spooky_squirrel

Spiders as roadblocks worked really well in my game against NB (Lilith); the summoned spiders kept her and Barbaros engaged at a choke point on the board while the rest of the crew scored points (Hank and Joss going for Hunting Party and Firestarter with Imbued Energies skirting the edge of the table for Undercover Entourage). Summoning into a scheme pool with Hunting Party pretty much guarantees that your opponent gets the 3VP from that scheme, but if you can keep all their beaters tied up with a knot of spiders and spider bombs, your scheme runners are free to do the things they do best.

Coryphee and Effigies are golden. I got to see Collodi running with 4 effigies, Lazarus, and a Coryphee across the table from me at my last tournament, and I had a hard time getting any strat/scheme points (literal death by a thousand cuts took care of my workhorses).

On top of the Emissary's threat, you may want to make allowances for when the opponent is actively defending against Hunting Party. For instance, if an Arcanist player* decides to play Elite Colette or Ironsides, where the only peon/minion in their crew is a fast-moving flyer that is going to live in the corner of the table furthest from all other schemes/strats and out of LOS (or be sacrificed and re-summoned every turn). Anti-armor/high min damage isn't going to help there--something fast is needed. In this case Ama No Zako is far stronger than Kang, by virtue of being quick, a flyer, and hired as a scheme runner (at least, in my local meta). You'll also want to look at infiltration potential, such as McCabe's in order to deal with that scenario. *for instance, me looking at the scheme pool and going "Exhaust their Forces" so that's Ironsides and Warding Runes, with a tanky Henchman and Warding Runes, with a Mage sitting back with Blood Ward, "Hunting Party" so that's 45-47 points of enforcers+ and a 2-3 point peon that's going to play hide and seek. What can I say? My first crew was "Closing Time" and I love the denial game.

No one in my local meta has put him on the table yet (I've got the crew, but not assembled yet), but up the freeway there's an Arcanist player dominating their meta with Sandeep and Company. When some of their players came down here for a tournament, they were talking about how rough their experiences were against Sandeep. They watered down their saltiness with the mindset of "he's new, he seems rough because I don't have enough experience against him"--similar to what I remind myself when Asami is shoving so many Oni down my throat that I have no idea how to guarantee scoring: more practice will show me where the weaknesses lie. That being said, I've picked up some Sanctioned Spellcasters already and will be acquiring a Freikorps Librarian or two to run some academics up the table. I'll have to think carefully about the full composition of that crew, however, since Banasuva and other summoned gamin can be really useful.

It looks like you'll have some order and number of activations stuff to worry about as well. For buffing your own crew and attempting to debuff the opponent's crew, he needs to activate early. Slow on something that has already activated only gives Aionus a benefit. It does nothing at all to models/crews that are immune to conditions, immune to slow, or were just summoned in. To get any benefit from fast, it has to go on early. Late activation of Aionus can get you scheme points. Tossing scheme markers that extra 2 inches for Set Up or Detonate the Charges would net you 3VP in a heartbeat if the opponent cannot do anything else in response. To do this, you need to: 1. move workhorse models into position and drop the schemes (Colette and Kaeris have no problem here) 2. activate Aionus to bump the markers the last couple of inches needed ...without being so heavily out-activated that none of your markers are in position to score. This is where I look at the 13SS cost and wonder if I cannot get a little more mileage out of something else. I know (having run the spider factory myself, played against ressers, and witnessed the rat apocalypse) that summoning/swarm lists will out-activate non-summoning lists, so I know that bringing in 1-2 more models won't help with activation attrition and control there. But in an elite crew vs elite crew, or elite crew vs normal crew, those models might give me an edge that makes a difference. Just one more activation before I airburst the setup target into middle of a cluster of scheme markers might be what I need to guarantee that the target won't be Shown the Door back to safety before the end of the turn (actually happened to me).

