Yore Huckleberry

If you're JUST bringing it for the heal, grab the Guild Steward instead! Slightly less reliable, but gives away 1-2 focuses a turn. That said, the Domador giving free-actions on relented-obey-corpse to the Pale Rider can be pretty potent stuff (plus you can ram trigger a heal on the PR on that action), so that might be better synergy anyway.

Plus False Witnesses have Innocent Bystander, Manipulative, and an Aura that stops Cheating within 3", so they're a bit tough to target ... though you need to beware that their "Tell No Lies" anti-cheating aura hits your models, too.

One powerful ability of False Witnesses is the "False Claim" ability, which is a tactical action that requires a 7. You cannot take the action while engaged ... BUT it ISN'T an interact. So it helps in a few ways: 1) You can disengage and then drop False Claim to get a Scheme marker down. (This doesn't help with other interacts, such as flipping a turf marker or corrupted idol). 2) You can drop TWO scheme markers within 4" of each other (that restriction is on the interact action itself), thus easily completing schemes like Detonate Charges. (Be aware: you MUST remove one scheme marker in step "A" of the End Phase, where you deal with End of Turn/During End Phase abilities, BEFORE you score schemes ... but False Claim allows you to pick up a scheme marker from ANYWHERE on the board. So you can, say, pick up that one you bluffed in your own corner as if it were for Power Ritual's second half, and still drop two Detonate Charges tokens against an activated model. 3) False Claim is a tactical action, so you can spam it and drop four markers, leaving two exactly where you want them. 3) Presumably if you have NO scheme markers at the end of the round, you simply don't complete that portion of the action ... so False Witnesses can simply drop two scheme markers as an early action. Here's some fun turn 1 mobility jank: 3a) False Witness moves and drops two scheme markers 3b) Nellie sends someone towards one marker, bumping them into the Witness (So as not to remove the marker) and giving them a 4-5" push on her free action (including herself) 3c) Field Reporters use "Follow the Lead" and remove the two markers to get a free 6" move. (Undercover Reporter can also do this ... but WHY didn't it start buried? Maybe this is a fun mechanic for later round movement when you've taken the staggered/shielded barrel defense) 3d) at the end of the turn, there are no scheme markers up, so none get removed. You pick up 12-18" of off-action turn-one movement for Nellie and 2 Field Reporters. The 3b piece with Nellie's action can move up a peacekeeper or pale rider or something, too.

Lady Justice is a pretty great wrecking ball, but the only hand manipulation her crew seems to have is on the Judge's free action to gamble against tomes (sort of fine; tomes aren't the best suit for this crew, and the Guild Stewards can heal/focus the Judge if she does take any damage). It seems to me that Lady J runs high on soulstones in the first place, so your two hand manipulation mechanics are 1) stoning for cards every turn and 2) using the Judge turn one (after that, the stagger attack may be better, especially if you're up against undead!). It's nice to get the +flips to damage on Lady J's greatsword, and the Steward can give you a few focus to work with to help against a rough flip. Do people have other tricks they use to mitigate a cold opening hand? Or just general card draw in Guild, outside of the Lucius crew?

So, if your opponent declares Ressers, it seems like going with Lady Justice as a master pick (barring particular things you want for the strat/schemes) is pretty natural. I'm curious if people have other favorite picks when they see a faction coming? What are our natural strengths against the other factions ... or in the mirror?

It feels like a pacing issue. If one of your models is Basse himself, you can start the new turn protecting the other one, let Basse take a hit (stone if you need to) and then heal him up with Reichart’s stoic nod or the Steward’s Foul Mouthed Motivation before reapplying his cloud. Basse feels like he comes in with the dust storm and then kicks in the door forcing a scrum. Maybe even run a domador ook and use it to give a Pale Rider extra shots too

With Home on the Range 4-5 and a Pathfinder or two to start you with free Follow My Path actions, do you really need the second ride with me? I think I’d just use Pale Rider and force them to deal with 2-3 big hitters in their face right away. I love the idea of starting the game ready to unload into any crew that needs time to build up.

Oh, and let’s not forget Severe, which halves the movement of non-place effects, so you can blunt that charge, too, together with stagger synergy from traps. These defenses are a bit stranger than just “hard to wound” or whatever, and they require some pacing, but it’s actually quite a suite if you get them all up, and Jonathan and Basse can heal each other (along with that Steward you’re bringing, right?).

