retnab

Welcome, one and all, to the church of Mei!  I’m here to tell you all that you need to play her, for she is amazing and to play her is to know true happiness.  Mei is an incredibly flexible master who has good team support, extreme mobility, and also threatens a mean beat-down.  That’s true of her keyword Foundry as well: they’re durable, fast, do good damage, and really just have it all.  No single model of theirs is necessarily amazing in every way and a bunch of their strengths are situational, but a Foundry crew can easily be built to skew towards any objective.  If there’s a job that needs doing, the Foundry can pull it off!

The Foundry

• The Foundry primarily uses their unique movement tricks, Hazardous auras, and variety of defensive techs to skew games in their favour.  The Foundry’s primary resource is Scrap Markers, and their models are mostly either Constructs with Armor or non-Constructs with Hard to Wound and the occasional Hard to Kill.  Because the crew doesn’t rely on just one defensive tech their only really reliable counter is Scrap Marker removal.  However, it’s hard to really call that a counter when you see the sheer quantity of Scrap Markers the Foundry can put on the table every turn.

• There are several Abilities, Actions, and Triggers that are spread throughout the Foundry (some of which are Foundry-exclusive) and are crucial to how they play, so let’s start by covering those.  Ride the Rails is an Ability shared by every Foundry member and is both very powerful and very restrictive: if the model declares a Walk while within 1” of a Scrap Marker, instead of moving normally they can place in base contact with any other Scrap Marker within 12”!  This can be done even while engaged (and it doesn’t count as a Disengage so the model can still Interact afterwards) and the landing spot does not have to be in line of sight, which makes this a very difficult trick to stop.  It’s not a once-per-X ability either, so Foundry models can use this to move more than 2/3’s of the table length in one activation.  However, since this needs Scrap Markers at both the starting and landing point it does take some initial set-up for this to work and a clever opponent can deny this by using anti-Scrap Marker tech on specific spots on the board.  The second shared Ability, Walking Forge, is found only on the four non-Living Foundry models (Forgeling, Metal Golem, Mechanized Porkchop, and Metal Gamin).  This lets the model drop a Scrap Marker in base contact with itself at the end of its activation, and is the primary method of creating starting or landing spots to Ride the Rails from.  This alone makes those models incredibly valuable, and most crews will be made up of at least a few of them.
• The first shared Action is an Attack called Rail Driver, which is found on just two of their models (Neil Henry and Rail Workers).  This has a very standard stat line of Rg 1 with a 2/4/5 damage spread.  What makes this unique is that when you declare the Action you can remove any number of nearby Scrap Markers and, for each one removed, this gets +1 to its Stat!  Now, you’re unlikely to take advantage of that for every attack, but nabbing the occasional +1 or +2 to help lock in those hits can be very helpful.  The second shared Action, Vent Steam, is found on three Foundry models (Mei Feng, Metal Golem, and Mechanized Porkchop.  Howard Langston is notable for being the only non-Foundry model with this Action).  This is a flip-less action that puts up an aura that is Hazardous (1) to enemy non-Constructs and gives everyone in range Concealment (note that this does NOT mean this aura is Concealing terrain: even if a model targeting something in the aura ignores Concealing Terrain, or is within 1” of the target, the target will still benefit from Concealment).
• There are also a few notable triggers spread throughout the Foundry.  There’s  Scorched Remains which drops a Scrap Marker in base contact with the target, which is the Foundry’s other key source of Scrap Marker generation (there's also  Dismantle for Parts which has the same effect but is usable only against Constructs).   Blaze, which gives the target Burning +1 per tome in the duel up to +2, also shows up a few times across the crew.  The first trigger that’s exclusive to the Foundry is  Blinded by Iron, which costs a nearby Scrap Marker to increase the attack’s damage by +1, make the enemy discard or gain Stunned, and push this model b2b with the enemy.  Costing a Scrap Marker is a bit pricey to get used all the time, but when you really need to be min 3 or hand out Stunned it’s great.  Lastly, the other exclusive trigger is  Condensation which lets the model take Vent Steam as an Additional Action.

