Zebo

I'm thinking a lot about giving a try to this crew. Has anybody tried a Guilty with Servant of Dark powers? This would mean a easy draw card from Torment. Or with Wanted Criminal, could mean also, along with a Dead Outlaw, an easy ss generator.

Yeah, sorry. Don't know how to fix it. I wrote all first on a word document in my mobile phone, an when pasted it here, it was like black over black, so I changed it to a colour that could be viewed both in black and white pages. Not sure how to change it.

It would be cool to make a short guide of the crews and their playstyle, only for the purpose of helping the new players to know our crews. I'm absolutely not a great player, and only have played 4 crews (and only one with more than 10 games), so it would be great to have the help of anybody who wants. I'll be editing this first post to add any suggestions and to correct my mistakes. AMALGAM They are the epitome of the creations of an Evil Genius Steampunk Necromacer. Half-flesh-half-machine nightmares that lacks any emotion but suffering and advances relentless while begging for being killed (at least that's how I imagine the Abominations and the Desolation Engine). Amalgam plays a kind of attrition war. They may not be the tougher creatures on the battlefield, but can take some hits and have many ways to heal themselves (while damaging their foes), and their enemies suffer damage not only when attacked, but also when attacking and even only with being near them. They can even turn their enemies into more Abominations. They are not the fastest crew, but have some resources to add movement to the crew. The Master is a kind of strange beater. He can fight both in melee or ranged, and while his damage is the worst of any "killy master", it's irreducible and he can hurt himself to improve a little his damage output. He can also resurrect when killed, sacrificing his totems in the process while teleporting just by their side, so you need to be careful while moving and placing them, to not let your opponent to kill them, but neither place them when your master is gonna be isolated if resurrect in them. This crew can suffer when facing mobile crews, specially if the opposite crew plays evasive and keeps themselves away from your models and don't attack you. Leveticus is quite dependent on auto-damaging to be effective, and if the Hollow Waifs are taken down, he becomes quite vulnerable. Also, if the enemy keeps away, it's immune to Entropy, if they don't attack you, they're immune to Unmade. BANDIT Basically, far west outlaws. The Bandits relies on their mobility and shooting (lots of shots) to win the edge. They can take advantage of the enemy resources, mostly the enemy scheme markers, but also can steal cards and sometimes soulstones from their foes. They don't have ways to ignore terrain, but they can gain Fast easily, and have TONS of pushes and extra moves, so they are really mobile and can out-run many crews (and do it while shooting). Their main mechanic is to eat scheme markers to become Fast, what makes them very powerful. And they have many ways to drop both friendly and enemy scheme markers, but none of the ways is automatic or uncosted, so they are funny to play. The Master is mostly a support piece. He can shoot, but his shots are not so damaging and helps his crew by dropping scheme markers that can be used by his mates. He can also drain the opponent's hand and replenishing his own, steal ss from the enemy and even collect enemy scheme markers into ss. Bandits need to being dropping markers to keep their game hot. If they run out of ss and tomes they're quite weaker. They're also not very tough, so even if they can shoot when engaged, better keep them away of close combat or they will fall down quickly (unless the Wokou Raiders, which are the Bandits melee tarpits). FREIKORPS Pseudo WW I Steampunk German soldiers with metal plates and alchemical masks. Freikorps are a ranged crew with above-average toughness. The crew has many blasts and shockwave attacks, a pair of strong melee beaters, some heals, advanced-deployed models and a pair of tricks under their hats that makes them quite versatile for every circumstance. They are quite self-sufficient, and usually they don't benefit from their friend's actions and don't have many shenanigans. Their play is to have the Master and the Totem giving special weapons and equipment to the crew to improve their play. The Master is a pure support piece. His attacks are not worth the action(WARNING: this can be a little overreaction), while he can give his troops some special weapons or equipment at the same time that pushes them around. He is tough and mobile, although. The Freikorps can do well many things, but they can't do everything well at the same time. They need resources to boost each side of their play, maybe card cheating/discarding or spending ss. If they face crews with resource control, they can be severely affected. INFAMOUS Well, the best way to describe this crew is… flying gremlin pirates mixed with Mexican-wrestlers style gremlins. The main trick of this crew is to drop pianos from their flying ship, in form of piano markers to limit their foes movement. The flying pirates can ignore them and the wrestlers can use them to knock their target's heads. Absolutely no idea of what this means in the table, need help from experts. The Master is a kind of super fast flying model that can drop markers and enemies around. No idea his strengths and weaknesses. MERCENARY The Mercenary keyword consists in a