spooky_squirrel

That's one of the things I like about the Lord of Steel: he's super versatile. I was suggesting the Shield primarily because of the scenario OP described: Edmonton zapping his Commander. Edmonton doesn't want to eat an S5 hit just for popping a shield, especially since the thing he just shot is more than capable of closing the distance between Take to the Skies and a Rush Order; a reinforcement token or use of Medic will restore the shield right quick during that same activation as well. In general I like to use Evasive Maneuvers on top of the Soulstone Necklace in a two commander game because it makes him that much harder to hurt in the first place. In both cases of Evasive Maneuvers and Hand Held Device, I look at the Disable 1 take into consideration the front line role of the Lord of Steel. If I don't have enough cards in hand to activate the Evasive Maneuvers, it saves me 2 wounds at best. Toughness ends up being a better bet at that point. That second commander lets me do a bit more (including Hand Held Recording Device for cards to feed the Evasive Maneuvers), and the additional breathing room for troops allows me to use things that have card draw built into more than just the Tomes trigger for the Allegiance.

The Combined Arms titan is a fireteam element in the Mechanized Infantry squad. From the rules for Combined Arms (emphasis mine) Then from Thrace's Morale Action: The Mechanized Infantry Squad would be targeted, and it would take a single gun action from any of its Fireteams, which includes the Walker. Ergo: Thrace can inspire the Walker to Fire At Will! With regards to the question asked later on Friday: what crew would I put together for a Single Commander game involving Set Traps and a largely fixed KE force? If the table isn't terrain-dense, then I know it will be a shooting gallery. I will want to bring stuff that moves fast so that I can get into combat as fast as possible. The more resources I can force my opponent to burn to just shoot me, the better off I am. What isn't moving fast to tie up shooters (including Edmonton) needs to be resilient and holding the line. That would tempt me in the direction of: Lord Of Steel with Soulstone Necklace and Deflector Shield (a positive twist on defense in a game with nearly no twist modifiers is huge, see also: comments on Striped Skulkers). His primary job is to get into peoples' business and cause problems. Being a Commander, he can use his free Morale action to break contact and play for scenario once the unit he's jammed has given up its activation. He's also a brilliant Commander to use Lion Among the Gazelles with, and Medic will help keep that Shield online. (2 scrip) Supporting, I'd bring Samantha Thrace (3 scrip) with Toughness and something like Stylish Monocle. Her job is to do what a more static Commander would do to support the squad that's holding the line, since the Lord of Steel is going to be a bit busy; she also brings additional Tactics Tokens, making up for the LoS's 1. (total: 5 scrip) So with 7 Scrip spent, we've got 18 to throw into what's going to do the work on the table. If I'm picking from my available models, the Marauder is going in in order to support the Lord of Steel and otherwise be an extreme nuisance. I like to give it Toughness (shared with Thrace, in this case) and when the prototypes are handed out, I also give it the Shock Batons, which gives it a little more versatility with the Accurate keyword, allowing the Marauder to pick off unit adjuncts (say goodnight Sharpshooters) and ignoring the Champion rule if you decide to use the Marauder to jam Edmonton himself. Note: the Marauder is also disgustingly quick for running schemes. (3 scrip) With 15 scrip left to go, now it's a question of how we're going to slow down the opponent's ability to set traps and ensure that we can set our own traps as well, in the event that the Lord of Steel and Marauder are both too busy being pains in the .. to the KE shooters. Which happens to be enough to bring in Mechanized Infantry with the Engineer adjunct and a unit of Crow Runners. With more open terrain (the motivation for the Commander pick and primary mode of play), the Crow Runners, Marauder, and Lord of Steel are going to be having a race to see who can be the first to tie up an opposing element, with a secondary race for first blood. Loser of those races will just be setting traps. Winners will too, because we want