Gaston

What was strat/schemes/lists?

Yup! Actually tried videotaping some games, but ran into editing issues.

I am sorry that it is so frustrating. The Lawyer has been useful for card draw, specifically when I don't have that masks in hand, FWIW. My Plan A is actually to have Dashel walk or focus, shoot and stone a Drop It, and summon off of that. Alternatively, you can drop a marker with him and toss an 11 into a Warden, which is an always handy fellow to bring in. But sometimes Plan A works, sometimes it doesn't, which is why Dispatcher is Plan B (more like Plan Buttload of Work). Other than my core Guard guys though (not even counting Riflemen), it's really a free for all for hiring. Nino with for From the Shadows is a really interesting choice. But I wonder if that is something that makes people struggle with for Guild--there seems to be a wide variety of pieces across all the keywords that you have to slot into a list for the right situation at the right time. Get it right, you've got a game, get it wrong, you're going to spend the next 5 turns struggling. It certainly increases buy-in costs and learning curve. My most recent one was Lucius into Titania--I don't own the Lone Marshal yet, so my anti-concealment plans were limited. And I did feel that I struggled a lot in that game.

Glad you like them! My game rate isn't actually that different from yours actually. I average one a week, until work messes things up, then it drops significantly. It just looks like I am putting them out because I get backlogged writing things up and end up putting up a couple at a time. Game length is comfortably between 2 - 2.5 hrs, not including set up and take down. If I have a battle report end on concession then I just write it up as ending on "time", but concession is fairly infrequent--I personally believe on fighting to the end if time allows. I actually have a weeknight "bedtime" because I am too darn old, so a typical game night runs after work, 7pm to 10pm, basically on the dot. So for me, I'm not doing a 4-5 hour game ever, that sounds pretty painful, and I'll concede before I hit hour 3. One "trick" we do to speed things up--we post the missions a few days ahead of time so people can show up with 75% of a list built, then you are just tweaking a model or two based on opponent rather than building from scratch. Practicing Turn 1 on your own is another way to speed things up, even if it feels really weird and dorky to do. I am definitely sympathetic to new players getting in to any new tabletop game, the barrier to entry is indeed high. When starting a new faction of any game, I tend to look at it as buying a car--it's gonna cost up front, you won't get your money back, research a lot before you buy, test drive (proxy), and buy used if you can. In my case it wasn't a coincidence that I started with Perdita--the box set gets you most everything, I had little interest in Monster Hunters or Latiagos, so all I needed to add was the Guild Steward and Pale Rider (found him used from M2E). Ultimately I added in a scratch built False Witness too. So overall, pretty cheap. Dashel was my second master because around Thanksgiving everything from his keyword in M2E boxes was 50% off, and I had the Dashel model from the M2E Lucius box set that I had grabbed for Neverborn. Dispatcher I built from scratch, Steward and Pale Rider I already had from Perdita. The next thing you generally see me do is play something half a dozen times or so before moving on to anything else. Tabletop is time intensive, and I only play once a week on average. If you switch every single time, mastering anything will take you forever. The first couple games are a disaster of trying to figure everything out. Game 3 it starts clicking, Game 5/6 is where the learning curve starts to level out a bit. That's Jan/Feb for me basically. Doing things this way does help ease the cost of buy-in though. Consider my start in Perdita was about $100 MSRP. After 5 games, that is 10 hours of play, and my cost of fun is $10/hr. 5 more games, and that drops to $5/hr. Sorry for the long winded reply, hope some of this was helpful.

Flank - Turf War -Search the Ruins -Dig Their Graves -Claim Jump -Detonate Charges -Harness the Leyline Having a pool with Detonate and Harness just screamed False Witness at me, so I opted to dust off my old Neverborn Lucius and bring him home to a new family. I played him a ton in closed beta, but it has been about a year, so here’s to hoping playing Elite is like riding a bike. Lucius -The Scribe False Witness Guild Lawyer Investigator Agent 46 Pale Rider Domador de Cadaveres I decided to get a bit cute adding in the Domador. I figured consistent healing would be useful with Turf War (better healing than the Steward), and she can obey the Pale Rider, being undead and all (or a surprising amount of Titania’s keyword too). Titania ---Blood Sacrifice -Gorar Killyjoy Hooded Rider Mysterious Effigy -Effigy of Fate Aeslin ---Blood Sacrifice Doppleganger Terrain note: The rectangular trees were counted as impassible walls, which makes a --significant-- impact on maneuvering. Turn 1 Summary I chose to start off with a poop hand, nothing higher than an 8. Turn 1 was fairly boring, I dropped some scheme markers, I pushed some guys. Scribe ran up, Titania shot at him, 4 damage down to 2, buries. Agent and Pale take a bunch of shots at Killjoy, stagger him. He does heal and runs away. Doppleganger moves towards the Turf Marker in my upper corner. Turn 2 Summary Pale does a Ride with Me on Agent, but then drops Doppleganger in 2 swings (severe and moderate on a negative damage flip). Agent comes back central and drops a scheme marker. Domador comes up and Command Corpses the Rider to touch the Turf Marker. I have a suspicion he is going for Claim Jump, so the Investigator rolls on up. The Lawyer gives him shielded, and he pitches a bunch of cards to survive Aeslin shots. With the help of Lucius, the False Witness pops up and False Claims twice. Lucius: 3 VP (Turf War, Detonate Charges [Titania], Harness the Leyline) Titania: 1 VP (Turf War) Turn 3 Summary Effigy grows up, boo. Everything becomes a ridiculously nasty cluster in the middle. Steward pops out and gives Lawyer, Domador, and Lucius focus. Titania kills the Steward, goes in on Investigator who discards to survive. Lucius snipes Aeslin for 2 injured. Domador hits Aeslin with Decay, gets the trigger for another 2 Injured. She also obeys Pale Rider to flip the Turf Marker. Pale Rider pulls up Agent, misses shot on Aeslin, Injured +4, but has concealment. Agent fails to Mimic Rider’s gun, so walk, charge, kill Aeslin. Hooded moves to the center and makes a mess of everyone with his ultimate action, it does force some soulstone prevention from Agent. False Witness lays a scheme marker and scoots around. Lucius: 4 VP (Turf War) Titania: 1 VP Turn 4 Summary I am trying to get initiative in order to have the Lawer obey the Rider to use all his tokens, sadly I fail. Hooded Rider goes, which wasn’t awful, except that he Red Jokered on the Investigator and the blast killed the Lawyer. Flips 2 markers, Hooded ends up teleporting to the Domador. Pale comes in, uses Devastation, clips Hooded, Emissary, Killjoy, and Titania. Damage, burning, slow, etc. Titania beats on Pale and Agent a little bit. Lucius focus snipers onto Emissary, misses, charges Hooded, misses. Mid-way through, we have to call the game on time. Rest of the turn, Agent was looking to copy the Rider’s gun and shoot at the Emissary. Killjoy was slow and too far back to matter. Domador was going to try to Decay Hooded down a bit more, he had 5 wounds left and hopefully burning and Entropy with Decay could have killed him, maybe. Otherwise, scoring Turf was dead to me, so I was just looking to get more Leyline and Detonate. Lessons Learned: Despite the score, I didn’t feel I played strongly in this game. With the terrain the way it was, and playing versus Titania, it became an utter mess in the middle of the table. I wonder that I may want to take 2 False Witnesses if I am going with that scheme pool, as with only one on the table I was freaking out from Turn 2 onward that it was going to get picked off. Additionally, with Claim Jump I think I need a better tank model, a la Phiona Gage perhaps. Investigator did it in a pinch, but being fair, he’s really not meant for that role. Coulda, shoulda, woulda hired in Lone Marshal for this match up...except I don’t own him. Ironically I was wrong about Claim Jump on Aeslin, it was on something else. However, he did have Dig Graves, and popping Aeslin made that much harder for him to score it. One final thing, is rather than charging, Lucius should have had the Witness hit the Emissary with J’Accuse for the Adversary condition, which would have made Agent shooting it in concealment much easier. Truthfully, I almost feel like I need to go back to the drawing table on this one, I wasn’t overly happy with how my list felt.

