scheme pool, I personally wouldn't pick Jack because in my experience I'm used to him moving models around more than mowing things down.

I now play Parker and Hamelin exclusively as my two mains, and I feel they work well with each other.

8 minutes ago, SurreyLee said:

True, but, with deploy from the shadows and an unwitting enemy, there is a chance. 

And a built in plus to help against soft cover.

Today I had the pleasure of starting out a game by one-shotting Merris with a Freikorps Trapper. I kept an initial hand with one face card and RJ (my only ram), focus shot on the first activation of the game, cheated in the red joker for critical strike trigger, then cheated in the severe for damage. It was cool getting to start a game with that kind of message, but it got me thinking...

How many enforcers in the game have 5 or 6 wounds that the Trapper can one-shot, and how many of those have Df 5 or less? Having this kind of understanding can help a lot in making the Spoils of War upgrade playable in a Von Schill crew.

The next time I'm up against Gremlins, I want to take Von Schill with Engage at Will and Tally Sheet, Rusty Alyce with From the AEther and Tally sheet, one or two abominations, and continuously draw a bunch of cards all game.

If I choose to make a disengaging strike with an attack that has a plus built in, can I flip twice for the disengaging strike?

The Specialist is generally considered not worth his point cost, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a home somewhere. I like using him with Hamelin because if you give the Specialist Scout the Field, you could Obey walk him into position to shoot at a rat without needing LOS and ignoring cover. So the Specialist can focus shoot and cheat in for blast damage. I think his tactical action is superb with Hamelin, and his armor makes him a good target for the Obedient Wretch to shoot to make rats. Not so useful with other Masters though.

I recommend picking up the Viks.

When I was looking to get into miniature wargaming for the first time through 40k, a recommendation I got a lot was similar to your Rule of Cool: "Pick what you like the look of, because you're the one who will be assembling and painting it. It doesn't matter how good/bad they are. If you don't like it, you won't finish it." You've been wargaming for over 15 years, so you're probably going to finish whatever crews you get, but I still want to emphasize something: it doesn't matter how good/bad they are. Yes, certain Masters are better at certain strategies and schemes than others, but it's not that black and white. You have to consider things such as how the terrain is set up, what the deployment zones are, what might your opponent bring and how can you counter it, etc. Having multiple options to choose from doesn't hurt, but it's not mandatory. If you read up some battle reports you can find that there are indeed players who have won tournaments with relatively fixed lists. It has a lot to do with knowing what your crew can do, and realizing what your opponent can do.

As for me, I have three Outcast Masters but 9/10 times I pick up Hamelin because he was my first Master and I haven't gotten tired of him, and I feel most comfortable using him because I've had more practice with him. Eventually I hope to pick up Parker Barrows and his crew for myself, then main just Hamelin and Parker to tournaments.

8 hours ago, DXXXVIII said:

Jack daw and the low WP of Tormented models (Average WP of 4) against Neverborn? Hmm...
But Schill against Arcaniststs seems great. thanks

If your primary concern against Neverborn is the WP of your crew, Von Schill's WP7 bubble is something to consider.

Do you guys like using Monty against Gremlins? The idea of tarpitting a few Gremlins and choking them to death is appealing, but how is it in practice?

Here are my thoughts based on my experiences with my three masters: Hamelin, Jack Daw, and Von Schill.

vs. Guild: Hamelin. Hire Crooligans for the Mist to protect against shooting, and/or Nix with Hollow in case of blasts. Out-activating Guild should be easy. Nihilism can also help.

vs. Resurrectionists: Von Shill. Steam Trunk helps get rid of Corpse Markers and poison. Clockwork Seeker attack gets around Hard to Wound. Armor, A Legend to Live up To, and a Librarian will help survive.

vs. Neverborn: Jack Daw. This one was a tough one for me, but I think Jack's Ca7 against Wp or Df along with his pushes edge him over Hamelin, but I completely understand the OP's reasoning for picking Hamelin.

vs. Arcanists: Von Schill. His Freikorps Suit ignores Rasputina's blasts, his Ml attack ignores armor.

vs. Ten Thunders: Hamelin. Can't get slow. No-charge aura helps against Yasunori blitz, which is a thing these days.

vs. Gremins: Jack Daw. Oldest Magic helps against Bayou Two-Card and Guillotine Injustice on Bayou Gremlins is good.