to be setting as many traps as we can. Note: the Crow Runners will "win" that race if their actions put another squad in threat range as well, so making use of their Morale Action to shuttle your own stuff up the field is a good idea. There's a lot of interplay in there, with the one Fireteam being told to move and the other Fireteams being able to follow up with up to half the max distance (SP in this case), Crow Runners can use their start of turn movement to get up the field a bit, then use an Advance Order to move another Squad a considerable distance before moving again. In this case, with the Mechanized Infantry being the other Squad, this isn't something that's really needed. The Mechanized Infantry have the defensive line job, which will involve their shooting anything that looks like it's moving to set traps (hi Motor Scout) that isn't tied up or dead from the speedier threats. Thrace will advance and hold with them, keeping them fed with Reinforcement Tokens and periodically triggering additional shots from the Squad. Note: that's a first blush idea of what I'd look to do with open terrain and my selection of models. If you don't have Marauders, it won't work the same way. You'll be using Crow Runners to get up the field, and this is a case where you might use their Morale Action to shuttle stuff up the board in order to not leave the Lord of Steel completely unsupported. I would likely use their scout move and rush up the table, going for rapid ground gains, which would make my third Stratagem pick Behind Enemy Lines (remember all your discounts when you're thinking about this, LoS is -1, and if you're behind on VP, it's another -1, reducing it to 3 Tactics Tokens to hire when you're behind). TBF, this would likely be my third pick anyway. But back to the issue at hand: we have 3 unspent scrip and a spare Toughness floating around if you don't have a Marauder to bring. This could become a Rail Gunner (who will eat up the spare Toughness) and an Adjunct in the Crow Runners, giving you additional means of dealing with their objective runners. Without a Marauder, you also have limited reason to bring Shock Batons, as the Crow Runners' and LoS' melee attacks have effects you'll want in play anyway, but you might find use for Discus Grenades since they're supposed to be closing the distance anyway (and versatile allows Advance Order: nearest team shoots then throw grenades, everyone moves in, remaining teams melee attack). I would recommend a Flare Gun on the Mechanized Infantry so that they can call for fire. For the other Stratagems, I'm a huge fan of Expert Training even with limited squads to choose from (Crow Runners and Mechanized Infantry). Similarly, you can use Defensive Formations to keep those two squads kicking a bit longer with some canny timing of use. Thrace will be in position for the Mechanized Infantry, and the Crow Runners will be trying to keep up with the Lord of Steel, making both squads potentially eligible for benefit. Unwavering Resolve looks tempting, for when you really need to make an action count. Also: I play dirty, so Detonate Soulstone is another one I'll grab, especially with Crow Runners throwing themselves up the field. If it's not wide open terrain, then options open up more. You can potentially get use out of Electrocutioners or Mehal Sefari because they'll be able to use cover to make themselves harder to hit on top of having heavy armor. You can also get away with using Prince Unathi in a supporting role as he'll be better able to try and find cover (go for line of sight blocking). Your squads will be doing the work, and he'll be loading them up with Reinforcement Tokens so that they can keep putting pressure on. You do run into the problem of having limited ability to set your own traps (single unit of Crow Runners), but a late-activating squad of gloried Electrocutioners can do some silly stuff, including destroy markers (did I mention Unwavering Resolve yet? Here's a use for it). Single Commander makes the resources feel really tight, so things like the Dreadnought, Electrocutioners, and Steel Legion might be too expensive in spite of their impact on the field. You need stuff that can complete objectives to win the game. On the other side of the table, your opponent is leaning heavily on two things to make the traps happen: the Motor Scout and moving markers. Kill the Scout and his ability to score is dramatically reduced.

