Davos

I never thought of that dropping him in status. I still don't think he'd be worth it without a stats change. He'd basically gonna feed Hunting Party points or REckoning without a Df icnrease

Ok, so I know this is a topic that has been beat to death, but I'd like to hear people's thoughts on how they would buff the specialist. I think with the rise of Azura Rotten's zombie spam (I haven't seen it but I've heard the horror stories) and Nicodem's return, Specialist should see more play, cause he can remove corpse markers, EXCEPT he's literally a waste of soulstones right now. So I want to see in what ways we could make him playable and help counter the rising tide of Ressers. I've always thought it was a cool model (I mean, its a dude with a flamethrower, come on) but obviously it suffers from a ton of problems. Its Wk & Df are to low for its cost, its range is only 10, and @ 8ss, its damage profil of 2/3blast/4blast is on the weak side. It did get a small buff from engineer, but its highly card intensive and requires a ton of set up for a single good punch. So, my thoughts: Change to Wk 5, Df 5 OR drop the SS cost Increase the range of his gun to 12 Give him a zero action that lets him push/place within 4 OR give him Reference the Field Guide so you can ensure you hit his suits for the not-builtin triggers/increase his dmg profile Give him built-in Scout the Field so he gets a free walk at the beginning of the game (or each turn but that seems a wee to powerful) Thought? Suggestions?

Yea, I find him strong with Levi, he can work as a far advanced anchor or just counter schemer. And provides depth with a slower Peacekeeper and A&D who is menacing the other flank

Just ran him across a 3 game tournament. Found him to be very strong. Ignoring the pathetic round 2 game I played, round 1 & 3 he DID WORK. Round 1 he basically threatened Leave your Mark, and then bounced around hitting things to tie down dirty Arcanist models and score Show of Force (put Oathkeeper on him - for Show of Force). He reliably tossed out damage (Fast AP spent on his "You Scared of that Dandy Hatter" to get +2 built in Rams, to go min 4, and dealt solid damage to The Captain and Mouse. Tied up models and provided tons of threat range. Also threatened counter schemer in the Ice Dancer. Round 3 I faced the Tara Void Spam list. It was Squatter's Rights to I had him on a marker turn 1. I then flipped the marker turn 2, and engaged 2 of my opponent's 6 Void Wretches. He then basically just sat and tied up the models to prevent them from doing anything. And since I can always heal/place him at the beginning of the Round, his threat prevent my opponent from doing anything on that side of the board, locking in the Strat for me and forcing him to go towards the center and otherside of the board, into my Heavies (yea for Ashes 'n Dust and Peacekeeper). All in all, fun times.

Scout the Field, when you burn it, allows you to take a Sh action, ignoring line of sight, though cover is applied as normal. Its why focusing Hans is so important, to let him negate the cover. So ideally you "I Pay Better" focus, then 1 AP focus, then shoot, so you're still at a + on attack and damage

Hmmm true. I'll need to watch for that. I think I still have been playing it right, but I'll have to make sure I don't mess it up (I don't bring him a ton so i wouldnt be surprised if I've screwed it up). Still, auto-scoring a Strat is nice. And can free up other models. Granted, I've started moving away from him, but still a nice tool in the belt.

That is exactly as I see him. The only time I'm sending him in is if its a certain kill on a schemer or if I need to pin something down for an activation. As a schemer he is wonderful

He's good in Headhunter and fantastic for Interference + Extraction . He can single handily lock down a quadrant or guaratee that you'll pull the marker for extraction, which makes in easier to deny for your opponent.

I run Levi and Von Schill. I mostly run him with Levi. VS has been synergistic 8SS drops than him, though having a super far froward model is nice. With Levi, he is a ideally a counter balance schemer in my opponent's backline/flank. This let's him Leave Mark, pick off thier schemers, or serve as a balance to my necropunk whosse also sceming

I find him a very interesting model to use. He's a great schemer, since he has such insane mobility and a decent attack to pick off other schemers. But mostly, I think I use him as a threat - since my opponent needs to be wary of him, they kinda have to activate the models near-ish to him to avoid getting ganked by him. And even though I won't go in early cause I don't want to risk losing him, the threat of him on the edge is enough to mess with my opponent. Likewise, letting him sit on the edge as a threat of force lets me do my otherstuff first, while he's semi-locking down a region, or at least projecting power. I find I don't actually attack with him that often, since my opponents will run away from him. He's there to project threat and power, and then do whatever deep scheme option was in the pool. Leave your Mark is his bread and Butter. Or if Dig your Graves is there, he's also pretty strong, cause he can either drop a marker and then kill something (Fast AP + normal activation) or just prep the yard for your other models

He dies fairly fast unless you really defend him. He's only Df 5, 6 wounds. He's nice because he comes back and since his dmg isn't crazy, opponents won't bother killing him unless he's proving problematic. In certain matchups he's good (interference, headhunter) but a terrible pick in Collect the Bounty

Which is yes, very strong. But its crazy cards intensive. Thats 2-3 cards to get the focus (3 if you miss and need to cheat the (0)), then again, a severe to make sure you kill the target, since few models worth killing are 3 health. So at best, we're talking 3 cards (unless you hit the severe on damage which we cannot guarantee) but realistically, we're talking 4-5 cards, most, if not all from your hand. And then however many you end up flipping. So you're burning a ton of cards to hopefully kill the target. I think Hans does have a place in very situational crews, but that very much depends on knowning your opponent and what they will play in the given pool. Otherwise, you're better off taking the trapper and saving yourself 2 stones

So, I've never seen Parker, but my understanding is that he's not really that strong. Now, I could have been told olther things. As far as a new player, I'd highly recommend Von Schill. Again, he's not the strongest master, and is considered the seconded weakest in faction (only followed by Parker). That being said, his box models are very strong and versatile in other crews as you branch out. Additionally, VS is a fairly simple master, so as far as learning the game, he's a good first master. Von Schill was my first master and still my favorite. I started with him on Kyle's recommendation - Kyle taught me to play and it was a good solid pick. And the trapper and librarian i still use in my Levi crew. So, I'd say maybe start with VS, then expand into Parker, though be prepared for a ton of rough games, cauase from everything i've been told, Parker is MAlifaux Hardmode on steroids to play.