bunch of human fighters (mostly females) fighting together. They really doesn't seem very unified by their looking. The mercenaries are basically fast melee beaters. They move a lot, and they kill a lot in close combat. Everyone may have a different trick, but overall what they do is to move and to kill with swords/hammers/fists/whatever. They have a pair of support pieces that may buff them, heal them or provide an extremely weak shot at long range. Their only obvious shenanigan is to have one mercenary near each Viktoria to benefit from their master's extra attack trigger (if you don't want to have both Viktorias together, which is the most killy thing you can do). The Master is a killy fragile melee beater, who fights side by side with her twin (instead of totem, this crew has like two weaker masters). OBLITERATION The looking of this crew is like a bunch of ethereal out-of-space monsters, guided by a few humans. This is officially the summoning crew of the outcasts. The Obliteration crew are the masters of burying. All of them can bury enemies. All of them can attack or damage buried enemies. They can also bury their allies to gain some advantages. They also has shenanigans with the Fast and Slow conditions, specially with enemies with the Fast condition, but I've not played them and cannot give any advice about their playstyle. They use to deal with enemy models by burying them and then proceed to attack the buried model with every model you wish, since them can attack buried models. Your opponent can let you kill his/her model or activate it and let you redeploy it in the worst place you can (always in base contact with another enemy model), so you can isolate the beaters, or put the squishy/utility/target of schemes models in the middle of the heat. There's some models that make extra damage to fast enemy models, there's some model with positive flips versus fast enemies, and some models that do automatic damage to enemy fast models that start their activation near them. But every single model can unbury near models with Fast, what makes enemies with Fast really useful to this crew (and almost everyone here can put Fast on enemy models). The key is to dominate the tempo, to bury already activated models, or not give away fast to enemy models that can take advantage of it before you. Obliteration can disrupt a lot your enemy's plans. They are also quite resilient, with quite Terrifying, Incorporeal and Armor (and can be buried and healed when damaged). But this defenses can be avoided by indirect damage like shockwaves, pulses or terrain traits. The Master is a kind of weird summoner, since her summoning is not her main strength, and can do some tricks (well, since I've not played her, I don't know how she plays). PLAGUE Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the crew consists basically of rats and childs. The Plague crew has two themes, to summon rats and to spread the Blight. The rat engine depends on a trigger in Hamelin's melee attack (you don't want Hamelin engaged), the Rat Catcher's melee attack and the Obedient Wretch ranged attack, all of them unsuited and only applied when succeeding with an attack to an enemy model. Also can summon rats when models with Blight dies near Hamelin or the Rat Catcher, or when the Stolen or Obedient Wretch dies. The last way is an action from Benny Wolcomb that needs as much schemes markers as possible. All of this is quite situational, hard to achieve or simply not worth the effort only to summon Rats. So the key for this crew is to spread blight quickly and to exploit it to finish the enemy. The best source is Hamelin's Lure, but only being near any non-Rat non-Rat Catcher is gonna spread it, and many melee attacks can increase the Blight tokens really fast. The Master is hard to kill thanks to his meatshield child's, and likes to spread the plague and then kill the infected models. He can do a ton of damage, but needs some set out first. This crew treats many of is models as resources (specially the Rats) but is quite vulnerable to area damage, that forces them to spread maybe to much for their playstyle. TORMENTED The impersonation of suffering and madness. This crew remember me the ghosts from the movie "House on Haunted Hill", but less incorporeal. This crew seems to rely on draining your opponent's hand while replenishing your own. The Master and some models can attach upgrades to the enemy, and the crew draw cards every time they damage enemies with upgrades. The Master is almost unkillable as long as you have cards in hand, and he can heal himself each time you must draw cards, so more shenanigans here. They also benefit from the enemies having the Staggered condition, and they have many ways to apply it. That said, I have no idea about the way of play the crew. It seems fun but not easy, and I think they tends to buble, but need some Tormented player to explain better their playstyle. About the Master, he can do a lot of damage to staggered models, but he has no way to stagger models during his activation. He can reliable attach upgrades to enemies and benefit from them, so he can start the turn and curse enemies to boost his crew, or wait until there's some staggered models and then punish them. No idea the best way to use him, sorry. One of the keys for this crew is to manage correctly their hand, since can be quite card-hungre and Daw's survivability relies on having cards in your hand. Again, this thread would be really helpful to newbies if the veterans helps to add/correct the information.