When you can, use the Champion rule. Some things ignore it (like Edmonton), but if you're fielding Mehal Sefari they have additional synergy with it. Against Chucky boy there, it doesn't have as much value (which is why I'd be willing to drop the Mehal Sefari). I definitely agree with using Expert Training, as it will allow you to get more work out of one of your squads. Lion Among the Gazelles lets you get more work out of your commander, but depending on what commander you're using, this could be a mixed bag. With Unathi it gets you more reinforcement tokens and maybe another prototype use, but without Electrocutioners, it requires having an initial card in hand to discard, since Unathi's card draw is after the action. With Kickstarter stuff (standard) you have Samantha Thrace and a Rail Gunner, right? Samantha Thrace gets stuff done and can get you more Tactics tokens for achieving objectives or influencing the conflict in other ways, like handing out Reinforcement tokens to stay alive longer. It's not a Marauder providing you extra objective running prowess, but it is a Champion supporting your troops and bolstering your Tactical Tokens cache and a shooter (the Rail Gunner, that is) that you can use to put pressure on that Motor Scout. Thrace will also let you fire the Mechanized Infantry titan's gun out of activation with her morale action. With Unathi's fragility, Toughness and Soulstone Necklace are two things I would consider on him, and if you're keeping some Reinforcement tokens on him, he can be refreshing them during his activation. Medic is also kind of crazy helpful for keeping a model with Toughness alive. Going after the Operation is the key to the game, so with marker related stuff I would keep the required Tactics Tokens in reserve for placing/flipping the markers, and holding off on having your scheme runners activate until the last possible moment. This is where Unathi and the Crow Runners will likely end up needing to work together. The Crow Runner's scouting behavior lets them disengage for free at the start of the turn, but your opponent may move to re-engage them. Unathi's reinforcing morale action has a trigger to allow them to move out of activation again, which can help you get at least one of them out of engagement in order to morale/interact to achieve the Operation marker task. Where you can, keep advancing. The closer you get to rush order threat range, the more pressure you put on KE to keep engaging your close combat guys (Crow Runners, Thrace), which lets your shooters shoot unhindered and anyone who isn't actively engaged can run the Operation. This is one of the reasons I'm loathe to not field Mehal Sefari in general though, because they're an all-around threat. They can shoot, but they also present a very real close combat threat.

What prototypes and stratagems are you using? With Prince Unathi, these are important considerations as he leverages them within your forces. If only bringing one engineer, I'd be more inclined to put it in the Mechanized Infantry just to give them a little more of a shooting edge and resilience (counts as two models when removed, one model when reinforced; it is a shooting action taken by the unit, so that lovely AV boost kicks in for when you want to open up with the main gun on the combined arms titan). Not really sure what you can do about sharpshooters and Edmonton plinking off Prince Unathi, other than finding a way to squeeze in another asset. What you'll probably find is that if you cut out the Mehal Sefari (it pains me to suggest this, but if they're not keeping Unathi alive and they're not scoring points, should they be there) and replace with a cheaper element (or two, if you go with Rail Gunner/Marauder), you'll have some breathing room for another asset. Mine Control Device might help choke travel lanes that the Motor Scout would use, but it's a dirt cheap objective runner for KE and has a small footprint. The Motor Scout might be something to have your Mechanized Infantry focus on early on if they can, primarily because it's the most mobile element on the KE side. I'm also a fan of Toughness, since it's a 2-for-1 and it has no other purpose in life then extending the lives of single model elements. A Marauder with toughness runs you 4 scrip, and you can toss the spare toughness on Unathi to keep him alive longer. This leaves you 5 scrip to spend if you dropped the Mehal Sefari. This would also give you two objective runners (Marauder and Crow Runners). 5 scrip happens to be the cost of two Rail Gunners with Toughness. Sure you have less overall bodies on the field, but you end up having a couple more activations. This lets you hold off on objective running until the KE player has committed their main effort, using the Rail Gunners to try and plink the Motor Scout or threaten Edmonton. Soulstone Necklace (as Retnab suggests) is also a good one to put on your commander to keep him (or her, if Kassa) alive. Hopefully it's obvious that this kind of change is suggested primarily for the Operation: you need objective runners that won't die easily that can act fairly late in the turn, limiting your opponent's ability to respond. You also might make use of the Long Game special ability (even if they pass after you do, it won't end the turn, so it costs them a card to do nothing where your card spent is to limit their ability to respond to you) to limit coordinated strikes and force your opponent to run out of activations before you do. Sure, they get 2+ activations in a row, and if they used coordinated strike on the first activation, 3+ in a row. But then they cannot respond to your objective grabs. The trick is then to make sure that your stuff is in a position to weather being shot at repeatedly (in cover, with reinforcement tokens). One of the things I've been doing with my Marauder is giving it the Shock Baton prototype in addition to Toughness (prototypes get to be special), which lets me use it to jam if I need to and pick out adjuncts on demand. I've seen Flare Guns get used to horrifying effect, but typically with Electrocutioners.