So we’re all on the same page here, let’s take a look at Mei’s card, as per Wyrd’s website:

[Card, when it gets posted]

Card Front

• Mei Feng’s stats are average for a Master, notably with better Df than Wp.  She has Armor +1 as her only built-in defensive tech, which makes her deceptively appear not super tanky. 
• Like all Foundry models, she has Ride the Rails for that sweet, sweet mobility.  Mei’s other two Abilities are unique to her and are incredibly synergistic together.  The first, Constant Motion, lets her push 2” after resolving an Action where she declared a trigger.  Since all of her actions except Vent Steam (which doesn’t have a flip at all) have at least one trigger, she can use this up to 4 times per activation for 8” of extra movement!  The other, Press the Advantage, allows her to reduce her final duel total by 2 to add a free suit to it.  With this, as long as you’re beating your opponent by at least 2 (which with Stat 6 on her attacks occurs decently often) then she can guarantee she’ll get exactly the trigger she wants!

Card Back

• Mei Feng has a good assortment of actions.  Her first Attack Action, Deadly Claws, has a respectable Stat 6, Rg 1, and a good damage track of 2/4/5.  This has three triggers on different suits, meaning it’s very easy to trigger Constant Motion even without using Press the Advantage.   Jackhammer Kick is the trigger you’ll want to take most often, as it pushes the enemy 2” away and lets Mei take this action again against anyone (remember, timing-wise it’s “Jackhammer Kick push,” then “Constant Motion push,” then “Jackhammer Kick additional attack”).  It also has  Heated Claws, which gives the target Burning +1 and, if they’re a Construct, drops a Scrap Marker b2b with them.  Lastly, there's  Blinded by Iron for when you need that min 3 or Stunned.
• Her other Attack Action is Breath of Fire which comes in at Stat 6, Rg 6, and has an okay damage track of 2/3/4 and Burning +1.  Remember this isn't a  so you can use it while engaged!  This only has two triggers and they share a suit so it’s less likely to trigger Constant Motion on its own.  It has the  Blaze trigger which is alright, but the trigger you’ll usually want is  Condensation for that sweet, sweet free Vent Steam.
• Her only Tactical Action other than Vent Steam is Freight Train, which at first glance might seem very weak for a Master.  It has Rg 8 and only needs a 6 to hit the TN, with an optional cost to remove as many Scrap Markers within 2” of the target as you’d like, to push target friendly 1” in any direction plus 3” per removed Scrap Marker.  On top of that, if the target ends the push b2b with an enemy (even if it moved 0”) then the enemy takes a whopping TN 14 Mv duel or suffers damage equal to the target’s Sz!  As an excellent bonus, this has the  Scorched Remains trigger which turns this Action into a handy ranged Scrap Marker generator.

Totem

• The Forgeling is frankly an amazing Totem and I love it to bits.  Defensively it’s pretty poor with only 4 Health and low Df/Wp, but it does have Armor +1 and Flameborne (reduces Burning damage to 0) which is nice.  Mv 5 and Ride the Rails makes it respectably zippy too.  You do have to be careful where you place it though, as its Fiery Presence gives all nearby models Burning +1 when it activates which is not optional (though it’s not as bad as it sounds).  It also has Walking Forge, which is great on a free model.
• Action-wise the Forgeling is a bit sparse, but what it has is quite valuable.  Flaming Fury is only Stat 4 and Rg 1, but a 2/3/4 and Burning +1 damage spread is pretty respectable as support Totems go.  This also has the  Smolder trigger which converts Burning on the target into more damage which is nice and synergizes with Fiery Presence.  Speaking of synergy, its other action is where the Forgeling’s real value is: Remove Impurity lets you remove any number of Conditions the target has and have them Heal equal to that same number (remember that it’s the number of different Conditions you’re removing, so any Conditions with +X at the end count as only one Condition no matter how high its number is)!  This is Rg 2 and only needs a 4 to hit the TN, but can only target a friendly Construct.  Cheekily, Fiery Presence can let you give a friendly model Burning +1 and then the Forgeling can turn it into a Heal 1 with this action, which for an easy is great.  Making this even better, it also has  Scorched Remains!  Getting the suit is much less reliable here than it is for Mei since it can’t use Soulstones (unless you want to be wild and give it the Soulstone Cache upgrade), but it’s great when you get it.

