CactusEmperor

Looking at the Unhinged action, this is the way I see it playing out. Going to the timing table, Since the Unhinged action specifically says the damage occurs and then the heal pulse occurs, I think it makes sense that it would resolve in step 5 of the damage timing, meaning it would occur as the model has not yet been removed from game and a pulse can still be generated from it.

Three pieces of advice from me. Hopefully they’re of some use to you! First up is to memorize what cards you need for your summons. Using the summoner cheat sheet is also an option. It lets you glance at your cards and determine immediately what you can summon in with those cards. A 10 is a drowned. 13 for a hanged. 12 for a shikome. I also arrange my stat cards in descending order for each summoner I play, so if I draw an 11 at the top of the round, I know that could be a punk zombie which is the fourth card on the first page of the Nicodem summoning minions. Arranging your models in a similar way can help you find them more quickly as well. Next is to use your mindless activations well. Mortimer and Phillip are both good examples of this. They both generally do one thing, especially in the early rounds, and their entire activation takes a few seconds (Morty activates, removes his spleen, finds a bone, flip card look for 9+, done). This gives you two enemy activations to plan for your more important models (like what Nicodem is going to do). If you need time to think the opponent’s activation is a good time to do it. Mindless zombies are also great for this and you can activate them essentially passing play back to your opponent while you think of your next move. The final trick I use requires your opponent’s consent. I’ll usually run through Nicodem’s whole turn, summoning models and buffing them before I bother performing any of the bookkeeping on the cards. I’ll perform the needed flips, place the model on the table, inform my opponent that he’s at half wounds, not slow (because of aura), and then continue on to the next action. Then at the end of my activation, I’ll hunt down the cards, mark all the wounds, and write down fast on everyone that needs it (and usually reiterate to my opponent that I’m doing so). Obviously not every opponent will be ok with this and it’s ultimately your opponent’s choice as to whether you can use it, but I’ve never personally had someone take issue with it, especially when you’re explicit with your end of activation bookkeeping.

If you want to use Yan Lo, Datsue Ba with her upgrade might be an good option to counter some of Wong's blasting shenanigans. Use her to summon seishin, which can sacrifice themselves to make your units immune to damage from pulse and blasts for a turn. If you activate Datsue Ba late in the turn and use this sacrificial Seishin early in the next turn, you can avoid giving up points for reckoning. And seishin and Datsue Ba are both spirits so they have some synergy with Yan Lo and his Fury of Yomi ability.

As mentioned, Chiaki is good for this as she can remove paralyzed from your models if you can activate her late in the turn. I think she's reasonably good with McMourning anyways as she synergizes really well with the nurses and you'll generally want to take at least one of those with him. Another note is that Flesh Constructs are too dumb to care, so they ignore horror duels. McMourning can summon these through murder and it can be useful to take one at the start, so these can be good models to gum up the opponent's horrific models. Models with the unnerving aura upgrade can still be useful for holding points even if they're paralyzed. Izamu is immune to WP duels during his turn. If you're creative with belle lures and McMourning pushes it should be easy enough to get him into charge range and swing on an important target (probably Widow Weaver). Even if you can't kill her in one activation if you can get him into base contact with her he'll count as engaged if he becomes paralyzed which will more or less guarantee you the free damage from unnerving aura. For mercenaries, I'm not sure how good they are but Oirans give a +1 WP if you feel you really need it. Hans is also immune to WP during his turn.

Hello! I'll be bringing up a few people from Columbus to participate. Mick, Resurrectionists, Columbus Taylor (KingCrow), Arcanists, Columbus