Only pointing that Investigator is not under de curve in what a 7ss toughness should be. Willie has explosive +3, the other two have nothing. I'm not saying that the Investigator is awesome, nor an autotake, but I felt that everybody was talking about the Investigator's melee attack and anti-scheme shenanigans, while I think almost his most powerful possibility is to drop scheme markers at range and nobody is taking it seriously.

December Acolyte: 7ss, 7Wd, Df5, Wp5, no abilities. Willie: 7ss, 7Wd, Df5, Wp5, evasive. The Firestarter: 7ss, 7Wd, Df5, Wp5, no abilities. There are lots of 7ss models easier to kill than the Investigator.

7ss, 7Wd, Df5, Wp6, Intimidating Authority. It's as tough as any other 7ss model.

Well, if the were in-built, the investigator would be an auto take for Detonate Charges, and probably also on Breakthrough, Harness the Ley Line, Search the Ruins and Dig Their Graves. No matter the keyword, the Investigator would be seen almost in every game.

I think that the possibility of dropping your scheme markers up to 8" is quite awesome, specially in a crew where so many models can obey him. Yes, it only works with , but the card draw of this crew could be the best in the game, so not such a big deal.

I'm really surprised. Not played a lot with Amalgam, but in the beta I had the feeling that people thought Abominations were really good and tough for 4ss.

But if one insignificant model kills a non-insignificant one, they scores for reckoning.

You mean Rabble Risers (old Punk Zombies) or Necropunks?

Yes, you must have a reason to take Lazarus. The only thing that Lazarus does is to shoot. Regular tricks to avoid fire may not work with him, but it's quite easy to reduce a lot his impact in the game. Does he compensate for it cost? It's quite easy to avoid it.

They changed Rapid Fire to Elimination Protocols. People having bad experiences with Lazarus started to complain instead actually try to counter him (it's quite easy, in fact) and Lazarus was nerfed.

Quitting Rapid Fire from Lazarus killed him.

It's too late for this xD I would have preferred to see a nerf on his range (in the last pictures he was wearing a shotgun, not a rifle) Or just give him back his old reliable Clockwork Seeker (I think every VS's player would love this)

Not sure how a 3/4/5 attack with a push trigger can be considered killy, specially on a Master. But I'm getting tired of this theme. Nerfing VS damage was a big mistake IMHO but that's what we have and it's not gonna change. What are we gonna do when we don't have any useful upgrade disposable? I guess little. His attacks are not worth anymore. I've been without playing since the end of the beta. Maybe I'll give the game another chance again in the future. Also changing the killiness of Viks when I'm purchasing and painting their crew doesn't help.

Wow, they changed it again, didn't realized. Still, weak 2 with no triggers makes his rifle too bad for being a Master. Still don't understand why they decided to nerf his damage instead of his range (in the pictures he's wearing a shotgun).

I think "Shouting Orders" is only minions. So VS can't benefit from it. It's a shame, but the nerf to his damage makes him only really useful in providing upgrades and pushing people around.

😱😱😱 Didn't realized.

I would bet that paying cost forms part of the action paid.

He even show Amina Naidu how to sing Walk the Line. In fact, the MS&U henchwoman is even better than the own Johnny Cash Tribute, since she can give Fast and Sue can only remove markers (and now you can get better use of scheme markers, and Scrap/Corpse markers are far less useful/mandatory than in M2E). I also love to use Sue, although I hate him being only Bandit.

Necrotic Decay wording: this model may suffer up to 2 damage. Dumb Luck wording: this model suffers damage equal to half of the amount the target suffers. A part of one being optional and the other being mandatory, I can't see why one is considered to be from an attack action and the other not.

In M2E nobody seemed to have a problem with Gremlins avoiding Dumb Luck damage by discarding the Stilts. Everyone I asked agreed on damage from a trigger being damage from an attack action, so not sure why now there's so many people arguing that own damage from Necrotic Decay is not reduced by Incorporeal. Or maybe I'm not understanding well the thread.

Mmm faction books? What does this means? We Are gonna need a core book and our faction book at least?

All Mercenary Keyword goes about being fast and hitting hard. Almost none non-melee or support options