Hamelin Tactica: Drown them in Rats

[admiralvorkraft]

I mean, he's a finesse piece - as every piece should be, really. He's going to take out 8-12wds of models on a charge (12 if he gets that 1ap charge when he activates) so that's incredible. Just don't throw him at Joss at the top of the game. If you pick your targets and play well he can easily take out 2-3 mid-cost models over the course of the game, paying for himself and then some. If you throw him into the middle of the crew targeting something he can't reliably kill? Yes, that will end poorly for you.

There are more OP options in Killjoy's price range if you want to play a game that's over turn one based on whose alpha strike was better. Killjoy is a well balanced model that has a particular role (bully) that he performs exceptionally, and a variety of weaknesses that can be exploited by a canny opponent. The fact that he has weaknesses doesn't make him a bad model, that's just good dynamic game design and something that's evident across the majority of models in the game.

[Cedar]

Killjoy is very good model, although he dies fast when focused by enemy. With Oathkeeper he is able to kill two models with low def or up to 8 wounds in a turn when he unburies. I found that generally Taelor, Strongarm or A&D do a better job due to their Ml 7 , 3" range and better resilience. You should try Nothing Beast - It has no special synergy with Hamelin but being able to take one model off board and then sacrifice rat with useless toy to place enemy in middle of your crew can be gamechanging. 

[Seadhna]

32 minutes ago, Cedar said:

Killjoy is very good model, although he dies fast when focused by enemy. With Oathkeeper he is able to kill two models with low def or up to 8 wounds in a turn when he unburies. I found that generally Taelor, Strongarm or A&D do a better job due to their Ml 7 , 3" range and better resilience. You should try Nothing Beast - It has no special synergy with Hamelin but being able to take one model off board and then sacrifice rat with useless toy to place enemy in middle of your crew can be gamechanging. 

Oooooh, I missed that combo.

Looks like one of those Gotcha moves, but sure looks fun!

[Cedar]

And one more thing about Killjoy - I found him very, VERY good in fixed master types of games/tournaments - he can just decimate Victorias, Reva or other master without armor/def trigger with push. If you take him against Ramos or Hofmann or gremlins- you'll have bad time, but against some squishier masters, like Victorias mentioned above, he does really good job. He has no other use than being missile shoot in the middle of enemy crew which makes him great in few cases and total garbage in other- that makes him very situational model, ideal for fixed master game.

[Mxbedlam]

I've routinely seen Desolation Engine with Hamelin. Any thoughts on taking him over one of hte other big outcast beatstick models?

[Mason]

6 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

I've routinely seen Desolation Engine with Hamelin. Any thoughts on taking him over one of hte other big outcast beatstick models?

I really enjoy taking a Deso Engine with Hamelin.

[Cedar]

15 hours ago, Mrbedlam said:

I've routinely seen Desolation Engine with Hamelin. Any thoughts on taking him over one of hte other big outcast beatstick models?

He is my usual model to take along with a&d against gremlins or other hamelin, pandora, dreamer or Molly in fixed master tournament. Lots of simple df duels are serious danger for these masters or in case of gremlins- against 90% of faction. If your deso engine is hurt, just activate it early, heal back the wounds, then obey him when he is hurt again to strike back and heal agaagain probably with obeying him first to take focus so you can cheat damage for severe. And remember, it doesn't matter for heal how much damage the model actually was dealt but how much was flipped or cheated during damage flip. You can also obey a&d for taking 3 times Industrial Age action just for draining yours opponent hand or dealing few damage.

[Seadhna]

You know what's fun?

 

A tournament game of Stake a Claim.  

With a scheme pool of FfM, covert breakthrough, search the ruins, accusation and inspection. 

A 50 ss game of Hamelin vs Ulix. 

 

Never  have I felt so much like I was playing solitaire. 

[Cedar]

Could you write something more about that match? I'm going to face Ulix soon so I want to know what to do and what models are good against him. 

[Seadhna]

Well it actually was pretty scary by Turn 2. 

He had a mostly standart setup with some personal variations (Ulix with the Husbandry, Old Major with Corn Husks, Slop Hauler, Penelope, McTavish, Wild Boar and Lust as a merc)

I went really generic

50 SS Outcasts Crew

Hamelin + 6 Pool

 - The Piper (2)

 - Infectious Melodies (1)

The Stolen (2)

Nix (8)

Hodgepodge Emissary (10)

 - Hodgepodge Conflux (0)

Sue (8)

 - Return Fire (1)

Big Jake (5)

Obedient Wretch (4)

Malifaux Rat (2)

Malifaux Rat (2)

 

 (exported from CrewFaux)

 

 

He summoned 2 warpigs and about 4 piglets in the three full turns we've managed to play. 