So, most of Basse’s crew gets “Favorable Terrain: This model is unaffected by Severe Terrain. While this model is in Severe Terrain or within 1” of Impassable Terrain, it has cover.” A lot of models also have the “Kick Up Dust: Drop a 50 mm Concealing, Severe Dust Cloud Marker anywhere within range.” So, if you drop a marker, you get both cover (+1 DF and -flip to attacker damage) and concealment (attacker takes a -flip to the duel) against ranged attacks. Does this all mean that if you kick up dust around yourself then ranged attacks suffer: 1) your +1 defense 2) the negative flip to the whole duel 3) a negative flip to damage i guess my question boils down to: does the attacker get a double negative flip on damage (eg, does the concealment negative go the whole way through, the way a focus positive does), or is it just a negative damage flip from cover, plus the potential value of the fact that the duel was on a negative from concealment and your defense was improved by cover. Either way, I’m excited to run Basse against Perdita or Seamus.

Nellie is a hard-counter to Deliver a Message in the Scheme Pool, which may be worth thinking about in that it rules out 10% of the potential points available to them. Definitely high in my thoughts on Corrupt Idols or Plant Explosives if that's in the pool. And the Undercover Reporter is a pretty solid tech piece against schemes such as Breakthrough and Power Ritual, and is generally useful.

How'd it go? Hope you made her think twice about Sword Trick!

How are you playing it? Trap spam near their deployment and running them in for the stagger attacks? What's your placement strategy been? As a general comment: it seems to me that Basse is particularly good in corner deployment, and possibly flank, where you can really pin down their starting zone and your movement shenanigans offers a lot of early options. As for Austringers: the 14" raptor attack is a stat 6 that also IGNORES LoS, so it's a great attack for late in the round when your opponent has spent their big hand cards. If you can get a good flip for moderate, you may be able to put 3 damage wherever you want, which is pretty powerful, and both of the triggers on the attack are good. Walking twice beforehand means they can ping something 24" away behind cover. Or they can move, focus, and send the raptor out from behind blocking terrain without exposing themselves. That's pretty good to my mind.

I think of the DMR as a tech piece in reckoning: your opponent doesn’t score if you replace ... and death marshals take 2-3 hits to put down unless someone can alpha them with “ignores hard to wound.” I think you could bring one into a Family or Sonia crew for Reckoning, depending on the schemes you want. And yeah, good tech against Colette or Miyasaki.

So are there not two sculpts for it?

The Trappers box is listed as having one pathfinder and four clockwork traps. Is that half of the models you’re allowed to take? Did they change this since 2e?

The other big crew to look at here is Basse. Starting closer off the block with Home on the Range can help you choose which area to control and get there, and having a ton of in-keyword models with the "Follow my path" free-action lets you disengage other models and reposition to toss the idol. It's janky and weirdly-paced vs having something that can do it by itself (Mounted Guard's Ride with Me does the trick), but if your opponent has to spread out a bit to cover different things, it could work. Bernadette and Jonathon both have decent pulls to get opposing models out of position from the idol and into range of a beat-down, and a dust cloud or two helps keep you clear of being targeted by a ranged list trying to control a spawn point at a distance. Pulling Paul Crockett into Basse is interesting too, given that he's got a great range shot himself and is somewhat inexpensive, being an enforcer. This is all theory right now, but I like the sound of it.

Judge is Marshal, not versatile, but yeah, she’s a good general beater (if a bit expensive). I’d agree about undercover journalist being useful, and depending on the scheme list, you may want to sub some other minion in for field reporters (death marshals make good survivable pawns, while hounds make good runners for things like outflank). Pale Rider has range for days to maneuver around while Nellie plays front line games. I find her to be a stone heavy crew. If you bring Alison in, you’ll want a godly supply of stones to reduce damage; or you can pair Phiona with someone like Judge and use her Bring It ability to pull in an activated target and then hit it with everything from forced/controlled interact triggers to beat downs by the Judge for extra stones.

So on the Command Corpse for Pale Rider or Emissary, it's the same deal, right? You simply relent your defense and get an action out of your big model for free, and heal-trigger if you have the ram?