Foundry Hires

• (From this point onward, I'll only mention a model's triggers if I think it's particularly relevant to how it plays.  Partly to cut down length, and partly because otherwise I go WAY beyond the max of 75 icons per post)
• Kang (Ten Thunders): The Foundry’s only Henchman, coming in at 9ss he’s a strange mix of a beater, tank, and support model.  His Guiding Presence lets nearby friendlies discard to block incoming Distracted or Slow (pricey, but sometimes worth it), and The Worker’s Champion lets you discard a card or nearby Scrap Marker to give all other nearby Foundry models Focused +1.  Pitching a card for mass Focused is amazing value and he’s almost worth taking just for that!  Offensively he’s just okay: his Shovel is only a 2/3/5 track but it has built-in  Critical Strike, making him a pseudo-min-3 model.  At range he has Hot Coals (a weaker Breath of Fire), notably with Blinded by Iron which can actually push him further than he can charge!  Defensively his Health 9, Hard to Wound, and Juggernaut (letting him discard to heal 1/2/4) do a good job of keeping him alive.  However, having three Abilities/Actions that need you to discard make him very card hungry, and it’s rare that he’ll get to use everything as often as he’d like.
• Mechanized Porkchop (Bayou): The strangest of the Walking Forge models, this is a high speed melee beater which regularly nearly kills itself to use its own tricks even with its Armor +2.  Rage Machine lets nearby friendlies take 1 Irreducible damage to get a to a duel which is pretty expensive in a crew that relies more on damage reduction than deep health pools.  It has Tusks at Stat 6 and a 2/4/5 track, but it comes at a tragic Rg 0 and like the real Pigs this model must declare triggers and has one for every suit. Those triggers range from okay to not great, but I specifically want to call out  Rampage as a bad option.  It gives free damage, but it can easily make you move outside your 0” range and ruin your ability to attack again since the push is not “up to” that distance.  It has Vent Steam which is good on a 50mm model, Reckless to trade 1 damage for Fast as needed, and it can also keep itself alive a bit with Tin Feast which removes a nearby Scrap Marker to Heal 2.  It’s the fastest Foundry model with Mv 6 and of course Ride the Rails so it’s able to drop Scrap Markers further forward than any other Walking Forge model, but if you’re taking it you essentially need to hire a healer to keep it and your crew alive.
• Metal Golem: The only 10ss Foundry model, the Golem comes in with Walking Forge, Armor +2, and Ride the Rails.  Plus, on the chance that it dies, its Demise (Excess Materials) lets it drop a second Scrap Marker within 3” (which doesn’t need LoS) which can open up unexpected attack angles for you.  As an added bonus, this model’s Sz 4 makes it the ideal target if Mei’s looking to use her Freight Train offensively.  Its Huge Fist has Stat 5 (making it ideal for targeting models with Manipulative or Serene Countenance), Rg 1, and is the only baseline min 3 in the Foundry.  Notably this has   Condensation and to go along with that it has Vent Steam, which again is great on a 50mm model.  It also has a very interesting ability, Off the Rails, that lets the Golem push 6” ignoring other models, and all enemies it moves through have to take a TN 13 Mv duel or take 2 damage and get placed b2b with the Golem.  On top of that, the Golem then gets to take an attack against someone it moved through regardless of range.  This is one of those rare times when you can take three actions for the cost of one since the attack’s not coming from a trigger: you can Off the Rails into a free Huge Fist with Condensation trigger into a free Vent Steam!  Its last action, Reform Plating lets it remove a nearby Scrap Marker to gain Shielded +2 to tank even harder.