Corner - Plant Explosives - Hold Up their Forces - Take Prisoner - Outflank - Deliver a message - Power Ritual Based on last game, I opted for Outflank and Hold Up as my schemes. To get a bit cheeky, I subbed in an Undercover Reporter. As my opponent was playing Zipp, I was banking on him trying to Outflank/Power Ritual one corner with an Iron Skeeter, then I could pop out, send it packing, and eat his scheme marker if need be. Dashel -Dispatcher Rifleman Rifleman Lawyer Guild Steward Undercover Reporter Pale Rider Captain Zipp ---12 Cups of Coffee -Earl Burns The First Mate Iron Skeeter Gracie ---Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit Mancha Roja Merris LaCroix Turn 1 Summary Sadly, I have no masks in hand for my Dispatcher, so the Lawyer leads off and uses Tools to grab my initiative flip card, which so happens to be a 7 of Masks. She lays a scheme marker in the corner to fib about Power Ritual and scoots on up. Otherwise my routine is about the same, Pale Rider pulls up a Rifleman, drops a scheme marker, scoots away. Dispatcher pushes up the other Rifleman, flips the marker. Dashel gives out Concentrate, summons a Mounted Guard. Steward moves up...and Black Jokers to remove the slow from the Mounted Guard. While all this is going down, Gracie, Earl, Mancha, and Merris are making a move down my right flank, while the First Mate and Iron Skeeter are moving down the other. The slow Mounted Guard pulls along a Rifleman, but can only walk once. Being unable to tuck him leads me to positioning him poorly and within Zipp’s walk/charge range. Zipp bounces him across the table into the opposing corner. Undercover lays down a scheme marker by my Rifleman. Turn 2 Summary He leads off with Earl, makes some more pianos. I have a serious concern that he will be able to build a Berlin Wall of pianos around that corner that’ll be a pain to dig out. Lawyer goes to Tools up my initiative flip (a 12 I think), then puts Shielded on the Rider and surges up another card. Zipp dismounts the Mounted Rider, then dismounts the Guard Patrol...to death. Mancha walks and charges my Rifleman, hits once for 3 damage, flurry miss, eats the scheme marker. Rifleman uses his bonus to back away, two focus shots into Mancha. Gracie Rides on up. Other Rifleman walks, focus shot into Mancha. (At this point Mancha is eating soulstones like candy to stay on his feet). Pale Rider rides away, goes to the corner. Merris picks him up and throws him away from the corner, alas. Because he isn’t in his corner for Outflank, I keep the Reporter buried. Dashal focuses and shoots Mancha, gets Drop It, summons an Executioner. Steward walks, charges Gracie, and gets the trigger to slow Mancha as well. Executioner does some more damage to Mancha. At the end of the turn, I literally forget to score Hold Up, because I am a moron. Dashel: 0 VP Zipp: 2 VP (Outflank, Plant Explosives) Turn 3 Summary Mancha swings on the Executioner, hits once, misses second. Executioner hits back, kills him. Gracie gets the Executioner down to 1 Wd with a well timed RJ damage flip. Merris continues to impressively beat up the Pale Rider, leaves him on 2 Wds. Pale comes in and pops his super, hits Gracie for 3, Merris for 3, Earl for 2; Pale heals for 2. He attacks and kills Earl. Steward BJ’s the healing flip on Foul Mouth on the Rider. Rifleman shoots Gracie for fun. Dashel walks twice and plants a bomb. Zipp comes flying in and uses 12 Cups to remove all my laid down scheme markers (he counter took this upgrade into me on purpose for this). Dashel: 1 VP (Plant Explosives) Zipp: 3 VP (Plant Explosives) Turn 4 Rider pops his charge bonus. He kills Merris, Steward charges to get in range of the corner. Executioner charges Gracie (this was a cheat, we forgot her upgrade gives her Disguised). Pale walks and drops Bomb. Grace rides away from Executioner, goes for Pale Rider. She is one 1 Wd, so no Stampede. Steward picks up my opponent’s scheme marker. Undercover Reporter, Dispatcher, Lawyer, and Dashel go through a bunch of hoops to summon a Mounted Guard. The Mounted Guard Rides the Lawyer up and walks, but is about an inch shy of Outflank. Executioner charges Zipp for fun. Dashel: 2 VP (Plant Explosives) Zipp: 5 VP (Plant Explosives, Power Ritual) Turn 5 Gracie dies to burning, poops out a Gremlin. It runs to engage Steward. Pale Rider rides, charges, misses, Gremlin squeals back. Lawyer drops a Bomb, Obeys Mounted Guard forward. Mounted Guard picks up one of Zipp’s bombs and places it back for me. First Mate removes my Power Ritual “lie”. Rifleman walks twice to engage him. I try to place a scheme marker. Iron Skeeter zooms up and eats it. Zipp disengages from the Executioner, beats up on Dashel. Unfortunately, there is nothing Dashel can do to score and he is the final activation. Dashel: 4 VP (Outflank, Plant Explosives) Zipp: 5 VP Lessons Learned: Almost, almost almost. I was definitely playing from behind scheme-wise this game, although I was quite happy with the crew’s ability to steam through Mancha and his soul stones, and Gracie, and Merris, and Earl and really come out none the worse for wear. Card draw was very impactful to me this game, it saved my bacon with the mask on Turn 1, on Turn 2 I actually ended up with a hand full of severes. Hats off to my opponent, after a few games of Dashel, he definitely gamed me with 12 Cups of Coffee and a crew that eats scheme markers pretty easily. Other mistakes were: I placed the Mounted Guard in an easy to kill position bc I let the BJ throw me off (second time I have made this mistake as well). I didn’t score Hold Up when I should have, despite leaving the Executioner slow so as to engage Gracie with the Steward. When Dashel walked to place his Explosive Marker, I should have done that more centrally. I was trying to avoid the severe terrain, but I also knew I would need a Mounted Guard to get the other corner, and that cost me some inches of movement, which ended up costing me a VP. Pale Rider should have made the Steward charge towards the center not the corner, that would have kept the Steward’s Dispel more relevant to the game. I didn’t pop the Undercover Reporter out to score Plant on Turn 2, as he would have been left by Zipp and the First Mate, who I assumed would have killed him and taken the marker. Maybe this was a mistake, certainly by the end of the game I had 4 markers down, but missed scoring max points because I missed that turn. On the final turn, I should have had the Lawyer walk twice to get Outflank, which would have freed up the much faster Mounted Guard to try to get to Zipp and score Hold Up. Who says you don’t learn more from losses?!?!