I would advise against a belle spam list if you’re going against Sonnia. In order to get the most out of their pounces, they will all need to bunch up within an inch of one another which is what Sonnia wants in order to get her blasts off. Additionally, while their range is long and their casts are good, they need line of sight in order to be effective, which Sonnia and her Austringer friends do not need. If you really want to run it though, I’d give Sybelle the Not Too Banged Up upgrade to get them into melee faster. I’ve never found Karina to be very useful, even with her upgrade. Might just be bad luck on my part, but I would probably just switch her out for a scheme runner. If you really want a summoner, you could always bring Phillip for some card cycling to try to get her the high crows she needs. Or you could just bring Toshiro, since he’s better than Karina. Bishop could be good. I would recommend taking the Dead of Winter upgrade on Tara and replacing a belle with a Death Marshal if you want to run him though. That would allow you to bury him with the DM and at the end of the turn unbury him, pulse fast on him and his target, and chain activate into him to get 6 attacks (double flurry) defended against WP-2 (from dead of winter). As mentioned, Bete is really good with Resser Tara since she starts buried giving her extra ammo for her Tara bombing. She can also be a good deterrent to killing models, as sometimes you really don’t want an 8” charge enforcer popping out of a scheme runner. If you do bring the Dead of Winter upgrade, it opens up a lot of willpower chicanery which I think is Resser Tara’s advantage over Outcast Tara. -2 to willpower can make it much harder to resist the Nurse’s paralyze and all of the terrifying models that the Ressurectionists have, in addition to beefing up Bishop. Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I’ve not played Tara in a while and never had the best of luck running her (she was my first foray into miniature games and not a super beginner friendly master in my opinion) so a lot of this is just a hypothesis.

Summoning does tend to slow the game down a bit, but not to the point that I wouldn’t consider using summoning masters in a tournament. In my only tournament so far, I played exclusively summoners (Nicodem twice and Molly once) and never felt I was going any slower than my opponent. That said, there are a few things you can do to speed things up. The first thing I would recommend is getting a copy of the summoning cheat sheet for your master so you can preplan what your cards can turn into at the draw phase. Organizing your cards and models based on what can be summoned saves a lot of time too (one tray containing Nico summons, from Hanged to Canine Remaines in descending order for example). If your opponent is ok with it, I also save a bit of time by placing the model on the field and then doing the upkeep (damaging the model, marking down slow, ect) during their turn, so they don’t have to wait around while I fiddle with cards. Just make it explicit that you’re doing so. The biggest thing to save time is to plan while your opponent moves. I like to plan out my summoning so I rarely activate my master first and use mindless activations at the start whenever possible to give me more time to think. Mortimer doesn’t require much time or thought to activate so I can plan while he rips out his spleen and digs up a bone, same with mindless zombies (Mindless zombie A activates and ends his turn is generally the most I ever do with them). You should always be prepared to do something the moment it hits your turn.

If you want to use Nicodem, he’s pretty survivable to alpha strikes as well. His card alone is a pretty daunting challenge to get through, with 14 wounds, impossible to wound, and 7 WP. I always add in the Reaper Grin upgrade if I’m worried he might get focused, so you can ideally pass off some wounds to a mindless zombie or some other undead if you need to (and if they die from it, you get a corpse marker and a card so no big loss there). The worst case will be that you’ll lose something you can’t summon back, but even in that case you’ll likely still get a corpse marker, so don’t despair too much and think of what you can turn poor departed Mortimer into and get some revenge. Hanged and the appropriate Student are both good picks and they can dish out a lot of damage in return and can stall down any further advances with their own terrifying auras. Alternatively you can give Nico Necrotic King instead of Reaper Grin and slap Love Thy Master on Mortimer. It’s riskier, but assuming that Mortimer and Nico both survive the alpha strike you can summon something in (Hanged, Student, or Punk), give it fast, and chain activate into it. Since the model will be nearby, you'll benefit from all of Nicodem's auras, giving you up to four attacks (three if using Hanged), all at to accuracy and damage flips before they have a chance to react to it.

To piggyback onto Clyde_Davis' post, a Yan Lo all stars crew might help out a bit. All of the Ancestor models can be brought back if you encounter a particularly bad alpha strike with the Reliquary upgrade on Yan Lo, and if they're not outright killed he can heal them. And Yan Lo is pretty durable himself, especially if you give him the Fortify the Spirit upgrade which can give him up to a WP 8 on a tome. Use his lightning dance to bring vulnerable or low defense models to Izamu, where they're likely to stay given his melee 8 disengaging strike. If you draw a high card while using Yin, you can severely hamper the Widow Weaver for two turns. Activate Yin before the Weaver, cheat high on the gnawing fears, and the spider will be at a on casting until Yin next activates, which you should hold off on until after the weaver activates next turn. She'll also be at a to WP, so you can use the opportunity to lightning dance her into melee with Yin if you'd like. Chiaki can remove conditions at range and is generally awesome. Take her if you're worried about conditions, which it sounds like you are. You can bring Komainu with Yan Lo as a Rsser, as they're retainer models. You can also summon them with Toshiro if you bring him with his upgrade. They have armor and attack willpower. They can also get a free attack on any model that uses a cast action within 6 (ignoring LOS and range) with a 1 ap action.

