Search the Community

Hello everyone! This is my first attempt at writing a Tacitca for use. I'm writing it for a master which I played a lot (and influenced) during the Beta, so I know a few of his tricks. The main idea is to share these with new players attempting to start him or old players trying some new tricks out. I speak, of course, of Hamelin. To make things easier, first blocks will describe the master without any upgrades. Improvents on certain things will be noted under the respective upgrade section. Stats First thing to see are his stats, which are pretty decent, yet average, across the board. A good wound pool and great wp, his other stats are among the average mold. He however, lacks any station characterstics (living, undead, etc) which means there are quite a few abilities that don't work on him, wheter good or bad. Lastly, he starts with a meager cache of 1. Remember this when construction your crews. Defenses Hamelin has two abilities toward defense: Nihilism, and Lure of Emptiness. He doesn't have any damage migation abilities, such as Armor, or Hard to Wound. Lure of Emptiness grants backup lives with nearby stolen. When Hamelin is killed or sacrificed, he may sacrifice a nearby stolen instead and heal some wounds. An useful ability that migates a bit Hamelin's innate squishiness. However, watch out for having a lack of stolen in a critical moment, as Hamelin is easily hit and takes the full brunt of an onslaught. Nihilism, on the other hand, is one of the most powerful defensive abilities in the game. It allows you to ignore any conditions as you see fit. This is entirely optional, and allows you to still gain the condition if you like it. Perfect if your opponent is handing positives mixed with negatives, as you get to ignore the negative conditions while keeping the postive ones. Don't forget to thank your opponent after that. Another thing to note is the Tyrant characterstic. This grants weaknesses towards the infamous Relic Hammers. Keep them away from Hamelin's face! (Relic Hammer bearers are Johann, The Captain, and Taelor) Blighted Blighted is the condition that Hamelin and his friends spreads out like candy. What does it do, you ask? Absolutely nothing. Don't let this discourage you! While I am saying that it does nothing, it does have important tricks to consider. The most important and deadly to remember is Bleeding Disease. This nasty spell deals damage equal to the current blighted stack to an enemy. It does not remove the stack, so you can freely fire away, racking huge damage for only a few AP spend. There are also other tricks with certain models, but we'll leave that for later. Blighted increases on it's own at the end of turn. Nifty right? Rats Hamelin wouldn't be Hamelin without his little rats. One rat is an unintersting sight, but there are far more hiding right out there. Rats spawn for free when an enemy within 6 of Hamelin dies. Other models can also spawn them. Rats are weak, cheap, small, and pathetic. They think so too, so they swarm together when there are four of them close to each other. (friendly or enemy) The resulting Rat Kings are more intimidating, providing a nasty way of getting rid of scheme markers, as well as improved damage output. (it's a little better) Due to the free rats, expect to always being able to out activate enemies. Actions Hamelin has several actions open to him. First of all, the Black Staff is his basic melee attack. It has a unimpressive damage track of 1/2/4, but ml 6 is nothing to scoff at. It has always access to two basic triggers, one which hand out blighted and another which increases damage by the blighted on the target, to a maxium of +3. His second action, are the Pipes, which is basically a lure. It has an auto trigger that deals damage and moves the target further if it has blighted. Lastly, bleeding disease has been covered already. Under tactical actions, he has a Lure Malifaux Citizen, a (0) that allows him to summon a Stolen in base contact. Stolen are jeleous and murder all non-stolen totems summoned this way. If you spend a soulstone, you are capable of hitting a trigger that allows him to do it all again. (sans trigger) Upgrades Of course, there are always upgrades, and Hamelin is no exception. The Plague First of his upgrades, Virulent denies any removal of Blighted within 6 of Hamelin. Prefect for letting enemies build larger stacks of blighted. Secondly, it allows the usage of two triggers, both which trigger automaticly. The first hands out blighted, which is handy for putting blighted on ranged. The second only goes of on blighted+4, but grants the target a condition that forces the enemy to discard two cards for each interact action... Or it simpely fails. Putting blighted on range is The Piper Hamelin's near-auto-take limited upgrade grants two powerful abilities. Irresistable