@4thstringer, I'm closer to Fredericksburg, FWIW. I am going to the Huzzah tournament in Feb, seems to be about a halfway point. Show up and show me up, I'm not feeling too competitively confident.

Did it in NB with Pandora as she can bake in Crows for Execute trigger. Have yet to in Guild bc time and collection limitations, but I'll get there.

Lol, it certainly has been interesting to see the community opinion of the faction. I have been loving it, but I also chose this.

Unfortunately I don't know I can make Feb 1st. Without traffic that's about a 90 min drive for me. Wish you the best of luck though!

NOVA. Por que?

Corner - Plant Explosives - Hold Up their Forces - Take Prisoner - Outflank - Deliver a message - Power Ritual For this scheme pool, I dumped the Judge for a Mounted Guard to pair with the Pale Rider. It is a positioning heavy pool. Also I was up against Titania, which means rough terrain and increases the value of unimpeded. Dashel -Dispatcher Rifleman Rifleman Lawyer Guild Steward Mounted Guard Pale Rider -Expert Marksman Titania -Gorar Hooded Rider Killjoy Bandersnatch Grootslang Black Blood Shaman Turn 1 Summary Mounted Guard rides up a Rifleman, drops a scheme marker, and hoofs it. Shaman makes a corpse, pulses out focused. I lack the mask for Consolidated Power, Dispatcher tries to fish for it with a focus, but fails to get the trigger, still pushes the second Rifleman forward. Grootslang BJ’s Lair to Lair. Dashel comes up, uses Foul Mouthed Motivation on a Rifleman, then summons a Mounted Guard off the RJ. Lawyer retrieves the RJ, drops a scheme marker in the corner, walks forward. One of the Riflemen pitches a card to focus as bonus, walks up and takes a super shot at the Gorar, does 3 damage (I forgot about Hard to Wound). Summoned Rider is slow no more thanks to the Steward, he Ride with Mes the other Rifleman forward. This one discards to Concentrate for bonus, takes a super shot at the Black Blood Shaman, cheats in the Red Joker to kill it. Turn 2 Summary He gets the initiative, Grootslang takes a pretty unfortunate chunk out of Pale Rider, 4 Wds. This forces Pale into a tactical retreat, as Hooded and Titania are on that flank also and I’m not keen for a 3 to 1 duel there. Mounted Guard walks and schemes in the corner. Bandersnatch walks, drops a bomb, hops into them. Hooded schemes his corner. Titania drops a bomb, comes forward. Mounted Guard rides a Rifleman forward, drops a bomb. Riflemen and Dashel take out the Grootslang. Dashel: 2 VP (Plant Explosives, Power Ritual) Titania: 2 VP (Plant Explosives, Power Ritual) Turn 3 Summary Killjoy walks and picks up my bomb! Drat that 0” melee range. Pale Rider Rides with Me the Steward to get him up into bomb scoring position. Titania shoots up Pale Rider, Steward, and Rifleman a bit. She also drops enough severe terrain to slow down Steward. Steward heals Rider, walks to get in position for next turn. Gorar turns into Grootslang, just 4 Wds though. Dashel comes and kills him again. Dispatcher pulls Mounted Guard out of engagement with Killjoy. Mounted Guard does Ride with Me, then interacts twice to pick up his bomb and make it my bomb. Bandersnatch attacks other Mounted Guard. Other Mounted Guard hits Bandersnatch back (I was waiting until after Bandersnatch went so as to not give him Injured and to give myself Pursuit). Hooded places his bomb. Lawyer obeys Pale to shoot Killjoy. Riflemen take shots at Killjoy (some terror, some not), he goes down to 4 Wds. Dashel: 2 VP Titania: 3 VP (Plant Explosives) Turn 4 Summary Killjoy obliterates a Rifleman, heals to full. Dashel has a 12 Tomes and a 13 Rams, so I walk around the building, shoot Hooded for the Drop It trigger, to summon an Executioner. He cheats in a RJ to make me miss instead. So Dashel charges Hooded, just to put him in melee and make doing whatever he needs to do a tiny bit harder. Titania shoots some more stuff. Steward fails to heal my poor Rider (he has 5 Wds left), plants explosive. Hooded flees Dashel to the corner. Pale Pursues him. Mounted Guard brings Bandersnatch down to 1 Wd. Bandersnatch pops out, kills Mounted Guard, kills Guard Patrol. Other Mounted Guard charges and kills the Bandersnatch. I even get to loot 2 corpses this round. Dashel: 4 VP (Plant Explosives, Outflank) Titania: 3 VP Game