Trample

You're probably right in that Freikorps are pretty easy to play out of the gate, but I do think they are challenging to play to their full potential. There are a ton of tricks and options for a Von Schill crew with the upgrades, copying actions, the pull trigger on VS, and abilities like I've Got Your Back. They're easy to start with, but have quite a bit of depth and growth potential.

Yes, Hannah can copy actions from equipment upgrades. It's great for her because she can use the leap from Rocket Boots, which will be on Arik to hop forward and fire her rocker launcher round one. Opponents don't always see that one coming but more importantly, Arik still has his boots on! That's often a turn 1 move, since turns 2 & 3 you're likely copying Arik's charge up to increase melee damage (or at least that is what I am normally doing).

One-trick? Basse.

Good writeup - thanks for taking the time! It makes me think I should do the same for my experience with Outcasts, but I think I would struggle to reach the level of detail you have in your overviews. It is bad luck to run into Ivan twice in the tournament. Those were the only two explorers players in the tournament and you just wound up in their path! Oddly - no Arcanists there (15 entrants).

Foundry definitely seems like a faction that can pop over and score it, come back and do something relevant, and then return to the edge to score it again at the end of the game. There are a couple of situations where you could never take it. Against a guild crew running an undercover reporter comes to mind. That dude will flat deny both points.

Definitely Misaki. I love her mobility and scalpel approach to combat. She has some fun keyword models as well. Although the snipers aren't what they were last edition, all of the models in her keyword have a place from time to time. She was easily my favorite Thunders master in M2e and keeps that status in this edition.

It depends a bit on the opponent, the other scheme options, and the deployment. If you're in wedge against a slow opponent for example, you can potentially throw a couple of relatively inexpensive models out there as permanent point scorers for the strategy. I could see perhaps putting a couple of from the shadows guys out there, like Freikorps Scouts who could interact on turn 2 and otherwise impact the board with their 14" range. It might also be a worthwhile scheme in BTL if you place markers on both edges and plan to dedicate some effort to those edges since they are now worth as much as 6 points. Having said that, I see it as only an option when you have a pretty poor scheme pool. I haven't taken it in my few GG2 games so far. It could be interesting to bluff that scheme with the right models. Dogs or Crueligans or some other cheep models that make a show of going to score Outflank, forcing your opponents more expensive models to dedicate their AP to preventing those points. It would be a gamble, but against a more elite crew it could be effective.

Probably not the best advice for those just getting into the game, but as soon as that Austera & Twigge box is out that model will take over as my Austringer. So, that box could easily replace From Above for me, since the Skybound Ally is always being discarded to prevent damage rather than summon a raptor - so I don't really need a raptor in my bag. That new model ilooks so good.

I agree with the Sand Worm and first trapper box. I rarely find room for an Austringer so wouldn't rate From Above that high. I often have a Rough Rider in my lists, so I would probably swap Fool's Gold and From Above.

I'm with Sweet Tooth on this one I think. I like Domadors, but you've really got to have the Pale Rider along with them. I would buy the six feet under box and have a list with LJ, Scales, Lone Marshal, Judge, 2x coat probably, and 3-4 of the Death Marshals and Exorcists. The Death Marshals are really good models for 5 stones (yes, they are better with Domodors around to help them get fast) and I wouldn't mind a couple of them in a beginning crew. The Lone Marshal is just awesome though.

I do like a lawyer with Frontier. I haven't tried a False Witness, but love the idea of that much card draw. The challenge I've had with the Lawyer, and what I expect would be true with the False Witness as well, is that they don't give me deployment flexibility like I have with all Frontier models. I don't always deploy forward with the crew. It depends on terrain and my opponent, but I often don't make that decision until I see my opponent's full crew and know if I am attacker or defender. If I do deploy forward most non-Frontier can't keep up to add enough value. The current GG gives Basse a lot of reason to deploy forward. BTL strongly encourages it. Turf War is great when you can abandon a quarter or two and so heavily favors use of Home on the Range. It is usually good in Symbols as well. I would say I am deploying pretty far forward 75% of the time (although I only have a couple of GG2 games in so far). So I would be reluctant to take those models in most crews. Having said that, you do have a Pathfinder that can help them along a bit during the start phase, which might put them only 3-4" behind. For the lawyer that's been OK since his abelites work well from that distance. The False Witness needs 3" for the scheme markers, so with the help of the Pathfinder could be where they need to be for turn 1, but not for turn 2 unless you give them a ride from a Rough Rider.

You're right about this one, but with GG2 you probably won't need to rely on the dust cloud. Since all of the strategy markers can be used as one, just make sure your trap dies next to one you plan to use and drop your scheme. The sacrificed trap is enough to get you what you need.

Yup, I think you're right. You will still need Crocket if you want a full contingent of 5 in keyword 14" guns on your team! Perhaps not a very good idea, but certainly fun!