They're solid and take more AP to kill than people might want to spend (barring strat/scheme that requires killing minions). They don't benefit from Ironsides' aura, but they can discard for the same effect as a zero action. They do benefit from Bleeding Edge Technology, as they are living construct minions. If you're looking for an anchor point around Joss, they are golden. Large arachnids are minions (and benefit from BET as well) that are M&SU, so they get a little something extra if they're damaged and near Toni. As for the rest of the Rail Crew box: Metal Gamin are M&SU construct minions, so they get Ironsides' aura benefits and BET benefits; they can make another non-Metal Gamin model Df 6 then hunker down on an objective with Armor +2 and double defensive. If you're using Ironsides as a black hole pulling in enemies and she's got Protection of Metal on her already, the Metal Gamin get an additional perk on their fierce headbutt (at the expense of not being defensive to the point of absurdity). Mei Feng can never be in an Ironsides crew (nor can her totem), but she's an interesting master to build crews for out of her own, Toni's, and Ramos' boxes. Similarly, because of Kang's true loyalties, you won't be putting him on the table in Arcanists outside of a Mei Feng crew.

Ironsides needs to have a scheme runner or two for when she's being a black hole in the middle of the board, so soulstone miners, Willie (Miss Fire), and The Firestarter are all amazing adds. They've also been mentioned already. If you can spare the 12 points (13 if you want imbued energies), the Mechanical Rider is an extraordinary scheme runner. Her attack drops scheme markers. She can summon 4SS constructs (spiders, metal/fire/ice gamin) as a zero action with a built in push. Toss on the aforementioned upgrade and she's running fast and hard up a flank where nothing else is for a turn or two (the more time passes, the harder she is to kill), dropping minions that can score and killing scheme runners that are avoiding Ironsides' bubble. The other thing that looks tempting is the Emissary with Ironclad Conflux (for 10SS), because it can help get people into 2" engagement with Toni before she activates (and thus boost her adrenaline faster) and with a discard prompt one of your non-leaders. It's also good at scrubbing schemes and corpse markers if you're worried about those. It might be a little bit of a trap if you're not playing into something that needs this extra work specifically. Neither of these enforcers will get much out of her bubble of focus, but they don't need it and it leaves them free to roam the board causing mischief (until/unless you need the Emissary drawing people into Toni, but that's something you should only need 1-2 times at most. Either Ironsides will be dead or your opponent has put everything they can outside of the Emissary's bubble range and has resigned to the fact that a portion of their crew is in a bar fight until they win or die).

You're right, they do. For some reason I thought they had an extra wound. I'll remove that from the sales pitch above--mainly because if the crew is putting any effort into healing them, that's not helping.

I enjoy running Joss with BET and Warding Runes for Mei Feng and Ironsides, since magi support and counterspell on him is amazing, but so is putting raw Ca hate in the middle of an objective with regenerating Rail Workers under Protection of Iron and double defensive Metal Gamin eating up opponent AP. In a Ramos list, Open Current doesn't hurt my own people and if I'm expecting Joss to kill stuff or die trying, he'll come in with that and Imbued Energies as his second. If he's going to sit back as a counter-charge element, I'll keep BET on him (otherwise, it'll go on someone like Johan).

Also: if running Colette's crew or Cassandra alone (because they use them for many things) or wanting to do something to enhance scheme marker placement (because throwing schemes with Magician's Assistant might be useful for you), mannequins might have a place. [edit: removed armor sales pitch, armor doesn't help with a single wound] In a Ramos crew it depends on what you need. It's not a bad idea to have a mix of gamin on hand so that you can summon in the one(s) that will shore up an observed weakness against the crew you're facing. Fire and Ice do stuff when they die, so summoning them and flinging somewhere that you can use Ramos' (or the Emissary's, or a Metal Gamin's) (0) Magnetism to set them off (Fire Gamin immediately, but Ice Gamin being marginally tougher might require a little more set up) in the middle of your opponent's crew and get a scrap marker for the next batch of summoning.

It depends on your crew make up and intent. If you're using Joss, Arcane Emissary, Rail Golem, Hank (any 2+ choices from that list) as your front line workhorses, Combat Mechanic can heal them. Minions are helped out by Bleeding Edge Tech, but Enforcers+ need someone/thing else repairing/healing them. As an added bonus, the dude you just healed can chain activate and get in some more actions before the opponent can try to whittle them down again. It's solid for making Joss feel unkillable (if you're not using a Doom Ward Oxfordian Mage and putting Warding Runes on Joss already). However, you'll feel the lack of scrap markers if you're trying to put spiders out every turn. You can counter this by using Joss to kill stuff and bringing in Large Arachnids to also drop scrap markers when they kill stuff. If your primary workhorse is Ramos (spider factory) and you're going with other henchmen, like The Captain, Firestarter, and/or Cassandra for reasons, then you want the added card control (and don't need the added repairs). Every bit of scrap is another 1-3 spiders, and if you're rolling with the pressure and field upgrades, those new spiders are going to either get a lot of work done or cause your opponent to burn up a lot of AP. If you're using one or more construct henchmen but keeping them back as a counter-attack element (and/or Bleeding Edge Tech caddy), you will probably find yourself not using the repair as much; same thing if you're using Hank as a guided missile (he won't be in repair range and/or your opponent is going to focus-fire him off the table rather than let him dance in and do what he does best). Either mode, Ramos needs scrap markers. You should also practice with both upgrade options and see how they work with how you're using your crew..