Dance, and Obey. Ireresistable Dance forbids enemies from ending charges within 6 of Hamelin. Protecting him and his crew from charges, it negates one of the weaknesses Hamelin has. Obey with a build in suit is a very powerful tool in any master's crew, and Hamelin is no different. Tools of the Tyrant This upgrade grants triggers to the Black Staff, as well providing even more interact denial. Unhealty pallor allows Hamelin to heal for each blighted model within 3. Blight your friends first, and then use them as health packages! Remember that blighted doesn't do anything when not forced upon you.... The second trigger puts blighted on a single target within 3" of the damaged model. It allows you to put blighted on certain elusive models hiding away from your ranges. It has it's usages whithin certain combo's, such as setting up the 1 AP charges using Drawn to Contagation. The main selling point of Tools, however, is Face The Inevitable, a 6 that let's interact actions of enemies fail unless they discard a card. Suddely delivering messages, or distracting becomes a lot harder to do. Sewer King Last of the four Hamelin restricted upgrades, Sewer King grants Infiltration (Lost) allowing you to hire up to four out of faction Lost models. Currently they are Crooligans, Baby Kade, Iggy, and Candy. More on them later. It also grants Useless Toy, a (0) that let's you sacrifice any model of choice to draw two cards. If a stolen is sacrificed, enemy models within 3 of the stolen get blighted. Of course, you wouldn't want to kill stolen off all the time, as sometimes it's better to get rid of a near-dead model that has already activated. Or you could just kill rats. Infectious Melody A Nihilist option, infectious melody allows Peons and Minions to gain fast at the start of their activation. They die at the end of that activation, going out in a blaze of glory. Sometimes you just need that 1 additional AP. Survialist Not Hamelin exclusive, but deserved a special metion here. Most importantly, it grants him ridicilous levels of defense in the form of Hard to Kill. Hard to Kill works hand in hand with Lure of Emptiness, soaking attacks in tandem. First, hard to kill goes off, reducing you to 1 wound. Then, lure of emptiness goes off, healing you above Hard to Kill thresshold.. It's certainly worth the ss if you find that you die too often. Oh, it also grants on healing flips. Spreading & Utilizing Blighted Decided to make a list of sources & blighted utilities. Spreading Blighted For all intents and purposed, Rats & Rat Kings are immune to Blighted. Diseased gives blighted to enemies that activate within 3. Source: Obedient Wretch & The Stolen, ability. The Taint trigger gives Blighted +1 for each in the final duel total. Source: Hamelin, Black Staff. The Decaying trigger gives Blighted +1. Source: Hamelin, Pipes. Requires The Plague upgrade. The Contagious Touch trigger gives Blighted +1 to a model within 3" and LOS of the target when damaging. Source: Hamelin, Black Staff. Requires Tools of the Tyrant upgrade. Useless Toy, when you sacrifice a Stolen with this action, all enemy models within 3 of the sacrificed Stolen gain Blighted +1. Source: Hamelin. Requires Sewer King upgrade. Feed On Anima gives Blighted +1 on a hit. Source: Nix Rusty Trap gives Blighted +1 on a hit. Source: Rat Catcher Swarm of Yellow Teeth gives Blighted +1 on a hit. Source: Rat King. The Spray of Filth trigger gives Blighted +1 to all models 6 when the target is killed. Source: Rat King. Yellow Teeth gives Blighted +1/+2/+3 depending on the damage flip. Source: Malifaux Rat Drink Spirit gives blighted to all within 4 unless a Wp test is passed. Nihilist models are immune Source: Nix Using Blighted Bleeding Disease deals damage equal to the Blighted condition of the target. Source: Hamelin, Nix, Stolen & Obedient Wretch. The Black Death deals damage equal to the Blighted condition of the target, to a maxium of 3. This is a seperate damage source. Source: Hamelin. Voracious Rats summons a Malifaux Rat when a model with Blighted is killed within 6. Source: Hamelin & Rat Catcher Pipes moves the target equal to it's Cg when the target is blighted. Source: Hamelin The Sick In Bed trigger gives the target the Sick In Bed condition if it's blighted condition is 4 or greater. Source: Hamelin, Pipes. Requires The Plague upgrade. The Unhealthy Pallor trigger heals Hamelin for each model with Blighted within 3. Source: Hamelin, Black Staff. Requires Tools of the Tyrant upgrade. Models with Blighted +4 within 6 of an activated Plague Pit can't take interact actions. Source: Nix The Quarantine trigger increases the attack damage by 2 if the target has Blighted +3 before the action is declared. Source: Rat Catcher, Rusty Trap. Models with Drawn to Contagion can charge models with Blighted as a (1) action. Source: Rat King & Nix, Hollow