 

He had a wild boar whom he used to push around with Old Major (QUICK EDIT: looks like my opponent misinterpreted the ability, it does require LoS, but indeed has unlimited range) to score covert breakthrough so deep in my deployment zone I couldn't reach it. 

Piglets can charge as (1), interact as (0), can remove scheme markers at end of activation, have small target (negative to shoot) and are overall annoying. 

War pigs have 12 Wd, charge as (1) and hit real hard. 

The pig engine (Ulix, Slop Hauler, Old Major) stays far back and produces 2-3 models a turn (compared to Hamelin's two Rat Kings)

 

Basically I had to concede flanks to Wild boar and Warpig, abuse Don't mind me on Big Jake and Rat Catchers (for Stake a Claim) while stuffing his face with rats so that Piglets didn't have charge lanes. Nix used Drink Spirit to spread blighted on those Piglets who broke through so that Rat Kings could (1) charge them. I barely managed to score Search the Ruins (he ate two of my markers on final activations so I had to Obey a Rat Catcher a lot). 

[Seadhna]

Any suggestions on dealing with Rotten Belles?

Is Hamelin a good master vs Ressers?

I also spectacularly lost a game vs Seamus, but that was mostly to my mispositioning three key models a lot.

[Cedar]

I thought that hamelin has advantage over ulix since pigs have low wp and can take charge as (0) so hamelin can obey them to charge other pigs or haulers. I guess I was wrong and this is difficult matchup:/

[Cedar]

28 minutes ago, Seadhna said:

Any suggestions on dealing with Rotten Belles?

Is Hamelin a good master vs Ressers?

I also spectacularly lost a game vs Seamus, but that was mostly to my mispositioning three key models a lot.

I think that Ressers are one of toughest or one of easiest matchups for Hamelin, depending on enemy master. Most dangerous master against him is probably Spirit Molly, since she can summon model and kill stolen with same action and Datsue-Ba summons spirits from stolen or rats. In that case, you should  play crew with decent amount of high SS models, like A&D, Killjoy or DE. Same goes for Horror Molly and Kirai.

Other dangerous opponent is McMourning- he can kill your rats just by standing near them and turn them into new hounds in the process. His DF and WP is 5 and he has only soulstones and hard to wound to survive alpha strike from your killjoy and other beatsticks.

I found Nicodem, Yan Lo, Reva and Seamus to be one of the easiest matchups for Hamelin, since rats and rat kings aren't living models so they don't drop corpses to allow enemy to summon models. Yan lo usually runs elite crew with ancestors and he is very fragile during first two turns so if he didn't buy upgrade with incorporeal he is easy target for killjoy or other models with high min damage. Reva is very fragile on her own, and can be easily killed by your heavy beatsticks. In case of Nicodem, bringing Taelor and Specialist can help a lot - without corpses he can't do much. When facing Seamus, you can always have him in your LoS thanks to Rats, so his back alley will be less efficient. Regardless if he took bag o'tools or sinister rep tie him in combat with Taelor or A&D to force him to waste AP on disengaging or trying to till you with bag. 

 

Belle are one of bigger problems, but you can lure your models back thanks to pipes or just lure belles to kill them. 

[Seadhna]

Has anyone tried Mad Dog?

seeing as how Pipes is a Sh action, Mad Dog's Blown Apart might lead to some very aggressive Lures on Hamelin's part

 

50 SS Outcasts Crew

Hamelin + 7 Pool

 - The Piper (2)

 - The Plague (2)

 - Survivalist (1)

The Stolen (2)

Mad Dog Brackett (9)

 - Lucky Poncho (1)

Ama No Zako (9)

Hodgepodge Emissary (10)

 - Conflux of Plague (0)

Obedient Wretch (4)

Malifaux Rat (2)

Malifaux Rat (2)

 

 (exported from CrewFaux)

[Cedar]

I'd play with nix, alyce, librarian or lazarus instead of ama in that list. Mad Dog gets better with every model that has sh attack like Rusty or Lazarus, while nix helps spread blight and librarian heals your models (in that list you have 3 models with htk which makes librarian even better).

[Seadhna]

33 minutes ago, Cedar said:

I'd play with nix, alyce, librarian or lazarus instead of ama in that list. Mad Dog gets better with every model that has sh attack like Rusty or Lazarus, while nix helps spread blight and librarian heals your models (in that list you have 3 models with htk which makes librarian even better).

yeah, those 9-10 SS are the flexible part.

I was just dreaming of humiliating some Gremlins at the time so put in Ama.

 

Not gonna play Lazarus until the next sculpt comes out (the model's attacks are shitface boring as they are, the current sculpt just adds insult to injury), but Rusty and Libby might give me some nice mileage. Nix is a nice consideration as well, he loves the Vitality Potion from DonkeyMan, but competes for it with Mad Dog.