• Neil Henry: Neil doesn’t bring much except sheer face-beating, but he sure excels at that.  He’s unfortunately a non-Construct so he can’t get healed by the Forgeling or Sparks, and his only defensive tech is Hard to Wound so he’s definitely not a tank.  He also has Sabotage for free Scheme Markers on Construct kills while is pretty niche but okay. While the Metal Golem has the honour of being the only min 3 model in the Foundry, Neil is the only non-Master Foundry model who can attack 4 times in an activation by combining his Reckless and Flurry (discard after taking a melee action to take it again)!  Speaking of attacking, he has Rail Driver at Stat 6 and some great triggers:  Armor Piercing to ignore the target’s Armor and  Blinded By Iron.  In case he finds himself surrounded by a bunch of enemies, he also has Whirling Hammer to make all nearby enemies take a TN 12 Df duel (which Constructs are at a to) or gain Injured +2.
• Sparks LeBlanc (Bayou): The mechanic of the Foundry, Sparks is… weird.  He’s another non-Construct and he only has 8 Health, Evasive which lets him reduce damage from blasts, shockwaves, and pulses to 0, and Scamper’s free movement when a nearby enemy Cheats as his defensive tech.  Hostile Work Environment denying nearby enemies from targeting their own models and Scrapyard Mines making enemies treat the area around Scrap Markers as Hazardous are both incredibly powerful, but their short ranges of 6 each mean he has to be right up in the action to really use them which makes him super vulnerable.  His Heavy Wrench is okay damage-wise, but if he targets a friendly Constructs he can choose to Heal it 2 without a TN which is very valuable!  His Pack with Explosives can force your enemy to blast onto themselves with their own attacks if they dare hit a loaded up melee beater, which is a particularly nasty way of dealing with your opponent.  It also has Galvanize to hand out free Focused +1 which is great!  Analyze Weakness is crucial offensive tech into enemy crews that rely on Armor and Shielded, and his “Now Yer a Robot” is very useful between it giving out Shielded +2 and its  Burn Out trigger trading 2 damage for Fast, 1 of which is instantly ignored thanks to Shielded (if the model has Armor then it's literally just trading one Shielded for Fast which is fantastic).  He can be incredibly useful and a crucial member of some matchups, but you shouldn’t expect him to last long in your games.
• Willie: Mr. Wheelbarrow-of-Doom himself, Willie is the last non-Construct and is the only source of Shockwave attacks in the Foundry.  He’s very difficult for the enemy to pin down thanks to having Agile (letting him walk out of engagements) and Evasive, and his Demise (Explosive +3) can punish the enemy for daring to take him out (just be sure he’s not near friendly models when he pops).  He also has Demolitionist, which is amazing in matchups where the opponent has lots of Destructible terrain as he gets to remove any within 1 for free when he activates.  His Sharp Wit is Stat 5 and only gives out Slow, but it has the  “Here Hold This” trigger to make the target and other nearby models take a TN 13 Mv duel (with the target at a ) or take a whopping 3 damage!  His Throw Dynamite is almost exactly the same effect as that trigger but at Rg 8 and only needing a 7 to hit the TN.  It also has  “Fire in the Hole!” which lets friendlies near the Shockwave push away before they’d have to take the duel.  Leaning further into the destruction angle, he has Blow it to Hell for long range Destructible terrain removal as well as making enemies lose Cover, and Set Charge which makes nearby Scheme or Scrap Markers blow up for 2 damage when an enemy model ends a move in base contact with them.  If you need area damage or Destructible terrain removal he’s incredible, but against more elite crews who can pass his TN’s more easily he can struggle to make an impact.