The problem with using only the University box is that the models in there are all pretty specialized. It’s unusual to fight a crew that contains living, undead, and construct models, so a lot of the time one or two of your minions will be overpriced, as they won’t have access to their terrifying checks and triggers. Combined with Molly’s not great starter crew and you’re in a bit of a tough spot. As stated earlier, Seamus’ crew would help out as it would give you access to Belles and Madam Sybelle. However, if you don’t want to pick up another crew just to play one master I’d recommend picking up Yin the Penanggalan and either a box of Punk Zombies or the Drowned. Yin is in a small box, is a horror, and works very well with Molly, especially if you don’t want to use her as a big summoner (which you won’t, unless you want to buy all the things). Drowned and Punks are both in long boxes and would give you more general purpose minions for summoning. Both are also Horrors, so Molly’s tricks work on them. It would make it an additional $25 or so investment, but that would be enough to give you a decently good model pool to play around with. Hope that helps!

A lowering of the casting and Resurrectionists would become weaker at medium to long ranges, something they already struggle with. Of the five Resser minions that can fire at range, three (four if you count the Hanged, which you shouldn't) have a max damage of three or less, and only one can hit at greater than 10 inches (the Autopsy, which is not out in plastic yet). Combined with the lower than average walk scores (I think?), they're at a disadvantage fighting at distances greater than 8". Limiting the reliability of the Belle's casting would make it easier to abuse long range against the faction, as it becomes less likely that you will be able to engage things from the 12" and beyond range without eating an attack or two first. Further, it makes you more card reliant as you will have to cheat higher cards to get lures to go off. This makes summoners that are already very hand reliant more so, so it would put additional strain on Nicodem, Molly, and Kirai (probably not as heavily on Kirai as the other two). I'm unsure of what effect the lowering of wounds would have, but a casting cuddle would weaken four of the Resser masters noticeably. I don't think Yan Lo would be affected terribly much. Not sure about McMourning or Tara.