Some caveats on the above: Before the game: Forces are hired after factions are revealed. If you're making better use of terrain, expect to see more terrain-ignoring effects. If you're making use of your armor, expect to see more piercing and/or higher strength shooting. Once you start effectively bringing more close combat to bear against the KE forces, expect their roster to update to have some staying power against close combat forces. During the game: Expect to see more effort at getting the Rifle Corps into glory and to hand out tokens to slow your advance to strip your reinforcement tokens. Expect to see more aggressive posturing and layered forces (shooters tucked in behind Borderers, possibly on higher ground, for example). If you've been putting on more VP pressure, expect to see your KE opponent focus more on the units that you normally complete objectives with even as they play to scenario more aggressively. You'll have to adjust your own play as the local meta shifts, basically.

Definitely play to scenario.. but I think you also might be seeing plateaus for forces because you're playing a single commander game. When you open up the field every faction gets something out of it on top of more bodies and tactics tokens on the field: Cult gets a second caster and has more flexibility to do things. Aggressive placement of 1-2 portal markers near the KE deployment zone and a friendly unit of Stalking Portals can get tarpitting units into the KE deployment zone at the top of Turn 1. This includes land Horo and/or Gory near something that doesn't want to be tangled up with a titan. ECB is expensive in a single commander game and more easily focused on, but combined with the second commander and more bodies, its ability to start spread very far apart limits focused fire abilities to remove them from the game before they have a chance to cause serious trouble. Hordes gets more bodies, more options. Morphlings get more abilities to choose from. But importantly, in a two commander game, bringing the Frenzy and other beefy beaters is not as restrictive as it is in a single player game. Bringing the Stormsiren and the Frenzy gives you lots of control options for moving your stuff and your opponent's stuff. As Retnab said, work those pools. Early activation of Stormsiren that involves eating an egg or a nearby lurking fireteam makes those Tide Pools dangerous to your opponent while still being cover to you. Skulkers touching tide pools are really annoying to shoot at, and as an Aby player I've learned that I'm better off trying to Titan-trample them than engage them in a normal fight. Aby gets more toys, sure, but we also get more ways to keep those toys alive. Our generally better statline starts showing its teeth when we're making use of Reinforcement and Inspired tokens on our dudes. Prince Unathi ends up having more units he can support with his shenanigans (which includes handing out reinforcement tokens and potentially moving units or immediately reinforcing them as a result), you have the Lord of Steel's discount (and more options to support the hyperactive steampunk Black Panther), and you can more readily bring in Samantha Thrace for additional Reinforcement tokens. You also get more Prototype Assets to distribute. Basically, opening it up to two commanders gives the steeper learning curved forces more flexibility and angles of attack. KE also gets some goodies out of it too, so it's not like doing this will make it easier for the other forces. It just opens up options. The other thing I would bring up is that over in the KE section, you'll see people lamenting over close combat (from the Malifaux forces), because Cult and Hordes are capable of getting melee units into their opponent's deployment zone in turn one. Sometimes before their opponent even gets to activate: Frenzy nipping Alpha Crawler forward a few times, coordinates into the Overeager Alpha Crawler, who then rushes. Gory receives Advance Order, steps into portal marker or Stalking Portal team near the Cult deployment zone, pops out at a portal marker near the KE deployment zone. One of Gory's assets lets her move afterwards to engage something and she still has her normal attack plus any versatile attacks (additional heads). Here in Aby we don't have those things exactly, but we do have better armor and better close combat than KE. So it's in our best interest to make use of terrain while advancing, rush from cover to cover, and make use of our prototypes to make things happen. Like getting Electrocutioners into Glory. Keeping units loaded up on Reinforcement tokens helps keep them going when they're getting peppered with fire. Use Advance orders to meet Operation objectives when you've got cover/concealment. VP pressure will force KE to play more forward and aggressively just to catch up. These are just general ideas. For more specific stuff, as santaclaws01 mentions above, let us know what is being fielded and we can discuss strengths/weaknesses that are specific to what you have.