• Metal Gamin: Where the Metal Golem is tanky on its own, Metal Gamin are all about letting others become tankier.  They have the exact same Ability loadout as the Golem at half the cost (Armor +2, Walking Forge, Ride the Rails, and Demise (Excess Materials)), but only Health 4.  The back of their card is very different though: the Gamin’s Hard Slam is Stat 5 and Rg 1 and lets you reduce the Gamin’s Shielded by any amount.  Why would you ever get rid of its Shielded?  Well, it has 1/2/4 damage spread which gets a +1 per however much Shielded you removed to a max of +2, giving it a potential min 3!  While that may sound appealing, what they’ll usually be doing instead is using Encase in Steel to give Shielded +1 to your front-liners.  They also have Magnetism to zip around as needed.  These are your cheapest Walking Forge models and the only one you can take multiples of, so they’ll often find a spot or two in your lists.
• Rail Workers (Ten Thunders): These are cheap and respectably durable melee beaters.  Coming in at Cost and Health 5, Armor +1, and Hard to Kill, they require some effort to take out.  They also have Creative Salvage for free Scrap Markers on kills, which is very helpful to the Foundry.  They actually have two different melee attacks which do totally different things: They have Rail Driver at Stat 5 which already gives them a heftier punch than most 5 cost models, and they also have Pneumatic Toss at Rg 0 and Stat 5 to place the target within 3” of this model.  This has two triggers, both built-in:  Hard Throw gives this a 1/3/5 damage track and  Give It All You’ve Got increases the place range by +1” per ram to a max of +2”.  While this can be used aggressively, it also lets you place friendlies who find themselves in a bad spot to get them somewhere better.  Also, since it's a melee action it can be used on the charge!  Lastly they have Shovel Faster! which can only target a Burning model to reduce its Burning by 2 and give it Stunned, which isn’t bad but doesn’t come up particularly often.  This also has  Scorched Remains which is nice in a pinch.
• Survivors (Bayou): The Foundry’s third Cost 5 Minion, these are the shooters of the crew.  They have the same defensive tech as their Rail Worker counterparts (Health 5, Armor +1, Hard to Kill) but they only have Staggering Punch in melee at Stat 5, Rg 0, 2/3/4 and Staggered.  What you’re much more likely to do with them is use their Steam Rifle Arm with its Stat 5, Rg 14, and admittedly unreliable 1/3/5 spread.  The real value of this action is in its triggers (which must be taken if able): Throw Yer Arm At ‘Em has this model and the target take 1 damage (note that it’s separate from the damage track, so this is better against Armor but worse against Incorporeal or stacked Shielded) and then drop a Scrap Marker b2b with the target.  This is by far the longest range Scrap Marker drop the Foundry has access to, and can set up some really wild and unexpected attack angles.  It also has Frantic Attack to take 1 damage and shoot again.  Lastly, they have Magnetism to push itself towards a Construct or Scrap Marker.  This actually has some support tech in it as well with the Reverse Pull-arity trigger which, rather than pushing the Survivor to its target, pushes the target its Mv in inches (or 6” if targeting a Scrap Marker) towards the Survivor, which can be pretty handy!