gets called on time. I think I am in pretty good position-ish. The Lawyer and Pale Rider can both plant bombs to score a 5th point, and if Pale can magically survive (not at all certain), then I can score Outflank as well. His only bomb is on Killjoy, and he really has no way of getting Outflank or Power Ritual at this point. Lessons Learned: I kicked myself a lot coming out of this game. There were great positives, I think my Turn 1 planning really paid dividends and I had an exemplary Turn 1. My mistakes there were forgetting the Hard to Wound on the Gorar. I should have shot it twice instead of a double focus shot, gotten weak twice and killed it rather than actually getting a lucky moderate on a negative flip. List-wise, the Expert Marksman upgrade was a mistake on Pale Rider, as the ignoring Concealment and Cover is the Minion part of the upgrade, d’oh. After Turn 1, things got rocky. I never had a card higher than 11 in my hand for Turns 2 and 3, including any card draw from the Dispatcher and Lawyer. This is where I think I got way too tunnel visioned. I was convinced that I needed an Executioner (and a 13) in order to go after Hooded Rider, as he won’t get defensive triggers to reduce damage. Instead, I should have been happy to poop out a couple of Wardens, who could have run interference with Hooded and Killjoy with their Armor +2. Turn 4 I had everything I needed, he just had a better hand, which happens. Going back over the game, I am thinking of shifting my choices to Outflank and Hold Up, rather than Plant. It’ll help get my models up the field further, and play to the strengths of Dashel summoning in some cheaper mooks. Given a refocus on speed and positioning, the real question is...do I need to start exploring Queeg?!?!

So Dashel doesn’t seem overly complicated, but he did seem like a master I should sit down and work through before playing some more games. I set out to come up with a base list for him, and a series of steps for starting out Turn 1. Based on stealing other people’s ideas, it looks like the core list is usually: Dashel Dispatcher Steward [6] Rifleman [6] Rifleman [6] Lawyer [6+1] Working from this, I worked out some steps for a perfect world (as if!) along with card requirements: Model X moves forward and places a scheme marker. Dispatcher targets Rifleman to move forward and flip it, 5 Masks. Draw a card. Dashel summons off the marker, X Rams, uses Foul Mouthed Motivation on a Rifleman. Lawyer picks up the X Rams, gets Surge trigger. Draw a card. Steward removes slow, gives focused, 6 Masks. Foul Mouth Motivation on a Rifleman. Rifleman discard a card for Focus +2 from Dashel. Rifleman discard a card for Focus +2 from Dashel. For Model X, I ran through a few variations, but ultimately decided on some flavor of a Rider as my favorite; Mounted, Pale, Lone. The ability to Ride with Me forward a Rifleman, then call up a second Rifleman was great for opening positioning. And the Riders are fast enough to get out of the way after putting down the scheme marker, helping with early clumping. Some of the questions that I had were then: Is the Lawyer really necessary? What about the Judge for extra card draw? I am always concerned about support bloat, when is more simply more? In order to test this out, I ran through a few trials, with the Lawyer only, and with the Lawyer and Judge. I found that on average, hand size without either is 3.2 cards, increases to 4.2 cards, and further to 5.8 with the Judge (given liberal use of 3 card draw). I also made a scale to measure hand quality: 1 pt for weak, 2 for moderate, 3 for severe, 4 for a joker (Black or Red). 20 pts would be a maximum hand. The average scores in this case were 7.2, 10.4 with the Lawyer, and 14.75 with the Judge. Twas a big wall of text there, but what it mostly convinced me of was the efficacy of hiring in a Lawyer. I think the Judge is a nice add, but is something that can vary based on missions and srats and schemes, which is good, as I like having “free” points to slot in fixer models.

Box is new sculpts, special order seems unlikely? Try Gadzooks Gaming.

Yep, I figured the Bokor bit out in the second game and kicked myself a bit. He'd been playing Wong a lot, so I had made assumptions.

Thanks In my defense, I'm Cajun, they're lucky I can read.