I second the call for large arachnids. They've got creative salvage, so they'll drop scrap markers off of anything they kill (similar to Joss) and can eat scheme markers or scrap markers to gain positives on all flips (yes, this includes eating enemy scheme markers). They're also minion constructs, so they benefit from Bleeding Edge Technology. If you want a relatively cheap scheme runner that can pop up literally anywhere on the board, you cannot go wrong with a Soulstone Miner. Pop up somewhere safe, drop scheme marker. Next turn: move, drop scheme marker. Repeat for max return on the schemes that call for scheme markers and/or models in the opponent's half of the board (or to disrupt/run Reconnoiter, etc.). Both of these choices are minion constructs with a pricetag of 6SS. They'll work really well with Ramos right off the bat and still find spots in other Masters' lists (strat/scheme pool directed). Gunsmiths can be very good, but they need to be set up by your own faction to get the most out of them. Your opponent isn't going to send a stray shot at them and give you fast off of your Df (Rams) trigger. At least not more than once. Kaeris can halo them, they flip a ram or cheat a ram, gain fast, and you're playing Kaeris--so you don't care if they end up on fire (or better yet, you do care because it's more card draws), and she then throws her halo out onto whatever you're about to East Way off the board. Ironsides (and her crew) can do things to ping them slightly (rope from Mouse, elemental strike from an Oxfordian Mage), and grant them positive flips for being Hand Picked Men, and if they're not burning the enemy, you switch chamber and throw the suit that will get you what you need (armor piercing, cursed ammo, buffed damage track) and put three focused shots into their target. Other masters aren't giving you as many reasonable ways to hit your own defense trigger yourself, so the Fast you're paying for in hiring them is not reliable; they also don't end up getting reliable access to things like a burning victim or HPM for bonuses. At worst, they actually present a liability to your own force due to their cost and the relianc one some kind of booster.

The thing with the Mechanical Rider is she's a summoning Enforcer. If you want to skew heavy with summoning, that's 1 metal gamin (or fire gamin or mannequin) a turn on top of the ~2 spiders from Ramos. You'll have a lot of activations, but you're going to be countered hard by the same things that make Ramos want to stay back. I like running her with other crews (like Ironsides) that are tying up the middle of the board, so that she's free to drop scoring minions in the enemy deployment zone or run down enemy scheme runners (or the defensive solo minion hiding from the hunting party in the back corner somewhere). If you're running Ramos' spider factory in the middle of the board, you do have an edge in attrition that might make it worthwhile to bring the Mech Rider as a scheme runner, and just shy away from taking the schemes that require solidly killing things. Her card draw is a reliable source of a spare card per turn, which can really help out with getting the cards you need to keep going. The Rail Golem, oh my... if you get it set on fire (not just burning 1-2, think like burning 4-5)... it's a terror. If you're under locomotion and smacking things with the (0) attack and still have burning left, your min damage is 5 and you can potentially keep triggering it until you run out of steam (or burning, as the case is). As BFOmega mentioned, it's Tomes intensive and it will fight with Ramos for them. The other option, if you're not going for the "make them suffer" one-construct show, you can vent steam in the middle of a pack of things and set them on fire. I get use out of this in other crews, but I've never really considered the Rail Golem in Ramos' crew. You also might consider the Arcane Emissary. It's another 10 pt Enforcer, but with Ramos' conflux it's also a Construct and a source of magnetism (for popping your own spiders and making scrap). That may not seem like much, but when you start factoring in the other things that Ramos and company can do, especially with constructs, it can get pretty hairy for your opponent pretty quickly. A reactivating (from Brass Spider) Charge 10 monster that blows away scheme and corpse markers as part of its charge is intense. Especially when it has a 'discard a card to prompt a nearby non-leader' effect ...you know, for when Joss didn't quite finish killing that thing next to him or you're one spider-dropped scheme marker from the third point in Convict Labor. It's nuts.