Well to start out with, the strategy and nearly all of the schemes revolve around killing, so picking a master that does that well seems important. Add in the high amount of blocking terrain and Seamus seems like he would be a natural pick for this game. However, while I own Seamus I’ve not yet played him. Depending on whom I was playing against and how serious of a match it was, I would probably pick him anyways, as I want to give him a shot and this looks like a good match for him to be fielded. If it was some manner of high stakes game though, I would probably use a master I’m more comfortable with. I have experience with Tara, Nicodem, and Yan Lo. Tara isn’t amazing at killing things, so I probably wouldn’t take her (I’m bad with her as well). Nicodem summoning would guarantee my opponent points, so he’s out too. Yan Lo would work reasonably well as he’s difficult to kill and can put a fair amount of damage out, so I would likely take him. I’ll make a list for him, since my opinion of Seamus wouldn’t be very well informed. Looking to the schemes now, two things jump out at me. The first is that protect territory is an option, so I’m going to take that. I’ve always found it really easy to complete, so I pretty much always take it if available. The second is murder protégé. As the opponent is playing Arcanists and in my experience Arcanists take the Mechanical Rider more often than not, regardless of crew, I have a good idea of what I’ll be up against. This makes the scheme very enticing. I would likely take it, as I like the mechanical rider to be dead anyways, and this just rewards me for doing so. With these things in mind, I think I would build my Yan Lo Crew thusly: Yan Lo with 4 Soul Stones -Reliquary (1ss) -Brutal Khakkhara (1ss) -Fortify the Spirit (1ss) Soul Porter (3ss) Izamu the Armor (10ss) Chiaki the Niece (6ss) -Pull of the Grave (1ss) Carrion Effigy (4ss) Shikome (8ss) Onryo (5ss) Nurse (5ss) Rotten Belle (5ss) Yan Lo was chosen for the reasons above. Fortify the Spirit was chosen as a countermeasure to any assassinate plans the enemy might have as increasing his defense/willpower up to a potential of 8 with a tome could be all it takes to deny the enemy those points. Reliquary is basically an auto include when I run Yan Lo with Izamu, as it make the enemy kill him twice before he actually goes away which is always nice. Brutal Khakkhara was chosen just to give him the access to wicked on his disengaging strikes and for extra damage against any low defense targets. . Normally I like to have as more soul stones than this, but I don’t really want to summon things and I didn’t include any henchmen, so they’re not going to be used all that often and an extra model could be worth it. Soul Porter was chosen because he’s great. Easy chi for all! Izamu was chosen as a primary damage dealer that’s really hard to take down. Between his self-heal, Yan Lo’s heal, and the nurse/Chiaki combo, he’s going to be a nightmare to take down while dishing out the damage himself. He’s also a spirit, which is useful for Yan Lo as his Fury of Yomi action from the Spirit Ascendant upgrade (which is a good first pick) allows him to get an additional out of activation attack or heal. And if he does die, he can be revived by Yan Lo rather easily. Chiaki was chosen for her synergy with the nurse. Comboing the nurse’s full healing with condition removal can deny the opponent points in this heavy killing game if done well. On her own she can be the source of occasional chi, remove conditions, do a bit of healing, and with her upgrade put out slows. Plus if she dies she too can be revived. Carrion Effigy was sort of an “I have left over points” model. I picked it though for the self-heal it allows for Yan Lo, as he cannot heal himself naturally. Gives a bit more protection against assassinate. The immunity resistance could be useful too, as a lot of Arcanists seem to have immunities. Shikomi and Onryo were both chosen for their spirit synergy. They can both give out the adversary condition at range, allowing for a plus for attacks with all spirit models. This includes themselves, Izamu, and anyone Yan Lo wishes to take a 0 action on for it. Additionally, Shikome are good damage dealers that can ignore armor naturally. Both can be used for dropping protect territory markers as needed, as incorporeal and flight allow them to zip over blocking terrain for safe placements. Rotten Belles and Nurses are always really good models to include, so I did so. They’re both amazingly useful. To an extent, this list is focused more on making sure the enemy doesn’t get any points than making it easy to get points myself. Movement shenanigans, high resistances, and healing abound in this list, making it a pain for the enemy to land many solid hits. Meanwhile the Shikome and Izamu can just chip away at the enemies to earn points for the strategy. Since the enemy Arcanist will likely use the Mechanical Rider, it might be worth it to switch out the Onryo and the Belle or Shikome, Pull of the Graves, and Brutal Khakkhara to bring in the Valedictorian. Her ability to remove the rider’s defensive triggers could be useful in killing the beast faster and her flying allows her to cross the map easily and keep up with Yan Lo. I opted to not include her though, choosing to go for spirit focus instead. This post should be taken with a grain of salt though, as I do not have a terrible amount of experience with the game. Super long post complete!

I didn't attach the mindless zombie that came with the Nicodem model for a free sixth mindless zombie model. The same could be done with the one from Yan Lo as well if you feel you want a seventh. I've had more than five mindless zombies out at a time while playing Nicodem, but they usually last less than one turn anyways so I wasn't too inclined to purchase additional figures.

I'm somewhat new to the game so my opinion on the matter may mean little, but I feel the Belles are where they are because the Ressers are nearly entirely melee based. Without a model that allows for reliable gap closing, it suddenly becomes much more difficult to deal with things like long range snipers or highly mobile ranged models. Before picking up my Seamus box I would always find it really frustrating when reading the wiki for ideas against opponents I had trouble with and seeing the advice of taking them out at range. Now I feel like I can at least do something against a 14 range unit other than have to eat two attacks before even getting a chance to do anything back.

I really like the Reaper "Undead Skin Tones" triad for painting my models. Giving them a wash with GW's Reikland's Flesh Shade gives them a nice gangrenous color without making your zombies look too much like the Hulk.