After some reflection and listening to Craig Shipman, it’s time for a rematch! Flank - Turf War -Harness the Leyline -Claim Jump -Power Ritual -Vendetta -Take Prisoner Dashel -The Dispatcher Rifleman Rifleman Steward Warden Warden Mounted Guard Agent 46 Ophelia -12 Cups of Coffee -Young LaCroix -Young LaCroix -Young LaCroix Francois Bokor Rami Raphael Merris Sammy Couple changes I made based on trying to “learn” from last game. I added in Agent for some Stealth bullying, and then I took 2 Wardens for more activations and Armor, because I heard armor is good. Turn 1 Summary Some models move towards the middle, lots of focus handed out. Dashel is able to summon a Mounted Guard. The summoned Mounted Guard sneaks towards the upper right flank. The other Mounted Guard brings along a Rifleman. Rami one shots a Warden, so much for Armor. My bottom Rifleman tries to get cute, he shoots a Young LaCroix with Ricochet to another, hits weak damage on both, fails to kill either. Ophelia kills him instead, unflipping both my Turf markers sadly. Turn 2 Summary Mounted Guard goes up and flips the upper Turf marker. A Young LaCroix pulls over Francois, who shoots the Guard twice to dismount him (through cover). Dashel and Dispatcher summon another Rifleman. The summoned Rifleman runs to hide. Warden moves back to put a scheme marker in the corner. Rami drops a Rifleman to 1 Wd. Other Mounted Guard drops a scheme marker in a corner. Dashel: 2 VP (Power Ritual, Turf War) Ophelia: 1 VP (Turf War) Turn 3 Summary Ophelia starts off by lobbing a bomb at Dispatcher, Rifleman, and Agent, kills the Rifleman. Steward hands out some focus, makes a scheme marker. Sammy rolls up and turns it into a piglet. 2 Focus attacks later, Dispatcher manages 3 Wds on the Piglet. Rami takes a bit of shooting damage, is down to 2 Wd and gets pulled out by a Young LaCroix. Merris makes a couple of scheme markers for Ophelia to eat next turn. Mounted Guard comes out and Rides Dashel up, Dashel turns a Scheme marker into an Executioner. Executioner puts some damage on Merris. Warden recaps a Turf Marker in my backfield. Dashel: 3 VP (Turf War) Ophelia: 2 VP (Claim Jump [Francois]) Turn 4 Summary Dashel goes first, charges and kills Sammy, summons another Executioner. Ophelia brings the old Executioner down to Hard to Kill, he kills Merris and dies to her Demise ability. Francois charges Agent, puts 10 damage onto him (4 prevented with soulstones). Guard Patrol pops a marker down in another corner, creeps back toward the center. Warden runs to the center, loots a corpse. Mounted Guard flips a turf marker, Rides back, loots a corpse. Rami and Young LaCroix get Executioner down to 3 Wds. Dashel: 4 VP (Turf War) Ophelia: 2 VP We go a bit into Turn 5, but game more or less ends on time. Agent 46 gets Francois down to 3 Wds to start the Turn, and Dashel kills the Bokor. At this point, Gremlins could tie the game with Raphael flipping a Turn Marker, and Francois disengaging to the middle. If I kill Francois, I deny Claim Jump and win. I technically have the movement to get the second point from Claim Jump, so that remains a possibility as well (Ride with Me, Consolidate Forces, walk, scheme), depending on Raphael’s placement. Game-wise, it still felt like a really tough match up. I definitely benefited from my opponent getting the BJ on some meaningful flips. Failing to kill the Young LaCroix on turn 1 was sad, my hope was that it would flip our crew sizes and give me more activation control. It also does sorta feel like Dashel is much better versus a melee crew that has to close with you, then a ranged crew that can sit back and take advantage of my mediocre stats. I had Vendetta on a Rifleman, obviously that got prevented pretty easily by my opponent, and was a poor scheme choice. Cards were a bit strange, where I had relative garbage for Turns 1 and 2 and my opponent did for 3 and 4. Turn 3 definitely felt like more of an inflection point, where I was able to summon right in the middle of his crew and start wearing them down. Agent 46 was good with stealth, but had a fairly quiet game. He grabbed the sniper rifle a couple times, but didn’t do over-much. I was kinda working my way through a list of OOK corner stone models, such as Phiona/Guardian (tank), The Judge (offense, card draw), and Agent (stealth).

Corner - Plant Explosives -Harness the Leyline -Search the Ruins -Claim Jump -Dig Their Graves -Detonate Charges Dashel -Dispatcher Mounted Guard Mounted Guard Executioner -Lead Lined Coat Rifleman Steward Undercover Reporter Ophelia -Young LeCroix -Young LeCroix -Young LeCroix Sammy Rami Francios Gracie Merris Gatreaux Bokor Turn 1 Lots of moving around, he out activates me and I don’t want to use my pass tokens to give him free focus via the Bokor, so I get to eat it. I go to summon a Rifleman, get the BJ. My Rider doesn’t get far enough back into cover, and Ophelia is able to gun him down Turn 1 (I also forget his demise ability). Turn 2 Summary I summon a second Executioner. Ophelia hitches a ride on Gracie. The Rifleman tries to put down Merris, but is just shy. Ophelia kills him instead. The Rider lays a bomb, the Executioners lay schemes and a bomb. Rami and Sammy gun down an Executioner (RJ on Rami damage), Sammy turns a scheme marker into a flying piglet (denies Leyline and Claim Jump for me). Dashel: 1 VP (Plant Explosive) Ophelia: 0 VP Turn 3 Summary Merris does her thing, lays a bomb and a scheme marker. Gracies rolls on out and drops another scheme marker. I flush out my other Executioner into 2” engagement with Ophelia. Francios gets called over by Young LaCroix. Dashel makes a Warden, who runs to engage Francios. Rider tries to score Leyline. Sammy buries the Warden and turns the scheme marker into a piglet. Francios drops the Executioner to 1 Wd, Ophelia finishes him, walks, and kills the Steward too. Dashel: 2 VP (Plant Explosives) Ophelia: 2 VP (Search the Ruins, Plant Explosives) Turn 4 Summary Dashel charges and kills Sammy, Warden unburies and kills Piglet. Ophelia rides up and then guns down Dashel. Francios goes to the middle, kills the Dispatcher. Dashel: 3 VP (Harness) Ophelia: 4 VP (Claim Jump, Plant Explosives) We call the game here, likely ending is 7-4. Lessons Learned: Exact opposite of my first game, everything went sideways!!! My biggest mistake was obviously bad placement with the Rider on Turn 1, then following it up with forgetting to replace him and then getting a BJ on summoning. That effectively created a two model “swing” where I was already down 2 models to begin with. One of the more annoying things about Gremlins is that you don’t want to use your pass tokens, as you are just giving out free focus for the Bokor. Ultimately I feel like I did everything wrong in this game, I was aggressive in my first game, meek and reactionary in this one. I had originally considered side-loading in Agent 46 for stealth, but ultimately decided to stay in theme, I regret this. One thing that really stands out in Plant Explosives for Dashel is that as all your models are Minions, it is tough to really double down Bomb markers. Another couple of things this is making me consider is bringing in a tank piece, such as Phiona Gage to soak some hits from my squishy guys and also trying to leverage Adversary better. This crew is hungry for cards, but I saw a great deal of success when 3 models gunned down Titania, and perhaps that is the key--get those positive flips and focus down something already activated? I suppose I should also looking into Queeging up to get some Fast out there too.