Suppose you wind up in a Nellie vs Nellie match where multiple people have Exclusive Interview: "When an enemy model within 2 takes the Interact Action, it is treated as a friendly model and the Action is controlled by this model." If both Nellies are exerting influence on an area and a third model takes an interact action, it seems to me that only the opposing Nellie would affect it, right? Because ability triggers off "an enemy model," and it makes it friendly ... but doesn't make it an enemy to its original crew, correct? That is: Phiona (A) activates within range of Nellie (A) and Nellie (B) and takes an interact Nellie (B)'s Exclusive Interview activates, making Phiona (A) friendly to (B) and controlling the interact. Nellie (A), however, does not then affect the interaction with her own Exclusive Interview, because Phiona (A) is now friendly to both crews, rather than an enemy. So: 1) Is this conclusion correct? 2) Do I have the right reasoning for it? Thanks!

Ah, yep -- fixed it! Cheers. Worth noting that Phiona is an in-keyword model that can pull a target (ideally an activated model) into range to interact with the idol to help Nellie out. Or Nellie herself can Twist their Ideals to charge a target at the idol and then Headline: Secrets Exposed them to force the interact, which is probably a set of mechanics most people don't expect.

With the Domadores, how does the healing on their Decay trigger work if you directly target your own model? I know there's no blast off a friendly, but can you target yourself, relent, and declare the ram for the heal 2? I presume that there's no injured because that only applies to models that take damage. It's obviously pricey for an 8" heal 2, but on some rounds I find that I don't have more I need to do with it than that and it's worth it as a stall tactic.

I ran Nellie on this strat at a recent tournament. Nellie really IS powerful denial on it, plus her "Headline: Secrets Exposed!" can force the opponent to interact and take the three damage ... and then three to throw it back, of course. She's a finesse piece, though: she won't solo the mission for you, and the rest of her crew has trouble keeping up, so you'll wind up wanting to pay a lot of tax for models, and probably some SS for a LLC on her since she'll likely be frontlining. This mission is honestly a chance to take her in as a second master, I'd say. Undercover Reporter is potent for sending an opponent away from the new idol site or just straight up denying an outflank or breakthrough or whatever and making them start their run over. It's a good chaotic mission. Some tips and tricks, to my mind: - This is a good mission to stone for cards on when you draw. Remember that discarding and drawing happen BEFORE the initiative flip that determines placement, and you want to be able to control that. As @Cronex13 wrote above, it's also a good map for Arcane Reservoir builds. You want to be a little careful of holding cards against Masters like Zoraida or Youku that can mess with your hand, but the pure draw has a bit of a counter to that, so Arcane Reservoir is pretty precise tech for this strat. - Mobility is a huge help if your opponent out-cheats you for the idol or you just get a bad drop. Pale Rider or Mounted Guards can be a help for pure speed. Another option is crews with out-of-activation actions. For example, Perdita's Family crew can use "A Por El!" to take an action for a card: so double-moving up to the marker so you're in position to be "A Por El'd" into tossing the idol can be a help, with Perdita and company covering you from a distance. Or Lucius's crew can accept orders from him or a Guild Lawyer and take an interact, plus he has Arcane Reservoir. Guild Investigators are good at pushing people around when you drop your own scheme markers, which helps the AP ratio if they're trying to get to an idol. - Long range can give you versatile targeting across the board on the center line (e.g., Riflemen) if the battle shifts away from where you are. If you can pick off an unactivated model before it flips the idol, your opponent has to spend more AP getting there, which gives you time to set up denial, etc. - 2" Engagement from a model like Lady J can be a big deal for denying the ability to interact if you just want to win in the scrum. - Similarly: models with Don't Mind Me that can interact through engagement, or features like Obey/Twist Their Ideals are useful in forcing the opponent to interact. Honestly, most of our masters have a way to approach the strat with an ook model or two; it's going to be a bit of personal playstyle.