Notable Versatile Hires

• (Keep in mind that these next few sections I'm only covering models I've tried myself.  If there are models you think work great, please go over them below!)
• Arcane Effigy & Arcane Emissary: While the Effigy is usually a pretty reliable hire if only for Cleanse Fate’s Condition removal or to grow up into the Emissary with the Effigy of Fate upgrade, neither role is particularly crucial here.  The Foundry already has very fast beaters, and the Forgeling brings free Condition removal.  However, if you do want to double up on the Condition removal or if you want a beater who can keep up with your crew without relying on Ride the Rails it’s a viable option.
• Mechanical Rider: On top of being one of the few non-Foundry models who can actually keep up with the crew, the Mech Rider actually brings a lot that Mei likes to have.  Being able to drop a Scrap Marker 6” away with Revel in Creation helps set up the crew very well and giveunexpected attack angles, plus all of its triggers are fantastic: whether it’s 3* Innovation giving guaranteed triggers to nearby friendlies, 4* Insight shuffling your good cards back into your deck partway through a turn, or 5* Revelation giving a non-Master a second activation that turn (give Neil 7 attacks in a turn, you know you want to!).  It can also use  Ride With Me to help move someone forward or out of a sticky situation.  This model’s also a decent scheme runner on its own since Revel in Creation can also throw out a Scheme Marker, though it is very pricey at Cost 11.
• Mecharachnid: Never ever take this against a crew with Obey.  With that out of the way, the Mecharachnid’s combination of Precise to ignore the common defensive tech, Creative Salvage for an extra Scrap Marker on kills, and Temporary Limb to turn spare Scrap Markers into ’s to its duels make this model into a melee monster, casually able to carve up even the tankiest of models.  It doesn’t offer much else, but if you’re expecting to go up against someone relying more on defensive tech than good stats then it’s a solid hire.
• Saboteur: The go-to Arcanist anti-schemer, taking one of these models basically locks the opponent out from taking Scheme Marker oriented Schemes between Arson blowing up Scheme Markers and Sabotage Their Plans replacing enemy Scheme Markers with your own, though the latter does need a  to hit the TN.  In the ideal scenario, where the Scheme pool is purely schemey, even taking two to totally shut down your opponent’s ability to score can just be brutal.  They’re not really worth hiring in setups that don’t have multiple Scheme Marker oriented Schemes though, as they don’t really offer anything else that the Foundry needs.
• Soulstone Miner: If this model survives to see its 5th activation and uses Mine Soulstone (giving you a Soulstone by gaining Stunned) every turn it essentially becomes a 1ss model, and just on that basis alone it’s incredibly good value.  Heck, if you take it with the Mech Rider you can even have it get you more Soulstones than you paid for it!  It’s an incredibly difficult model to pin down with the combination of its Drill Into The Earth to Bury or The Earth Beneath Your Feet to Unbury.  However, Busy Drilling forces it to always treat Interact as a bonus action which means it can’t Bury or Unbury and also Interact on the same activation which slows down its shenanigans a little.  Overall though, if you need a model who can hop around the board without relying on your Scrap Marker network, this does the job very well.
• Steam Arachnid: I'm going to call out these little Ramos leftovers for one simple reason: they are dirt cheap at 3ss.  Between that, their Mv 5, Unimpeded (ignoring Severe terrain), and Evasive they're far from the worst scheme runners in the world especially for their cost.  Taking one or two just for more bodies on the field to scheme's not a bad idea.

Notable Out-of-Keyword Hires

• Charles Hoffman: The only non-DMH Master I’d consider hiring into the Foundry, Hoffman is more or less just a more expensive Sparks who focuses more on team support and actually has defensive tech.  The major problem with him is Mv 4 is just flat out not enough to keep up with the rest of the crew, but auto-healing nearby friendly Constructs by 2 with his Welding Torch is good, especially with its built-in Temper Steel that gives an extra 1 Heal and makes their Armor non-ignorable which is great.  Overcharge for Fast spam is also great, though remember that it's Construct only which is unfortunate.  If you do take him, the Mechanical Attendant for another 5ss after OOK is very unlikely to be worth it.
• Cassandra Felton: The greatest scheme runner in the Arcanists is, surprising nobody, also great here.  She’s expensive with the OOK tax for what she brings, but between Nimble for an extra Walk and being able to push a nearby friendly Scheme Marker with Changing Plans she can throw a Scheme Marker very far forward.  She doesn’t have a ton of synergy with the Foundry, but she can use Upstage to copy Freight Train, Remove Impurity, or Off the Rails for shenanigans as needed.
• Mobile Toolkit: This is the only OOK model that I hire more often than not in the Foundry.  With the sheer amount of Scrap Markers the Foundry drop this model is able to safely gobble spares up for Power Converter basically every turn (just make sure you won’t need that Scrap Marker later).  Having Tune Up to hand out Focused +1 or Shielded +1 is good to have on its own, especially only needing a 5 to hit the TN.  On top of that, its Field Repair is a good Construct-only heal, especially thanks to its built-in Frantic Triage (+1 to the Heal per spent Power Token to a max of +2).
• Silent One: If you're planning on taking more of the non-Construct side of the Foundry, this model will be the ideal healer for you (since Forgeling, Sparks, Hoffman, and the Mobile Toolkit can't help non-Constructs at all).  The model itself isn't particularly fast, but its Ice Mirror combined with its Ice Pillars (only need a 5 for the TN) let it walk up at its own pace and still provide healing to the crew as needed.