After a few games with Perdita, it is time to change it up with the man, the legend, Dashel himself. Also I randomly had him from the OG Lucius box and all his keyword stuff was on sale for 50%. I’m sure there isn’t a reason for that... Standard - Corrupted Idols -Take Prisoner -Hold Up Their Forces -Dig Their Graves -Detonate Charges -Power Ritual Dashel -Dispatcher Undercover Reporter False Witness Steward Rifleman Mounted Guard -Expert Marksman Mounted Guard -Expert Marksman Titania -Gorar Aeslin Hooded Rider Bandersnatch Tuco Will o’ the Wisp Coppelius Turn 1 Summary Things just kinda move up. Idol goes to the right, so I shuffle towards that flank (it is his weaker flank as well). Gorar moves too far up the flank,the Rifleman takes a shot on the Gorar. A Rider comes up and finishes it off. Titania teleports up and does some damage to a Rider. Dashel summons an Executioner off of the Dispatcher’s flipped scheme marker, Steward strips slow, he goes in on Titania. He hits twice, but Black Jokers a damage flip. Turn 2 Summary Idol goes in the center. Titania kills the Executioner, moves the Idol (I forgot about Hard to Kill). Dashel shoots up Tuco, uses Drop It to summon another Executioner. Steward strips slow, Executioner kills Tuco, charges Coppelius for some damage. Coppelius walks in, uses Ahhh, My Eye to deal 5 damage and push the Executioner back. Hooded moves up to the center Idol (I believe a BJ Ride With Me slowed him down). Aeslin is out of range to do anything, walks up. Both Riders and Rifleman turn Titania into a shooting gallery and gun her down. Undercover Journalist gets the Rider to push the Idol back. Titania: 0 VP Dashel: 1 VP (Corrupted Idols) Turn 3 Summary Idol drops far right flank. Executioner charges in, kills Coppelius, misses on Hooded. He companion activates the Steward, who heals him. Bandersnatch leaps into the Steward. Dashel makes another Executioner. Aeslin beats up a Rider. Hooded Rider moves into center and pops his ultimate, catches like 7 models. He kills the Rifleman and the False Witness. The slow Executioner scoots a bit. Undercover Reporter moves the far right Idol, gets Executioner to drop a second scheme marker to score Detonate Charges on Hooded Rider. Dashel: 3 VP (Corrupted Idols, Detonate Charges) Titania: 0 VP Turn 4 Summary Idol drops mid-left flank. Executioner uses focus to cancel Distracted and kills the Will o’ the Wisp. Aeslin drops a scheme marker off of a Rider. Dashel turns that scheme marker into a Warden. Rider durdles around. Game gets called on time. The resolution would have been an Executioner walking to get the Undercover to push another Idol. The Guard Patrol and Warden would have scored Hold Up against Aeslin and Hooded. He was looking to have Bandersnatch pop out and get Take Prisoner on the Steward (which I thought was a pretty clever idea). Lessons Learned: Off to a good start with Dashel. It helps a lot that I am very familiar with Titania from playing her in Neverborn, and I also think that a melee crew coming into me favors me more (also a situation I struggled with when playing Neverborn). The crew generated lots of soul stones, Dashel managed to summon 32 pts of models, I had good cards all game. Losing the False Witness kinda sucked as it made Detonate harder, but Undercover Reporter was a champ. Despite all this, I did also discover that this crew is really intensive to try to run. They are hard on cards, they have awful stats, and a ton of little abilities and auras to try to keep straight (and position for). The learning curve here is definitely much steeper, and from a first glance at their abilities, the payoff seems questionable? Like…. other than exist, what do they do well?