This is really a rules question, but I thought I'd ask in-faction first: Dashel's totem, the Dispatcher, has the Aethervox Broadcaster ability: "Friendly Guard models may treat this model as a friendly Scheme Marker. If an effect would remove the Scheme Marker, this model suffers 1 damage." Does this ability apply to schemes, or is that not an effect covered by "friendly guard models' treatment" of the unit? In practice, this seems like things like, run the Dispatcher to the centerline and drop a marker to do Harness the Lay Line, using his marker and himself as two of the needed scheme markers. Or would he count as a marker for "Dig Their Graves," if he's close enough to corpse markers? Etc.

I'm still pretty light on games and experience, but I think my theory-crafting is something like this: Lucius, Dashel, Hoffman, Nellie, Perdita, Basse, Lady J, Sonnia. Allllll of the below said, I think that Lucius and Nellie look much stronger with taxed-in or versatile pieces, while Lady J or Perdita can create all-comers lists that you can learn deeply so that you're able to play strong games against a variety of opponents. Hoffman is going to be consistent in-keyword, and Basse shows a lot of promise, especially if he gets one or two more pieces. My brief analysis: Lucius is flexible and card efficiency means you should be able to make the most out of AP for whatever you build in, even if you're having to go out of keyword a bit. Obey and Hidden Sniper give you a lot of flexibility about where your actions go and what they do. Keyword defense is slightly sub-optimal but it's flexible so you're paying the card for it when you really need it. Dashel's core mechanic of dueling bonus vs activated models is a strong basic efficiency. Although the ideal is obviously to kill UNACTIVATED models, a general gaming reality is that your opponent will be looking to get value out of their activation first, so having a bonus against what they're likely to present you with remains pretty strong, to my mind. Summoning is good, and units like Mounted Guards and Guild Hounds seem like they can get really efficient in-keyword. Hoffman is interesting ... all of the armor is a huge help: even where enemies can pierce it, they're often planning card resources for that pretty heavily. He's good points-denial in a Reckoning match, but that's also a matchup I expect people to know well. I think the Schemes and Stones podcast did a good job covering two possible strategies: armor-balling up or keeping Hoffman with a central power (Peacekeeper, surely?) and letting Hunters and Watchers run schemes, while your armor forces the opponent to tax into off-faction models to deal with your armor. I keep wanting Nellie to do just a little more hard-stopping of the opponent's scheming, but I think her crew just doesn't keep up with her. I think she's probably pretty significantly stronger in Nellie/Good-Stuff instead of Nellie/Journalist crew, and of the masters, Nellie is the one I'd consider taking into another crew as a second master, because she's good and disruptive, and hard to whittle down when her interacts auto-heal 2. Plus, until a rules errata I'm pretty sure she auto-counters the Deliver Message scheme, since she controls interacts within 2". Undercover Reporter is a really fun denial unit in-keyword; the other keyword units may not be as efficient, though Phiona has a number of tech uses vs defense and positioning. Perdita has powerful range and some nice scheme marker control on her personal free action. If you can get your sight lines to work, the crew's move-and-focus mechanic is potent. And always having the option to finish up a target with your next-sibling-down at the cost of a low-card discard is an easy option to learn and capitalize off of. Basse has soooo much free movement in his crew; it's just largely out-of-activation, which can put you either a half-step ahead or a half-step behind, but makes for really interesting pacing mechanics.. The notion of starting forward by a handful of inches while your opponent has to sink AP into removing trap spam has a fair amount of appeal. Lady J is a reliable beat-stick, and even better vs undead. The amount of condition removal is really solid against a variety of things, with maybe a Honeypot/Brilliance exception. Basically, her crew is consistent and durable in an "all comers" kind of way that means you'll probably get opportunities for counterplay in most situations. Sonnia seems fair enough; it's mostly that other things look better. Dashel looks to be a better summoner with stronger keyword models, and that Arcanist burning master seems point-for-point better. For area control, I'd rather take two Domadores into Marshal and have Lady J and Judge clean up after some Decay spamming, or have Basse or even Nellie's Phiona henchman pull people out of the armor ball or Bayou Bash or whatever.

So Molly Squidpidge has the Lethe's Caress ability that does 2 damage when a model in LoS repeats an action, basically. I'm curious how that interacts with actions generated by something else. For example, if you use Leap with Lady Justice and pay the to trigger your melee attack on it, would you thereafter eat LC damage each additional time you took the same melee attack action? Or does the initial attack count as part of the leap action for Lethe's Caress, and then a standard attack would be distinct?