Freman

In a McMourning crew they're good for giving the Beast characteristic to models who don't have it (like McMourning) so they benefit from his healing aura.

Other than that they're a minion (albeit insignificant) that can contest or score on schemes and strats that just require a warm body, and as others have said, just be a nuisance in general.

Bayou Gremlins and Desperate Mercenaries (now) are the other three stone significant minions.

If Protection of Metal was a (0) you could cast it on a model, and then chase it around keeping the defense boost up. Otherwise you really need two Metal Gamin, one to cast it, and then the other to just keep chasing the model around to keep the ability up.

Johan probably realized his value to Arcanists, and decided to increase his hourly rate.

I bought a whole bunch of metal models back when Cool Mini Or Not were clearing their shelves at little more than cost. I even got free shipping for a substantial box to New Zealand, which I'm still a little embarrassed by.

I like Masters who kind of break the mold for their faction. Leveticus, Marcus, a bit iffy on Zoraida, and definitely the new Doc McMourning with his beasts and academics. Scorpius is very nice with all the poison shenanigans McMourning loves.

With the reduction in points that some beasts received in the latest errata, Marcus may become a bit stronger, or at least be able to squeeze in another model. Remember a Raptor to make your non-beasts into beasts.

Leveticus can take the riders, a couple of upgrades, and still have some stones in the kitty. That's pretty good.

Now Hammertime (Captain, Taelor, Johan) costs one stone less.

At 3 stones Desperate Mercenaries do seem like a decent choice. They're normal human movement. They have a 2" range Ml4 attack, a 10" range Sh4 attack, and disguised. They're significant. Their damage track is not bad if you actually manage to land a hit. I think we'll see them more often now.

At 1 stone Scramble actually begins to offer something to a crew. On an Enforcer, or a Henchman/Master who doesn't rely on Limited upgrades and has a empty slot available an extra point of movement could be very useful. It probably won't replace Oathkeeper on a regular basis, but situationally it could compete with Scout the Field. I can see it being regularly added to Taelor, which would bring her up to her old cost, but with extra movement to compensate for her being excruciatingly slow.

I guess people might use them as gap fillers, they have three stones spare and they don't really need anything else.

Trapper and Hans being the same cost is interesting.

3 stones for Desperate Mercenary?

Well they needed something, but I'm not sure they're worth that little. 14 Desperate Mercenaries and Tara?

Also makes some of them easier to summon.

Yay. Now I can take two Shikome.

1 hour ago, mo11usq said:

Sybelle to get the belle trait and a line to say she can't benefit from her own aura. 

Hayreddin to get something, anything (a multistone upgrade even) that enables him to summon undead nephilim. Actually, fuck it, rewrite hayreddin to be a master and scrap reva. 

Undead Terror Tots and Young Nephilim?

I would try to squeeze Nythera Aftermath and Oath of the Freikorps onto Von Schill, possibly with Engage at Will as the multiple (0)s tend to work with how I play. Survivalist is a pretty good third option too.

Use your first AP to put Oathkeeper on Von Schill. Now, after he damages a model, he's getting positive duel flips against them, which makes life a bit more fun. That applies to any model who has Oathkeeper, including non-Freikorps models like Johan and Ashes and Dust if you choose to take them, although obviously Von Schill can't reapply it to them if they drop it for Fast because they're not Freikorps.

Looking at them there doesn't seem to be much Ressers actually need.

What would be considered a "beater" in Ressers? Archie has something of that, but he's not easily healed which makes it hard to keep him on the table. I've taken him out in one turn with Candy and Hamelin.

Rafkin can be surprisingly brutal.

I haven't really started playing him, but it'll be Marcus, basically because I'm making up a lot of Beasts to go with McMourning.

It's a Wyrd model, and not capable of being used in an Arcanist list so there won't be any confusion about it.

Which is why the "may not be reduced" wording is too vague and shouldn't be in the game.

Armour, Bulletproof, Incorporeal, and Defence Triggers may all "reduce damage" in some way. Prior to this vague wording models were pretty clear. Usually they "ignored armour" sometimes they "ignored incorporeal" very little ignored defensive triggers, and almost nothing ignored bulletproof. Now models ignore all those things with one wording "damage may not be reduced".

Chaos Orc have two of the metal box set that comes with the metal Myranda. It also has the Razorspine Rattler (another poison adding monster) and Sabretooth Cerberus (not much synergy with McMourning but something for Myranda to transform into).

I'm using the metal Myranda. Being McMourning's niece makes his "Beast" hiring most appropriate.

It's a pity that Teddy isn't a Puppet.

Lazarus with Retribution's Eye seems quite... effective.

Thanks for the discussion. Neverborn's own construct master (literally) is interesting me.