I think he's largest flaw is that he becomes such a massive card sink. "I Pay Better" focus is a card, then most of his triggers require him to DISCARD the card to actually use the ability after you already have the trigger, and his damage track is only 2/3/5 (no crit). So really the only way you're killing a model is if you hit it at ++, to ensure you can cheat in another severe to hit the target. so you're talking like 10ss (Hans + I Pay Better + Scout) ((technically way more cause generally I Pay Better is going on a Henchmen, its not something you really want on master)) along with a minimum 2 cards from hand, probably more. All to MAYBE kill a totem or small schemer. Don't get me wrong, it has potential to screw with someone. And the mental dickary of one-shotting a model turn one is a rather large psychological blow. But it requires such a large resource pool to do it becomes crazy situational.

Agreed. All those (0) are already fairly card intensive, and allowing multiple eats through a hand crazy fast. And extra cards are somewhat hard to find in outcasts (Sue, Hannah, Anna anyone else?) I also find Hannah is a somewhat meh model. For being a 10ss Henchman, she dies WAY to fast, even with Armor +1. The only way she doesn't is if you have a hella big cache, which VS can't do at auto Cache 1, and when he's already being crazy out activated or if you dedicate the librarian to heal her every round. Which feels bad man cause the librarian can do so much (and needs to heal other models)

Dont forgot Engage AT Will coupled with Rusty Aylice and her summon upgrade. Assuming you have the cards, you can drop a scrape and summon an abom every turn with it.

Oh yea, I agree completely. I used him early on after the upgrades dropped. It was fun to fire bomb models. I guess I'm thinking more competitive play. For shits & giggles it is a cute thing to surprise someone.

I think its more of a factor that the Specialist is in desperate need of some love. at 8SS, he is WAY overcosted, for a Df4, Wk 4, range 10 model. either his cost needs to be lowered, or his stat line needs to be increased. Even his gun isn't that incredibly strong. Sure, blast + burning is nice, but he's still only 2/3/4, which for a 8SS model is pretty low. Now, even improves with Enginner and VS, but now we're talking 14+ SS of models/upgrades to make him viable. That doesn't seem worth the effort.

I've tried something similar to this, and while it "works" it is SOOO card and AP intensive, its hard to truly pull off and get the value/worth from it. You need so much to go right for you from the getgo. You need to 5Rams for the armor +ram, you need a good number of high cards to make the damage actually worth it. Moreover, this is assuming your opponent isn't doing anything agressive. And since you're most likely being out-activated (cause its VS, of course you are) they can easily see what you're doing and avoid it or do otherthings until you're done and then just murder Specialist. Its a really cool and powerful idea in concept, its just that with our current models and state of meta/game, its very very high effort for minimal rewards

Ohhhhh wow. I'm dumb. I never put it on him. Like it more on Suit cause then he's Min4. Yea, 7 models is rough right now. I play like that and it gets difficult, especially against summoners.

I'm probably missing something very clear here, but what does does "TBTA" stand for?

I wouldn't quite agree about this. VS is my main and while its been a nice buff, Engineer is not crazy amazing. Getting the ram + is actually much harder than it looks. The card draw is nice but I find it very situational. I find that Aftermath is much stronger, since it increases he's utility SO much. The throw is awesome and can peel things off really nicely and Ambidextrous is crazy strong to surprise people. Oath is cool, but you're in essence trading a master AP to give other models AP. Which can be good, except you want VS hitting stuff to give out Priority Target. And in order to attack things with priority target, they generally need to burn oathkeepr to get in position, which defeats the purpose. It is a cute move for Show of Force tossing Oathkeepers to Trappers or Freikorpsmann (I do thing it makes Freikorpsmann actually viable now) but overall I've found Aftermath by far the best one.

I've starting trying Anna Lovelace, Hannah black sheep sister and finding her an acceptable replacement for Hannah. Anna is more more ranged (CA 6, no randomizing) and completely shuts down pushes/places if the enemy. More over, so is DF6 which makes her a little more survivable. I find Hannah dies just sooo fast unless you have a bunch of stones to defend her. Now, that changes somewhat with the engineer giving her armor, but you'd rather he give armor to somewith with crit strike. Hannah as a beater model is ok, the blasts and terror duels are nice, but she's slow, with a rather unimpressive charge. And if she charges, she's engaged and gonna get wrecked. I'd much rather swap her for Sue + Return Fire and give Suit either oathkeeper or Bigger They Are (brining Suit to min 4 against some targets)

Interesting. I always found with the amount of healing I brought it wasn't to much of a problem. cause I would also murder Sebastian/doc with Suit/VS. Or Ashes, who says "FU" to posion

Hmmmm, strange. The McM crews I've faced do a lot of WP hitting....different builds for different folks i guess