Upgrades

• Magical Training: This is the classic “go-to” for Arcanist upgrades, and that’s as true here as elsewhere.  Arcane Shield +1 for a free Shielded +1 every turn is nice, and Counterspell makes it a pain for nearby enemies to declare triggers against this model (and since this crew loves to get into the enemy’s face, that should be fairly often).  If one of your Minions is taking this, you also get Arcane Reservoir for a 7 card hand (remember though that that Arcane Reservoir doesn’t stack).  A backline Minion like a Metal Gamin or Survivor who can let you safely benefit from Arcane Reservoir’s not a bad pick.  Anything durable that wants to be in the enemy’s face (like Mei herself) will also get good value out of this depending on the matchup, as there are a lot of models who rely on triggers and making those harder to use can benefit you greatly.
• Diesel Engine: This is kind of a weird one for the Foundry.  Sputtering Exhaust is half of a Vent Steam with less range, as it only gives the Concealment portion, which immediately reduces its value here.  Charge Through on the other hand is pretty solid, as a to a damage flip can be the difference between getting the Foundry’s typically good moderate damage or not.  A Minion with this upgrade will also get On the Move which is actually quite great here since it can help a model get out of engagement to charge back in to benefit from Charge Through or nudge itself closer to a Scrap Marker to Ride the Rails away.  I do think this has a place on models without Vent Steam like Rail Workers which actually benefit from all three abilities nicely, but I usually leave this one at home.
• Soulstone Cache: This upgrade is hit or miss here.  The Foundry only has one Henchman, Kang, so Attuned giving Soulstone access to the rest of the crew can be very valuable.  Recharge Soulstone can also give you a big advantage, especially if you’ve given this to a beater who can reliably kill things (if two things die near the model this upgrade was basically free, and if you kill three or more then you’re in pure value town).  On a Minion, you also get access to Empower which gives nearby models a to duels where they spend a Soulstone.  There aren’t really any Foundry Minions I would want to put this on, but Neil loves Soulstone access and is killy enough to reliably net you a few stones at least.  Sparks likes this too, if only for access to stones to help keep his squishy butt alive, but if you’re only buying it to spend stones that makes him very expensive to run.

Mei Feng as a Hire

• Unlike many Masters, there’s nothing that locks Mei Feng into being a Leader or hanging out with the Foundry in particular to excel.  In fact, as long as the Forgeling is hired with her then the two of them using Walking Forge and their Scorched Remains triggers can theoretically be enough to hop Mei Feng along, though of course it won’t be as efficient or powerful as having other Walking Forge models around.
• However, what Mei Feng brings is not unique to the Arcanists, as her min 2 melee attacks just don’t particularly stand out and Howard Langston already gives in-Keyword Vent Steam to the Augmented, M&SU, and Machina crews, who are coincidentally the crews who would otherwise be the most interested in Mei.  A crew with lots of Constructs on the field usually means having more Scrap Markers around, which helps Mei hop around the board.  The Augmented in particular have a large number of high powered beaters, but not really any way to put out a high volume of attacks.  Mei Feng can bring up to 6 attacks a turn on top of Freight Train, which can really add up to a lot damage.  With Machina, the high volume of cheap disposable Constructs means that there will be a LOT of spare Scrap absolutely all over the place.  On top of that, as Arcanist Constructs both she and the Forgeling can be hired by Ramos with no OOK tax!  Ramos being a DMH model nixes them as a pair in major tournaments, but they’re quite synergistic together in fun games.