Corner - Reckoning -Detonate Charges -Power Ritual -Deliver a Message -Dig Their Graves -Hold Up Their Forces Perdita, 3ss -Enslaved Nephilim Abuela Nino False Witness Pale Rider Steward Monster Hunter Monster Hunter Wong -Olivia Bokor Bokor Alphonse Pigapult Swine Cursed Gracie Flying Piglet Stuffed Piglet Turn 1 Summary Mostly moving and set up, Perdita ended up with 3 Focus, another Monster Hunter with 2 focus. Abuela dropped a scheme and wheeled forward a bit. Perdita stripped Armor from Gracie (took two tries) and popped her for 5 damage. Swine Cursed scares Gracie back out of Perdita’s range. Pigapult tosses a Stuffed Piglet for some damage. Turn 2 Summary Rather than advance even closer, Perdita attempts to lay out the Swine Cursed, leaves it on 1 Wd (with an El Por A from Nino). Swine-Cursed gets healed back up to full. Alphonse tosses it, Rider Staggers and Injures it. Swine-Cursed uses Heroic Intervention to get around to Nino, kills him, charges the Rider. Pigapult launches a Flying Piglet, who then Delivers a Message to Perdita. False Witness makes some False Claims, Monster Hunters scheme in their corners. Wong: 2 VP (Reckoning, Deliver a Message) Perdita: 2 VP (Power Ritual, Detonate Charges [Swine-Cursed]) Turn 3 Summary 4 scheme markers fall from the sky, two in each corner. Rider rolls around, shoots the Swine-Cursed, then uses Devastation. Kills the Bokor, drops Flying Piglet to 1, and Swine-Cursed to 1. Catches Alphonse also. Swine-Cursed and Gracie beat up on Rider. Perdita kills Swine-Cursed, and then the piglet that pops out. False Witness and Steward run to body block Alphonse. Pigapult pops Steward and dies to his Demise ability (I guess it had taken a few damage from Wong to gain Fast a couple times). Piglet bowls over the Rider to push him into Alphonse’s melee range, Alphonse kills Rider. Monster Hunter rolls forward to take a shot on Alphonse, no luck. Wong: 4 VP (Reckoning, Power Ritual) Perdita: 3 VP (Reckoning) Turn 4 Summary Perdita beats up Gracie and strips her Armor, Bokor heals her. Monster Hunter finishes off Gracie. Alphonse gets stuck on a manipulative False Witness, manages to Toss it away. Abuela gets Perdita to shoot and kill Olivia. Monster Hunter clears out suspicious scheme markers from his corner. Wong: 4 VP Perdita: 4 VP (Reckoning) Turn 5 Summary Bokor heals Alphonse and Obeys him forward. Witness Distracts him twice. Wong gives Alphonse fast, kills the Witness. Enslaved Nephilim walks and pushes the Monster Hunter, engages Alphonse. Alphonse grows up, but misses Perdita (killing her was his one shot to score this turn). Monster Hunters scheme. Perdita pushes out, away from the scheme markers. Wong: 4 VP Perdita: 5 VP (Power Ritual) Lessons Learned: This game was gross, close, gritty, and hard. The scheme pool was randomly generated by the app and pretty crazy. I wasn’t super impressed by the Monster Hunters, basically I took 12 ss worth of models out of the fight, but the flip side is that they scored Power Ritual twice and denied it to my opponent once, tough to complain really. I do wonder if I had too much support and not enough work models. Wong’s models can be really, really tough to get at with all the healing he has, you really have to focus them down in one go if you can, otherwise they’ll bounce back up to full, and glowy is no joke.

Wedge - Turf War - Claim Jump - Leyline - Take Prisoner - Breakthrough - Deliver the Message Perdita, 7ss -Enslaved Nephilim Francisco -Lead Lined Coat Pale Rider -Lead Lined Coat Nino Guild Steward False Witness Lucas McCabe -Luna Sidir Archibal Ruffian Ruffian Ruffian Fuhatsu Yamaziko Turn 1 Summary We shuffle around, flip some markers. A bunch of shots go into Fuhatsu, he heals up with a Red Joker from Juggernaut. Enslaved Nephilim charges Francisco, hits him, Obey Concentrate, Bravado push, Frightening Reminder push. Francisco goes into the fray, kills off a Ruffian. Steward drops a scheme marker in my backfield. Turn 2 Summary McCabe wins initiative, starts off by running to my backfield, drops a scheme marker. Perdita takes Armor off of Fuhatsu, shoots him and a Ruffian (kills the Ruffian). Francisco kills off Fuhatsu. The Enslaved Nephilim charges Sidir to lock him up, ends up dying to Sidir’s defensive trigger (oops). Sidir comes in and ties up Perdita and Steward (this shrewdly stops the Steward from picking up a scheme marker to deny Leyline). Yamaziko and a Ruffian run some schemes. False Witness lays some False Claims. Nino drops a scheme marker. Pale Rider runs to prevent McCabe from getting Breakthrough. Perdita: 3 VP (Turf War, Leyline, Claim Jump) McCabe: 2 VP (Turf War, Leyline) Turn 3 Summary Francisco uses Heroic Intervention to push Perdita and the Steward away from Sidir, kills him. McCabe Staggers and Slows the Pale Rider, runs away. Ruffian comes back and flips my marker. Steward engages Yamaziko to prevent her from dropping any more markers. Pale Rider removes the Breakthrough scheme marker. Perdita flips the center Turf marker. Perdita: 4 VP (Turf War) McCabe: 2 VP Turn 4 Summary McCabe scoots to a back corner, drops plenty of markers. Luna smacks Francisco for a RJ on damage, crazy!!! Francisco skewers her back. Nino runs to a far Turf marker. Perdita kills Yamaziko, Steward runs to the Turf marker. False Witness runs schemes. Perdita: 4 VP McCabe: 3 VP (Breakthrough) Turn 5 Summary McCabe runs some more Breakthrough. Pale Rider bombs the Ruffian to death. Nino flips a marker, Steward flips a marker. Perdita shoots off a scheme marker to deny 2nd Breakthrough points. Perdita: 7 VP (Turf War, Claim Jump, Leyline) McCabe: 3 VP Lessons Learned: Things are finally clicking a little bit more, the False Witness ended up being the scheme runner that my heart was looking for. I am starting to score more points much earlier. Francisco payed off in a big way, he is hoss.