If you average summoning 2 per turn and don't hire any, that's enough for 4 turns of summoning without casualties. So you should be good to go. Don't forget that you can always have Ramos use magnetism to put some damage on your own spiders when you need more scrap markers to summon off of, and Joss gets you two for the price of one if he gets the kill ...because if your opponent isn't killing off your spiders, you will end up needing to (to generate scrap markers) if you want to summon more.

Especially Joss, regen + 1 with HtK and a baked in reactivate the first time someone nearly succeeds in killing him can keep him above the HtK threshold and doing painful and unpleasant things to the opposing crew. Of course, if your opponent has the AP to continue trying to kill him, they will, so this isn't something to count on every time.

That's an excellent example of a "right tool for the job", and they get an added bonus of Student Loans when the NB or Ressers try to scare them or lead them astray. With Kaeris and mystery opponent/strat/schemes, I might bring 1 (with Nemesis Ward) or 2 (Blood/Doom) in order to help hand out burning, or just 1 (blood) in order to provide Ca-based ranged support and help with enemy conditions and pulses (I hate it when my Henchman beater gets paralyzed by horror and there's no Johan or Effigy available) if I'm planning on putting Joss or the Captain up front as a beater with Warding Runes. I'm also going to consider putting in more minions to take advantage of Kaeris' range of abilities, and this is primarily what will constrain my hiring of Mages with Kaeris. I like using things that work off of burning and/or move quickly enough where G&D goes from "interesting" to solid gold. OP suggested that they're also thinking about Raspy; I've never played but I've played against her. I'm not sure if the Mages would do anything in Raspy's list that Acolytes and Silent Ones can't do better, especially with Raspy herself arcing curses into whatever her controller decides to erase. Since I've got literally zero experience with Raspy, I've got no real opinion beyond that "I'm not sure".

I agree that the cost issue is effectively gone. As I implied, there are crews in which I could convince myself to bring all three--but I temper that with asking myself the question "is the third one going to help me with the strat and schemes". If they get left alone to be a magic gunline, I get to use their strengths with reckless abandon (especially in Ironsides with HPM and Student Loans). That's a big if when I'm playing with the more experienced players. To maximize the resonance benefits, they end up very near each other, which runs into the problems I described above. I point out those problems because the melee capabilities of the mages who don't have Blood Ward are such that a Watcher or Clockwork Trap will keep them from doing their job for a turn or two without outside assistance. If you're not fishing for the higher order triggers, Nemesis Ward wanders off on its own with a built in Tome from the upgrade, and the other two cluster together somewhere to bolster each other and they all get a Tome built into their casting, and now it takes more effort from your opponent to disrupt your using them. This also affects how much Warding Runes might benefit from the Wards themselves (the tables I normally play on at my LGS have a lot of LOS-blocking terrain) if you're looking for that synergy. The underlying point of everything I've been saying is that members of a crew are hired to do a job. If they're not doing that job, they're not doing what they're hired for (and the soulstones are not being wisely spent). I've found that even with the discount, hiring three of them doesn't always help get the job done, and sometimes it's a 2-3SS model or summoned model that's stopping them. If your strat and scheme pool allows having an elite crew to meet 2-3 schemes and get the strategy, great! That has not often been my experience, hence my comments, to include my initial post of "As with any other model, you want to look at your strats and schemes before committing a significant portion of your [crew] to a family of models, as well as your opponent's faction". This is one of the features of Malifaux I really enjoy: I can build my crew on the fly to respond to the unique puzzle that the strategy, scheme pool, opposing faction, and opposing player creates.

Since the stuff I mentioned above has been my exact experience fielding three mages, if I'm bringing the mages, I'm inclined to bring 1-2 (yes, still two) for supporting a front line of scheme/strat scorers. This keeps my SS use to 6/12 +1 of 50 providing a tarpit multiplier to the Henchman they're supporting (assuming not Ironsides and not Sandeep Academia; +1 for the Warding Runes upgrade; Blood and Doom Wards in that priority order). In this role, I'm not clumping them up (they're not there by default to resonate with each other for baked-in triggers) unless I need them to condition or push a model to support other things that my crew is trying to do. This makes their Plan A support and Plan B control/condition/targets of opportunity, which allows me to ignore jammers until it's more convenient to deal with them (if at all). If the opponent doesn't bring jammers, then my mages sit in my midfield supporting the scrum in whatever way is needed. For Ironsides or Sandeep, I can see bringing all three instead of just two, because Sandeep loves academics and Ironsides doesn't need a second henchman around to maximize the Warding Rune usage, she can take the second one herself (which helps her when she's using all of her own AP to pull enemies into her). Even with them though, I would look at the strat/scheme pool and hire models to complete the strat and as many of the schemes as possible, so that you have some flexibility to respond to what your opponent's crew looks like when you're picking the schemes. As for talking Malifaux, I have been.