Tips & Tricks

• I’ll Have a Scheme Marker to Go: One incredibly important thing to keep in mind is that since moving via Ride the Rails counts as a Walk action, a model that uses it can still Interact after moving.  This basically means that every Foundry model secretly has Agile on their card, and it’s next to impossible to stop them from scoring Interact-based schemes.  Dig Their Graves’ End is of particular note: since your landing point has to be at a Scrap Marker anyways, dropping a Scheme Marker after you land makes this hilariously easy VP for the Foundry.
• Midnight Train Going Anywhere: Clever opponents will know that the easiest way to stop the Foundry from getting around is to take Scrap Marker removal.  However, that is very much not true of stopping Mei Feng herself.  Since Mei Feng has Scorched Remains on Freight Train (which she can get on either a 6 or any 8 thanks to Press the Advantage), if there’s a Scrap Marker where she wants to go but not one near her then she can target herself to push herself, drop a Scrap Marker, and then Ride the Rails off of it, or if there is one near her but not where she wants to land, she can target a friendly near where she wants to go to push them, drop a Scrap Marker b2b with them, and then Ride the Rails on over!
• We’re Not Paid by the Hour: This is hard to guarantee every game, but of all the cards in the deck the one that you really want to see in your opening hand is a 4.  If you can get that, then the Forgeling can use its Remove Impurity on a friendly with the Scorched Remains trigger to drop a Scrap Marker b2b with its target, ideally within 1” of several Foundry models, then double walk forward and drop another Scrap Marker with Walking Forge.  If you follow this up with another Walking Forge model Ride the Rails’ing and then walking forward to drop another Scrap Marker even further along (making sure it’s within 12” of your crew), then you can have essentially all of the rest of your crew zoom forward and totally dominate the front lines.  However, if you don’t get a ram in hand this can be done by having another Walking Forge model just sit near a clump of other Foundry models to drop a Scrap Marker near them (a Metal Gamin’s my preference for that as they can just use Encase in Steel to hand out some Shielded while they sit there), or just have Mei use Freight Train with Scorched Remains trigger on someone.  It slows things down compared to the Forgeling method, but Ride the Rails lets you catch up quickly enough on later turns.
• The Pain Train: While it may be tempting to have Mei Feng use her Deadly Claws with Jackhammer Kick trigger three times for a total of 6 attacks, in my experience the better play is to instead start with Breath of Fire with Condensation trigger to put up Vent Steam, and then use Deadly Claws with Jackhammer Kick twice.  This only gets you 5 attacks, but it also has you push the enemy through Hazardous twice as well as giving her Concealment and punishing the enemy further if it tries to attack you back later in the turn.
• You Sure You Want To Do That?: One particularly fun and nasty trick I like to use against a melee oriented enemy crew is to have Sparks use Pack With Explosives on two melee beaters in my own crew (usually some mix of Mei, the Golem, and Neil).  That way, when the enemy tries to attack those models you can force them to blast onto themselves and kill themselves in the process!  Bonus points if you put up Vent Steam beforehand, so they’re taking Hazardous damage for the privilege of blowing themselves up.
• Working Side By Side: A technique that I've been doing for a while is diving up my crew into two at deployment and putting them 12-ish" apart, with at least two models who can reliably make Scrap Markers (Mei Feng and the Walking Forge models) in each of those groups.  That way you're building your Scrap Marker network in two separate batches which allows you to move side to side as well as front and back starting from turn 1.  Bonus points if schemes that need you to interact near the edges of the board are in the pool, since if you lose a model on one side you can have someone hop on over about 24" to compensate if you've built your network up beforehand.