Flank - Corrupted Idols -Breakthrough -Take Prisoner -Assassinate -Hold Up Their Forces -Detonate Charges Perdita, 5ss -Enslaved Nephilim Pale Rider Undercover Reporter Guild Steward Santiago Nino Abuela Pandora -Poltergeist Hooded Rider Iggy Will o’ the Wisp Tuco Black Blood Shaman Sorrow Sorrow Mysterious Effigy Turn 1 Summary Idol goes midway on the right flank. Enslaved charges Santiago, Obeys him to Concentrate, then pushes Nino. Pale Rider pulls Pandora up. Nino shoots down Poltergeist with some Abuela assistance. Pandora walks and guns down Tuco. Rider and Pandora roll on up. I learn a bit too late that the Undercover Reporter is minion only….oops. Turn 2 Summary Idol goes in the right corner. Nino guns down a Sorrow for fun and profit. Pale Rider goes in on Perdita, normally this would be bad, but I am able to deduce that his hand is trash, and I’m able to avoid most everything by cheating in low moderates. Similar when Pandora activates as well. Effigy pushes over the Idol. Pale Rider pulls Perdita out, drops a scheme marker. Undercover bounces a Sorrow back, drops a scheme marker. Perdita pushes the Idol, kills the Sorrow. I set myself up to score Detonate...which I don’t have. Perdita: 1 VP (Corrupted Idols) Pandora: 0 VP Turn 3 Summary Idol in the bottom right. Nino shoots the Shaman down, bloods on Iggy. Perdita and Pale Rider gun down Pandora. Abuela slows Hooded. Steward moves to engage Hooded. Santiago and Undercover go last to score Breakthrough schemes (avoiding Iggy Arson). Perdita: 3 VP (Take Prisoner, Breakthrough) The game gets called on time mid-Turn 4, Will o’ the Wisp was dead and Pale Rider was camping in the corner pushing some Idols, so things were well under control. Lessons Learned: I schemed a bit better this game, but still was a lot of killing first, scheming second. I had slotted in an Undercover Reporter to help, but with so few minions it was a poor choice on my part. In this game I think I was particularly advantaged in several ways. I have played Pandora a ton this edition, so am really familiar with her. I do feel that she struggles into gunline style crews, so Perdita should start with a bit of a leg up on her. Finally, my opponent opted for the many small models to cover all the Idols rather than a small elite crew to camp a corner, which I think makes the Family gunline even more efficient.

After playing Neverborn for 2018 and 2019, it felt like a good time to swap over for some sweet, law abiding Guild action! Guild is seldom played in my area and I am excited to get started with them! I ended up beginning with the Family keyword as their box set includes most everything you need, adding in just the Steward and Rider. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies in the write ups, I typically do them from memory and photos sometimes weeks or longer after the actual games. My typical MO is to try a master out of 5ish games or so, then rotate. Hopefully this can generate useful ideas, or at least can get people to laugh at my misplays. Flank - Corrupted Idols -Power Ritual -Harness the Leyline -Breakthrough -Take Prisoner -Detonate Charges Perdita, 5ss -Enslaved Nephilim Greed Guild Steward Pale Rider Nino Abuela Francisco Marcus -Jackalope Myranda Cojo Arcane Emissary -Diesel Engine Gunsmith Razorspine Rattler Turn 1 Summary The Enslaved Nephilim double attacks and Obeys Perdita and Francisco to concentrate. The Arcane Emissary comes in fast and hard and does some damage on Perdita. She strips its armor and attacks, as does Nino, Francisco, Pale Rider...leaves it on 1 Wd (he top decked SUPER high). Rattler and Myranda come into the scrum as well. Turn 2 Summary Francisco starts out by killing the Emissary. He goes in on the Rattler and drops it to two health. Myranda and the Rattler’s trigger end up healing it back to full however. Rider pushes two Idols up. Cojo is able to come in and Execute Pale Rider and Steward (I ended up out of cards and soulstones a little too fast in this game perhaps). Steward takes a good chunk out of Cojo. Greed sin tokens up Myranda. Perdita: 1 VP (Corrupted Idols) Marcus: 0 VP Turn 3 Summary Perdita goes and kills off Cojo and the Rattler (each was super low on health at this point). Gunsmith and Jackalope leave Perdita on 1 Wd. Greed kills Myranda through the power of song and dance, and loots a soulstone from her corpse. Marcus pushes 2 Idols. Perdita: 1 VP Marcus: 1 VP (Corrupted Idols) Turn 4 Summary Perdita kills the Rabbit, uses A Por El! to get Francisco to kill the Gunsmith, he lays a scheme marker. Greed moves the center Idol. Everyone runs towards the middle! Perdita: 2 VP (Corrupted Idols) Marcus: 2 VP (Corrupted Idols) Turn 5 Summary Granny Obeys Francisco to Breakthrough, and lays a scheme marker. Greed lays a marker as well. Lonely Marcus kills Nino and moves an Idol. Perdita: 4 VP (Breakthrough, Harness the Leyline) Marcus: 3 VP (Corrupted Idols) Lessons Learned: Just kinda a learning game. I thought my opponent had gifted me the Emissary Turn 1 until the cards decided to say no. But things turned around Turn 3 or so. One thing that leapt out immediately to me is that I was fine on killing power, but not so good on scoring. I typically try to score early and often, and am not terribly comfortable with the kill then score playstyle/mindset; so I’ll be looking to augment scheming into future lists. I had plugged Greed in because a) I had her and b) Marcus brings a lot of upgrades and Arcanists in general are upgrade and soulstone heavy, so I thought I would be able to get extra leverage from her. Despite killing Myranda and looting her corpse, she didn’t have as big an impact as I’d like. I think if I had paired her with the False Witness WP aura she could be more effective in the future though.

@4thstringer Hey, great job getting those games in! I am looking forward to the write ups--they may have been tough, but the tougher it is, the more informative and more they build you as a player!

I think one of the greatest compliments to a design team is people's ability to play the same master in different ways.