Start: Mages are jammed to break crew synergies and deny them their magic shooting (Watcher, Merris, Silurid, Terror Tot, Clockwork Trap w/ pathfinder, etc.) Blood Ward mage activates and attempts to free other two mages via pushing (or when presented with a softer target, killing the runner/jammer). Opponent activates, continues jamming mages because it helps them break my crew synergies (softer jammers that can be summoned, or they're doing something nasty like popping up a Killjoy). Captain activates and burns his AP pushing mages out of engagement and hopefully into a better position or killing a cheap runner/jammer. Opponent gets another activation. Two of my melee beaters spent their activations trying to free one or two shooters from a model that only was there to jam/distract them. The problem I have here is that I hired a control group to control the battlefield on my terms, not my opponent's. The goal with a control crew is to minimize your opponent's activations and their ability to score on scheme/strat. If I'm spending activation after activation trying to free up a mage so that it can try to do its job, I'm not running schemes or scoring on the strategy, I'm not slowing or pushing the key pieces of my opponent's plan. I'm reacting to my opponent instead of setting things up in my own favor, which means that they're out-controlling a control crew and my crew has no Plan B because it's skewed for control.

I often bring Blood with a single mage in Ironsides to provide immunity to pulses and conditions. It makes the 1SS upgrade on her and Henchman of choice even better. My experiences with running them in Ironsides' crew has weened me off of bringing all three all of the time, often because they're not helping with LYM/CBT type schemes that require moving forward faster, and they have not been reliable enough at other schemes that I've played into that I would feel a nasty drop in the over all crew effectiveness swapping one out for a soulstone miner or a rail worker (with change for something else to get a boost) for example. With Temporary Shielding the cost dynamic has changed, 3 points for the better in a crew based on the Troubleshooters box, but the fact that they're marginally harder to kill with it doesn't make up for the fact I'm burning a lot of activations to get them up the field to do frontline work that they're not that good at. When my non-Blood Ward mages get engaged by something with a decent Ml, my already tight number of activations becomes overworked trying to get those mages to where they can contribute. My usual opponents have learned that when I drop Ironsides in, they want their fastest movers to tie up my support mages and keep them busy doing everything they're not intended to. If I have to push them up to do the work that would be better done with a metal gamin, rail worker, large or small spider, they're not doing the job I hired them for and that 3 point discount has become a liability instead of an asset. If I have to use the Blood Ward mage to push the other two out of close combat, I'm burning up his/her entire activation and letting my opponent get another activation in to tie at least one of them up again, without actually advancing my scheme or strategy play.

Fair point. I usually find myself looking at those 3 points for upgrades or bolstering choices related to the schemes, because sometimes that third mage isn't helping me do what I need to do (middle back support/"gun"line isn't guarding a stash or counting towards extraction, forward positioning is going to result in my popping the temporary shielding and hoping that my opponent runs out of activations so that I get at least one more turn of control/burn out of them). It comes down to "if I have 3 more points, I can use X instead of Y, and give Z Imbued Energies. I like support options, but the name of the game is scheme completion and scoring off of the strategy. If I cannot find the three points for a third mage and be happy with my crew for the s+s pool, I may drop down to a single mage and take advantage of the fact I'm looking at more hiring flexibility, but I may still have use for that second mage (i.e. immunity to enemy conditions/pulse damage and regen for a frontline tank like Joss, whose reactivation will put him above the HtK threshold again). It all depends on who I'm playing into what s+s and opponent faction.

In addition to what is mentioned above: Joss provides a front line guy that helps keep attention and pressure off of Ramos. He's too solid to ignore, so your opponent will want to neutralize him. If you can't get him (or don't care to yet), you'll probably want another front line beater in his place. For that you might consider something like the Rail Golem (who really wants to be on fire) and/or Arcane Emissary. Large Arachnids help with getting scrap markers from kills. To kick off Ramos' factory, you'll probably want a throw-away construct like an Electric Creation, Mobile Toolkit, etc. Bringing a Rail Golem, you might consider the fire gamin as the sucker to kick off a splash of burning early. Electric Creation is the most cost-effective way to do this (see the Ramos threads for more detail).