Have any of you ever gotten any use out of Crockett? It seems like he is probably never the right choice over a Pathfinder, but perhaps the coordinated attack can be where you use your high masks. Scent of Blood works with the Worm, but it's still probably not enough to make him worth it.

The Undercover Reporter can be a pretty fantastic tech piece in this GG. Tried him last night in a Basse crew and he was great. I would definitely consider him in scheme heavy pools and Undercover, unlike so many tech pieces, can keep up with the crew in the sense that he can start buried and doesn't get left behind.

Where's the love for the Steam Trunk here! C'mon folks - how about the tracked terror. He attaches some pretty awesome upgrades and heals as bonus. Armor 2. The really fun part is that heal can heal his buddy, attach an upgrade to himself, shoot the rocket launcher he just attached, and then discard a card to attach assault shield to stay alive. OK, maybe not the most effective totem, but pretty damn cool either way. Would I take that OOK for 3? Maybe, but it would probably only be a situation where I was also taking Strongarm or Hannah.

I would guess you're normally hiring 1-2 wind gamin. With the nerf to necropunks and the midnight stalker they may be the best scheme runner in the game. Move 6, suited leap, armor 1, and flight! Now that summoning them is less effective I think you have to hire them in just about any pool.

Lobotomy is once per activation, but Maim is not. So my initial range is just hitting maim twice (2-4 cards). You're right about managing it over two turns though, that is definitely possible. It isn't always easy to pull that off either!

I'm pretty excited about the new Reichart. I've had him on the table once since his errata and he was pretty solid. He ended up getting killed by Titania, but did a lot of work along the way. Perfect timing for me, since I had been waiting for the Sand Worm to be released (and then painted) before really starting to play Basse, so I'm not long into it and wasn't expecting to like Reichart. Thinking about some of his new triggers a bit got me to wondering what he might be like with Dr. Grimwell. So the trigger on Stoic Nod gives enemy models within 2" staggered. In addition to being able to shut that model down for strats & schemes with Grimwell, he also adds a crow in duels with enemies with staggered. So, if Reichart does Stoic Nod on a poor soul or two, Grimwell can attack them twice with a crow built in and, if he hits, make them discard 2-4 cards. If he can get another crow on one of those it's 2-7 cards (or a boatload of injured and damage). The bad part about this is that Reichart would rather go after the opponent has been stripped of cards to take advantage of his shiny new execute trigger. What you could do is hire a lawyer, which is never a bad idea anyway, and obey Reichart to use Stoic Nod, then have Dr. Grimwell go, then later go with Reichart to try to execute a major piece. It's a bit Rube Goldberg, but those aren't bad models anyway, so you can probably just play your game and see if the opportunity presents itself sometime mid-game. I'm going to try it out the next time the pool and deployment cooperate.

It would be fun to see Von Schill as a different type of commander, maybe similar to Dashel where he has the ability to summon in Freikorps minions and have some form of obey to make those minions take an action. For the Viks I too would like to see them be able to go toe to toe a bit more. Perhaps finesse to help them avoid some melee damage and different sword triggers, at least one of which is armor piercing. I'd like to see Tara have some kind of ranged void spell attack. Targeted - not a blast. Perhaps more debuffing than damaging. She would be a midfield ranged debuffer to set up the enemy for her crew. No reactivate. I don't know how you tackle Hamelin to speed up his playstyle, but I would love to see it.

I agree. Parker looks like a pretty good option in this GG. We have an additional scheme marker based scheme (two if you discount runic binding) and the Bandit crew obviously loves those. The efficiency that Draw Their Attention brings to this season will be fantastic I expect.

I agree, and consider too that all of the strategy markers are impassable (all four strats) so when you wind up a couple inches short of where you need to be next turn for something like symbols you save yourself an action. I wouldn't be surprised to see that come up once in most games. In Break the Line I can throw the marker with my last AP and move into base at the beginning of my next activation. Between the table edges and the strategy markers you have a decent amount of board area where this is triggered before you add terrain to the board. The bonus is better into this GG compared to the last one with 6 1/2 schemes that use scheme markers (counting Research Mission as 1/2).

I've usually regretted selling crews I don't like playing because inevitably they change and I want to play them again.

Parker nerf because you used Wanted Criminal with him?

I think Wanted Criminal might be nice with the Wokou Raider or the Convict Gunslingers. Both benefit from disguise (which is a great ability imo) but they also have a pretty good opportunity for card draw. The Raider's bonus is mediocre at best and Free Loot can come up a lot for them with their trigger and in Bandit in general. Gunslinger is similar. With this upgrade he can shoot the dude a couple of times and if he gets a tome trigger he can pop to the marker and get a card and wind up just outside of the guy's 1" melee so charges aren't going to work!