[Freman]

I like Donkey Man. His trinkets are handy and he can easily do Claim Jump by himself meaning an almost certain three points if you can keep the enemy away from him. It is much easier with a diagonal centre line. Parker can push him for some extra movement and then from the second turn he's dropping markers and scoring points. Pretty Floral Bonnet can also be useful when you're trying to do things like Headhunter.

[Seadhna]

Donkey Man is indeed boss, especially with Hamelin's upgrade giving him a second zero and  to all duels vs Blighted.

[Seadhna]

Gave my combo with Mad Dog and Hamelin a go against Ramos, but due to questionable decisions on my part (I built a very thematic table with a river across the middle) and my opponent's part (he decided to go bubble Ramos and was promptly stuck in the severe terrain for the whole game) there wasn't much action going. Still, gave my Guilder Hamelin a spin (which is probably the coolest model in the faction at the moment).

Several things to note:

1. a bad hand Turn 1 (like, zero Crows in the 8 cards you get with a SS) can be overcome by Obeying the Wretch to Focus and then shoot with Focus

2. free Rat Catchers are amazing

3. I can't properly play the Killjoy bomb for the love of me

4. Irresistible Dance, baby!

[Virtus]

Against which masters do you guys like going for minimum 4 damage bleeding disease on turn two?

[Freman]

Any master who's silly enough to put himself within range of Pipes, or a Rat King charge. I had one game against Seamus where had about 7 blight on him by turn 2, Chiaki took it all off, and I still had another 7 blight on him by turn five. Obedient Wretch dumped him down to 1 wound before he killed her. I played like crap that game, my crew was wrong for the Schemes I took, and wrong for the strategy too, and my opponent deservedly won, but it still gives an indication of just how easy it is to dump blight onto models.

That said, kill the nurse first if you can. They're very annoying.

[Mxbedlam]

So got my first Hamelin game in this week. Took Hamelin (Pipes, melodies), Rusty (Oathkeeper), Deso Engine, Obedient Wretch, 2 Void Wretches and 2 Malifaux Rats. I wasted time on the engine until my opponent's Colette crew was through activating. Then Hamelin went, made a couple stolen. Walked Rusty, walked Deso Engine. Engine charged Howard. Killed him, made an abom. Rusty goes, Burn out on Deso. Deso reactivates. Kills 2 performers and makes another Abom. Is at full health. I win intitiative, kill Casandra and by the end of Turn 2 my opponent had only Colette left. It was a bloody mess. 

[Terwox]

On 3/6/2017 at 4:11 PM, Seadhna said:

Gave my combo with Mad Dog and Hamelin a go against Ramos, but due to questionable decisions on my part (I built a very thematic table with a river across the middle) and my opponent's part (he decided to go bubble Ramos and was promptly stuck in the severe terrain for the whole game) there wasn't much action going. Still, gave my Guilder Hamelin a spin (which is probably the coolest model in the faction at the moment).

Several things to note:

1. a bad hand Turn 1 (like, zero Crows in the 8 cards you get with a SS) can be overcome by Obeying the Wretch to Focus and then shoot with Focus

2. free Rat Catchers are amazing

3. I can't properly play the Killjoy bomb for the love of me

4. Irresistible Dance, baby!

 

 

Why focus?  If you Obey her to throw twice it's the same odds of hitting a crow.  It's also more dangerous for the rat you're throwing at -- more of a chance of hitting double severe than triple.

[Terwox]

On 3/17/2017 at 0:18 PM, Mrbedlam said:

So got my first Hamelin game in this week. Took Hamelin (Pipes, melodies), Rusty (Oathkeeper), Deso Engine, Obedient Wretch, 2 Void Wretches and 2 Malifaux Rats. I wasted time on the engine until my opponent's Colette crew was through activating. Then Hamelin went, made a couple stolen. Walked Rusty, walked Deso Engine. Engine charged Howard. Killed him, made an abom. Rusty goes, Burn out on Deso. Deso reactivates. Kills 2 performers and makes another Abom. Is at full health. I win intitiative, kill Casandra and by the end of Turn 2 my opponent had only Colette left. It was a bloody mess. 

 

 

I can see taking one void wretch against arcanists (to eat the stupid birds!) but a winged plague will suit you better for the second scheme running guy.   Reactivating the desolation engine is fun though, cheers!

[Terwox]

Dumb timing question -- if I take the Plague, and I use the trigger to give the model blight after succeeding w/ Pipes, does it move its Walk or its Charge that activation?  

I think it's Walk but I'm not 100% sure.  (Obviously if you hit them with it again it would be Charge that next time.)  Thanks!