I found that the base sizes are nice for two things: putting them in foam for transport, and drawing line of sight for Warding Runes. Especially when using Ironsides to be an AP black hole for your opponent, it's important to note that the pulse and aura icons both require line of sight. The putting in foam bit is just nice, because the base protects the dynamic poses better than some of the other models in the Arcanist line up. Excellent advice in here (snipped down to some highlights). I've found that I end up targeting my own models and taking the push trigger (HPM/Ironsides) to move them up. With Kaeris and Mei I could see getting some mileage out of the push trigger as well the burning. Anti-armor depends on whether or not my opponent has armor, and I'm typically shooting at things that already activated (later turn mage activation) so handing out slow isn't high on my priorities. Since all the triggers are baked in if you're camped near other Academics (or packing the Nemesis Ward), you can pick your tool on the fly, which is really handy. I'm not sure how much use Colette might get, Prompting and Understudy (Cassandra) will get more work out of them, but that's assuming those aren't being used to get more work out of something else (including Cassandra herself). Counterspell on Cassandra is nice by itself; giving her the other bonuses would be amazing, but she's so stupendously mobile that she might not be within the Ward range if she's doing her various jobs. That's an opinion that's pretty common in my area as well. They're 6SS (5SS if you buy 3 and take Temporary Shielding) each on an enforcer that doesn't move very quickly on its own. As with any other model, you want to look at your strats and schemes before committing a significant portion of your [crew] to a family of models, as well as your opponent's faction. Those caveats aside, I've noticed that in my own play experience that some models I might not want/need more than 1-2 of, because I need to have the right tools for all the jobs I'm trying to do. Every time I've skewed heavy one way or another, I end up having to work really hard just to get 4-5 out of 10 VP against crews that are hired to do their jobs as fast as possible and interfere with mine as much as possible. I learned the hard way that 14 points between two gunsmiths didn't help if I wasn't getting the cards I needed to get them Fast before they activate, because that's 14 points only getting me a total of 4AP. So it ends up being an opinion I tend to agree with. Committing 15 points for 3 mages is easier to consider (far easier than 18 for 3), between the furious casting, the (0) action, and their ability to support each other. Outside of Ironsides' crew, they're a shoe-in for Sandeep. For Kaeris I could see bringing 1-2 if you don't need those 6/12SS (not including the upgrade slot on the Henchman) spent elsewhere to use their triggers to do things like set things on fire or push things around in support of other things you're looking to do. If you're using a static support Henchman who's going to be pushing up into position and taking care of business in the middle of the board, the Warding Runes can help keep them there. Just note that using them early in the turn to give out burning or to push models into place means that they don't get to use their normal arcane shielding to reduce damage. My own instinct with Kaeris is to bring minions that will work off of what she does (i.e. Large Arachnids in Grab and Drop to get the (0) focus started, Gunsmith(s) to work off of Halo burns, Rail Workers to act as a front line and potentially feed off of the burning). This comes from trying to follow the generic (and accurate) advice of picking models that will get the job(s) done. I just finished building a proxy for our lawyer, Amina (from the TTB female box), who also happens to be a Henchman and an Academic (which means she boosts them and can take Warding Runes) and will be thinking of ways to fit her into the way I run my crews.

Three times the poison injection fun?

Of course, a quick glance shows me that the OP contains all three elements, while the subject line suggests PiaB. So I too am starting to wonder if the question really how to deal with a combination (PiaB), a crew (Darth's Sonnia), or the Guild in general. The subject line suggests the first. On the second option in there: the player/crew, I will say this: there's a lot of nuance, order of activation, and an opponent to deal with. I'm trying to figure out more with my own order(s) of operation so that I get more mileage out of my crews. A more experienced player can take the same crews I run into the same strats/schemes and opponent/crew and potentially do much better than I do. Similarly, the same strat/schemes/crew I score 10-6 against one player I may lose 4-10 against another player (running the same list and choices that the previous player made). The opponent and their AP/card management affects how your game goes to some degree. On the third: it depends on the strat/schemes and your hiring pool.