So after my first game with Kaeris I thought I would blurt out my initial thoughts.. So 4th game ever, still having huge problems keeping track of the scemes....
But I took the following:
Kaeris with G&D, Blinding Flame
Malifaux Child
2 Fire Gamin
Johan
Acolyte of December
Firestarter
2 Gunsmiths
And I was up against McCabe (not optimized since my opponent knew it was my 4th game ever), Dawn Serpent, Toshiro, Mr Graves, 2 Illuminated and... might have been something more. Flank deployment, Reconnoiter, Plant explosives, Recon. I think both of us forgot about scoring VP most of the game though
Anyhow, first impressions. Beforehand I read up on Kaeris properly, alot of ppl stating that she doesnt do much damage and so on. And true, on her own she doesnt. But game ended with me wiping my opponent (1-1 on VP haha). Kaeris handing out burning and a few Immolates. But she layed down the foundation for everyone else in the crew. Gunsmiths firing away form the back lines on burning targets, the ++ helping ALOT. In combination with the centrally placed (and hidden) Acolyte to remove armour ahd HTW man did they do some work!
Gamin helped with the extra burning, but not really doing alot of dmg, Child about same same, setting things on fire with the stray Immolate. The models I feel I didnt get the mileage out of was mostly Firestarter who threw some fire in the first round doing minor damage then went for Recon after nearly getting killed by the Dawnserpent. The Fire Gamin were.. well.. somewhat helpful but again, mainly just setting things on fire and its 8p of the list.
Gunsmiths were the heroes (and heroinnes) of the game laying down massive damage with accuracy on the burning targets.
I can however see the issues with dmg-output that Kaeris may have if you start spreading out the crew more since it's really hard to knock things down with just one model and you need to focus fire. Spreading out will definetly lower the dmg-output. This game we both ignored/forgot the VPs and mostly went for eachothers throats but Im really impressed with Kaeris survivability and how much dmg the crew as a whole could put out.