Morphlings letting you borrow ECB's gun attack would be utterly terrifying, especially on a relatively cheap and fast moving unit that has a bad habit of not dying or staying dead. Just the baseline of the gun is good. Putting it on Skulkers would be mean, since shooting back at the Skulkers is often a lesson in futility.. in a game with almost no flip enhancers, they're on a positive defensive flip just for sticking a toe into terrain.

Engineers with Mechanized Infantry is silly (in a good way).. because the unit is making a ranged attack, it helps stack things for when you decide to bring guns to bear. Mmm.. yeah.. keyword squads is kind of limiting.

If you don't take toughness on them, you're better off putting that 3 scrip on something else I mainly include that in the cost because for the first Marauder you can get two plain Motor Scouts. That's more activations to put towards completing the operation objectives, to include flipping objectives back to your control. That's also more bodies for your opponent to target. I would probably not go to two Marauders with toughness simply because you can bring a Motor Scout for that second toughness and have a spare scrip to sink into another unit or assets and make use of the Motor Scout's abilities (such as summoning more). Usually when I'm thinking about the opposite direction (KE envoy into Aby), I'm looking at units like the Borderers and wondering if bringing in an element that's purely close combat like that would benefit me at all, with all the tools available in faction, compared to leaving the Envoy option open or hiring Thrace instead. These are the things I use Mehal Sefari for, but I'm an Aby player, so I've got card draw in many places. I think they're good, and the way they can reinforce for being a bodyguard unit may come in handy for KE players who are trying to hang back a bit anyway.

Exactly this. It's even more disgusting if you flip/cheat a Tome in and succeed, because then the Electrocutioners go into Glory without needing the margin. Then you Coordinated Strike to activate the Electrocutioners and get another use of that prototype (Flare Gun or Experimental Rocket, anyone? Both?) on top of their Glory shenanigan ability.

Steel Legion is a large cost up front, but they can get a ton of work done under Kassa, especially with the Cutter's card draw mechanic and the fire teams' ability to shoot into engagements that involve the Cutter. It can help fill the close combat void with a unit that doesn't have to be in Glory to do stuff in close combat. Mechanized Infantry is another shooting unit being added to a Company full of them. On the upside, it'll work well with Kassa, as it brings a Titan to the table that she can exploit. Marauders (the bikes) are 3 scrip base, +1 for the first toughness asset. So they're more costly than your Motor Scouts by a significant margin. Buuuuut being a Two-Seater means that they can receive a Rush order, dart a significant distance, and claim/flip an objective (they have a special rule that lets them take any action on Rush, not just melee). As an Aby player I have yet to be able to do this because my opponent sees the Marauder and is fully willing to sink a significant amount of firepower into it in order to keep it from running around freely, so the other thing you might look at it as is a bullet magnet.

Prince Unathi takes some practice to get used to because his effect in the operation depends heavily on what you bring force-wise and prototype-wise it can quickly become information overload/analysis paralysis when trying to puzzle out what he really does. I had a similar problem with Thrace at first, but now that I've got more practice with just the Aby units, I feel like I can put Thrace into play and get good use out of her. Fielding everything you have is a familiar thing to me. I used to do this a lot in certain other games if I couldn't proxy. My comment about fielding two of them is more for the long term, and less a criticism of your build -- as you noted, they don't seem to do enough things on the table to warrant their taking a large portion of your resources. Just echoing agreement with that assessment with a note that they can do some work. Another familiar thing to me is that Gorysche tarpit clogging up my forces. My first game against Cult involved more than half of my forces being tangled up with her for the first two turns, costing me a ton in terms of Operation VP. That's where the whole inspiration for dealing with aggressively placed Breach/portal markers comes from for me. I don't want to have my shooters and objective runners tarpitted for the game (yeah, I know, a Tactics Token allows walking away and non-advance order movement isn't affected, but this was literally my first game so details like that were lost in the noise), so I look at anything I can do or use to limit their ability to use or benefit from those markers. Among the things I've since figured out is that Mines limit the ability of Doomseekers/Warped/etc. to use the aggressively placed portal with impunity, and that the Mehal Sefari counter-charging an unsupported Gorysche means that Gory eventually dies, but the Mehalf Sefari aren't going to get to do much else during the game. That's the trade-off for an early Titan-rush from your opponent: their Titan is likely to be under-supported if it comes straight into your lines, but the piece trade might cost you overall table position/presence for the operation if you cannot limit your affected surface to just the element you're okay with leaving engaged for a couple of turns.

Going with two units of Mehal Sefari is not something I'd do outside of a starter game. For the same cost as MS+A you can drop in a fully kitted Dreadnought or look at one of the other options you've listed. I've gotten some use out of them as counter-charge pieces (they have good melee, especially with glory and triggers) as well as using them to help move commanders around, but it's not enough to bring two of them. One to provide some support for Thrace and Unathi is not a bad idea in my opinion. Prince Unathi vs. Lord of Steel is an odd comparison to make. Prince Unathi is a support piece that can drop some control on the board. Between his interactions with other units' Prototype Assets, handing out reinforcement tokens, and dropping/moving 120mm markers he supports your force. His triggering of others' Prototypes can put them in glory before they've activated in the first turn of the game, which is huge. Lord of Steel gets you a discount on Stratagems while being a supremely mobile piece for running objectives or attempting to assassinate something. Nothing he does supports the rest of your force in the way that Prince Unathi does. Similarly, once your force is mauled or spread out Prince Unathi isn't getting as much work done on their behalf. Your playstyle may support LoS over PU, which is perfectly fine. That's generally the case for me since I like to use fast moving pieces and use elements like the Steel Legion to draw attention (and kill stuff), so having LoS available to run objectives or act as a mop up element works for me. With the Mine Control Device, opponents' Breach markers, and deployment. If your opponent puts one directly on the edge of your deployment in such a way where your Mines cannot completely cut it off, you can deploy any element from your force to block that one available sliver of space. Just be aware that Low terrain trait comes into play, so Gory can still pop up and be a Distraction Carnifex without a whole lot of worry.

Railgunner and Marauder are two things that tend to draw some heat, so toughness becomes something to toss on them just to make them take that much more effort to remove. In the list above, both Railgunners have Toughness.

It's avoided because the first company to act in a two player game at the beginning of a turn is the company that did not have the last activation in the previous turn. So there's no need to worry about carry-over from the previous turn. No clunk to worry about in that scenario.

I'm leaning towards purple and bronze, but I haven't broken out the paints in a while so we'll see how far that idea goes.

It's not optional, so if one ECB places, they all are moved (see @solkan's post). It very quickly takes away the triangle threat, but allows them to escape jamming units or come together to focus fire on something that needs to die.

I realize I'm a bit late to the party, but you're playing an elite GH crew against a faction that is known for being elite, and I think that might be part of the problem. GH's biggest strengths are weight of numbers in an attrition game and being able to close the distance fast, for either killing or getting objectives. I would suggest that even KE would prove to be hard to deal with with the crew composition you had because they would also be reaching out and knocking stuff down from 36" away. One of the things that Alpha Crawlers and the Frenzy do that helps elite shooting out is they make great targets for precise shooting. Some of the most dangerous shooters Earthside aren't allowed to kill more than one model, but their shots will never get handed off to nearby models. Karkinoi having multiple models per base aren't going to be targeted by sniping elements as often, which really helps me with my targeting priorities. When my opponent fields multiple squads that have multi-model fireteams, and those teams are moving forward to do work, my targeting priorities are not as cut and dry as they would be if it were just a single model roaring up the field. That railgunner isn't going to have quite as much of an impact on Striped Skulkers or Speckled Crawlers as it has on the Alpha Crawler or a member of the Frenzy. Bring the numbers that matter. Having something that can act as a hammer is great, and Frenzy/Alpha Crawler/Karkinoi will do good things for you in a two commander game, but in a one commander game you're missing pieces of the GH pie that get operation work done. If the Karkinoi are laying eggs, they're not surging forward for objectives or interference. If the Alpha Crawler is being a Distraction Carnifex or hammer, it needs some support. In both of those cases, you need cheap little gribblies that can come back every turn (for the cost of a Tactics Token) that will help with both of those needs: they're moving forward, helping get position to score and providing some pressure/support to keep the Aby/KE player from being able to focus fire. Canny deployment and making use of cover/terrain will make the gribblies harder to budge than their statline would normally indicate, potentially neutering the ranged abilities of both of the major Earth factions. With Tide Pool placement, you can even dictate lanes that are closed to your opponent but open to you.

If you saunter into the GH section and read up on the things that bother them, it sounds like grenadiers are on the list of reasons why they don't want to field the Alpha Crawler. One of the things I look at (especially as an Aby player) is that with how wounding works, death by a thousand cuts is a thing. Sure, through some calculus people have figured out that to one-shot a titan with full gear and good armor they'd have to do something like 12 damage (this is the point I tune out, because it's not going to happen), but it's overlooking something super-important. One wound is all it takes to kill something, anything. Assets that can absorb 3 wounds still flip on a single wound. Unless you're dealing with Gory regrowing the head on a card flip, your first shot that barely cracked armor is still having an impact. Now add in triggers or baked-in effects that strip tokens or inflict additional damage or effects (like flipping from glory) and things start looking even better. Gloried Grenadiers landing a Rocket Grenade with a (4) margin will mop up disabled assets immediately on top of being Strength 5 Piercing. With regards to weapon loadouts, it depends on what you're fielding and expecting to fight. I can see why people would prefer an area attack over a focused attack into GH. There's more targets and anything you can do to hand out damage that doesn't let them defend is extremely handy. It also plays into that whole land a single wound, that's all you have to do idea I mentioned above. At the same time, if you know you're going to have to crack armor on Horo (Titan Commander), a ranged weapon that goes to strength 6 on a mask is extremely valuable.

On point 2: as an Aby player, if I'm looking to go to Glory off of something that's Df 3, I will likely try to do it off of a Prototype Asset. Then I'm not counting on a margin, I'm reaping the benefit of a slightly wider range of Tomes that can succeed. The only time I shoot for the margin-to-glory is on uncontested checks that run against a fixed value. That said, I still need a Tome in hand that'll succeed against the flip or to flip a Tome that will succeed, or to use the 6 Tactics Token cost Stratagem that lets me Morale action for a guaranteed suit. In either case, every action and activation spent doing stuff like that is an action and activation that's not oriented to succeeding in the Operation. On point 3: I've found that (especially once BM tarpits something) if I'm sinking points into a unit and not using it for its role, it's not points well spent. Whether it's 4 scrip/points for a Marauder with Toughness or 11 for Electrocutioners with Adjunct or 13 for Steel Legion with Adjunct: if I'm not using them for their role and deploying them well, it's scrip that's not well spent. It ends up not feeling worth the cost. In the case of the Alpha Crawler, aggression seems to be its purpose in life, so cram it down the center as a Distraction Carnifex while your other stuff maneuvers for the operation. Every bit of fire that it takes is something that's not killing Karkinoi, Egg Clutches, and gribblies that are trying to score or deny on Operation. Regarding Tarpitting (and why I pulled Loki's remarks instead of commenting on the post Loki's responding to): I keep finding myself tarpitted because I haven't gotten used to the way that disengagement actively works. So it's largely my own doing that I forget that out-of-activation movement and non-standard movement doesn't invoke disengaging strikes. You've got the Siren's Lure, the Frenzy's nips, and can do things to the opposing force to give your Alpha Crawler the breathing room to charge again. One quick and dirty combination is using the Frenzy to nip the Alpha Crawler out of engagement, then using coordinated strike to Rush the Alpha Crawler right back in. It's the same kind of jackhammer routine I'd use with the Arcane Emissary and Mei Feng in Malifaux (2E). The Siren can do similar things as well, just from a safer distance. And yeah.. this.. rereading the Grenadiers' stats, they're brutal if they're allowed to shoot. Fortunately for GH they have speed and shenanigans that they can use to get something into those Grenadiers to keep them from doing their Titan-hunting job. I'm just a little bit jealous about that, because I have to sacrifice something that would normally be running scenario to them to keep them from tearing apart my armor. Funny thing though, over in the KE there's a thread about how to handle GH and close combat. It's amusing the level of paranoia that exist between the two. Tells me that something was done right with regards to balance

As an Aby player: they're supposed to be. That's the thing that makes the Siren so dangerous in myth and on the table: her magical call lures people to their doom.

Try out Electrocutioners with the Prince and give them the Flare Gun asset. Activate the Prince first, use one of his morale actions to trigger the Bombardment. You get free card draw because the Electrocutioners don't have to discard, and if you have a high Tome you can go to Glory without needing the (5) Margin. Then chain-activate the Electrocutioners (doesn't cost a card because Prince Unathi is a commander) and go to town with their Glory side. I've been getting some good work out of the Elite Training Stratagem with both of our combined arms units. I bet it would be even more absurd with Gloried Electrocutioners. The other things I've been enjoying is Kassa's synergy with Titans triggering additional work from the Cutter. Once things get rolling Steel Legion will keep your hand filled. Against Gibbering Hordes, don't spend time, energy, cards, etc. shooting at the speckled crawlers who get positive defensive flips just for touching terrain. Stomp over them with the Dreadnought. Against Cult of the Burning Man try to pick off the Adjuncts (Precision Fire is your friend for this). Once they're gone, you can capitalize on their own Glory Mechanic.

I think more so than Malifaux, what role you're hiring something for is critical. Immediately behind that comes its deployment. For instance, when I first tried the Mechanized Infantry, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them and they ended up being in a position where they were quickly tarpitted and largely did not contribute to the overall operation. A few games later, they were putting the fear of Abyssinian shooting into my opponent and ripping units apart. What these guys can do is dramatically affected by their position on the table. Similarly, my first run of Electrocutioners never got them into combat of their choosing or Glory. These guys when let off their leash in Glory can have a truly absurd impact on the battlefield and operation. My deployment of them and choice of Experimental Assets did not help them. I'll be giving them more opportunities in games to come. I have yet to see the Marauders do anything other than absorb an absurd amount of hate and firepower--my opponents have been worried about a Tough Marauder running free, so they put a lot of effort into either tarpitting or killing it. Most of their success in tearing it down has been due to my deployment leaving it somewhere where it's mildly exposed (especially to portal-walking Cultists). So my deployment has been hurting them and I've been hiring one to run objectives, which gets cancelled fairly quickly by the tarpitting. I think the Cavalry have a similar thing going on. There's a specific role that they fill, and if you don't put them into that role they will come up short. I haven't tried them out on the table simply because they seem like something better summoned than hired (Behind Enemy Lines) because that lets you put them on the table when and where they can do their harassment/objective grabbing role best, instead of having them on the table relatively early where something can quickly engage or destroy them. It's also worth noting that it takes 6 wounds to completely remove these guys, where a Tough Marauder only can take 3-4 in a single turn. The competition there is Crow Runners is something else you might summon off of that Stratagem, and Crow Runners can do a lot of work. So it comes down to who do you need doing what kind of work.

This can be a double-edged sword. If they push hard like this and something goes wrong with the shipping, it'll be bad. Right now it's kickstarter/backerkit supporters who have models, so it's not yet too late to do some marketing prior to major drops. Conventions are a great place to do a marketing push as well, especially with fully painted demo models and a stock of available-for-sale units. I know at my FLGS we're excited about the game and trying to squeeze in as many games as we can. There's some competition with other games (including playtesting), but the cleanliness of play and pacing of the game has a strong appeal.

Thread-nomancy here, but this unit is a strong drop into Aby in general, in addition to being a titan/character threat. Their deployment and how the rules work for placement allows them to go from covering a wide area with potential threats to being able to focus fire on virtually any point on the board. As an Aby player facing the ECB for the first time recently, they are a solid piece to consider having on your tournament roster if you're playing Burning Man.