How I'm Running McCabe

[Lemonconstruct]

So I've this morning put up a long blog post about running McCabe (http://lemonboyfaux.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/he-man-on-horse.html) and thought i would pop it here. Hopefully it helps. 

[docbungle]

Have you not be tempted to use Sidir as your Promises upgrade carrier to free up McCabe a little more? Just out of interest, as that was my first thought for it.

 

Nice read btw, I look forward to stealing ideas

[Lemonconstruct]

Ideas were put there to be stolen. I'm not a big fan of Sidir in general, to much of his ss cost is put into shooting when i only want to be using him in melee. Also McCabe is a lot more survivable and (key point here) is so much more maneuverable. 

[MasterDisaster]

I agree with Docbungle. I never put Promises on McCabe himself, in my opinion it's wasted there as it steals one of his ever so precious upgrade slots. I often load out McCabe with personal upgrades and give Sidir Promises. Saying that I definitely don't consider Promises an Auto-Include either. I take it about 50% of the time. I can certainly see the method you are going for but I prefer to take multiple upgrades to be passed out and still have McCabe hold onto one for himself. So I might pass out the Sabre, Armour and keep the Elixir for example. 

 

Promises grants an Aura so can give Sidir Promises, Recalled Training and the Sabre from Take This! and he grants himself the  . 

 

Overall it was an interesting read and it's nice to compare play styles, I'll have to try a few of your tactics out and see how I get on with them. It appears as though you play him 10T where as I tend to lean on the Guild more than 10T with McCabe so that could be to do with it. Re-activating Austringers are epic! 

 

Do you tend to use many of the Guild stuff? Alternatively have you tried Toshiro and Punk zombies with McCabe? If not I thoroughly recommend it! Glowing Sabre Flurries with Fast and Re-activate it just plain filthy!

[Lemonconstruct]

It's not wasted if you're not taking Sidir, which i find i'm rarely doing. Promises is an auto-include because of my play style, there are certainly play styles for McCabe that wouldn't use it. 

 

When i started McCabe, everybody said he was better Guild, so I straight away restricted myself to 10T. So i haven't used any Guild and don't plan too, until i want to switch styles. Thinking about it, i feel my style of play is better for 10T whereas in Guild he'll be better with minions. 

 

There are plenty of models still to try, Toshiro is definitely one of them. 

[MasterDisaster]

It's not wasted if you're not taking Sidir, which i find i'm rarely doing. Promises is an auto-include because of my play style, there are certainly play styles for McCabe that wouldn't use it. 

 

That is where our play styles differ and it's great to see how other people use him. I often use McCabe as more of a support Master whereas your play style seems get be more offensive with McCabe and this is one of the reasons why I love him so much. He is so versatile and your opponent is often left wondering what the hell he is going to do 

 

I often take Sidir because I like to have Sidir and McCabe use each other to hand out slow with the Netgun and Machine Gun tricks. I've used Tannen to gives out the -2 Wk and Cg to a couple of models, then Empty the Magazine to give out slow after which McCabe can Paralyze them.

 

I've had some great success with McCabe and Thunder Archers, have you gotten much mileage out of them? What are your thoughts?

[EnternalVoid]

A different approach to McCabe, interesting to say the least.  But I wanted to throw one thing in; if McCabe dismounts he will be no good at interacting that turn.  His dismounted form is summoned in, meaning it can not interact that turn.  So no last ditch dropping of scheme markers unless he had been dismounted previously and if he did then you are not getting the 8 AP.

[ataraxianj]

Sheds a lot of light on McCabe.  Thanks for the read!

[Rathnard]

I posted on twitter but I thought I might as well do it here as well.

 

First off, thanks for the write up, it's always good to see how other people are treating certain Masters.

 

I have to say I disagree with you on the Wastrels. They're not front line fighters, sure, but they're still dirt cheap and they offer some excellent support options, from card cycling to healing to simply being the guy who drops the scheme markers. Not to mention that they're one of the best possible options to give Glowing Sabre to!

 

When I played McCabe I used him as Guild, but since you're going with 10-T have you thought about using him with Samuri? With the 0SS upgrades they should benefit quite nicely from the Promises upgrade. 

 

Finally, what's your beef with shooting? From reading your article I get the impression that you're very focused on melee based crews. But I feel this could be to your detriment since I've found that having some shooting options is very helpful in alot of situations. At its simplest shooting allows you to deal damage without having to expose your own models to danger, plus it gives you the kind of board control that melee focused models just can't match.

 

And while we're talking about McCabe, I might as well put my own blog article up here too;

http://rathnard.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/lets-look-for-treasure-lucas-mccabe.html

 

It's the result of only one game (and as Guild, no less), but it explains my feelings on him and how his crew works in more detail than I could here. Especially regarding the Wastrels.

[Lemonconstruct]

I've yet to try 10T Archers, but then i haven't been playing the minion game. For this style of play i need minions who don't need buffs from upgrades (main reason i find wastrels so bad). Why make a 10T good, when you can make Ototo awesome? In my earlier games i never found the slow/paralyse area of McCabe was particularly strong. 

 

I had not realised about dismounting stopped interactions. Thanks. Technique still has some potential, eg) killing a bodyguard target

 

By basing the crew around Promises, it'll tend to be melee based, because that's what it helps. As i'm investing into a couple of beatsticks, the remaining ss must go into minions who are based on objective running. Samurai are shooters, so don't have that place. Tengu look a lot better than Wastrels in 10T. 

 

Slight difference, you're basing experiences of 1 game, I'm probably going on 15  

 

Talking with everybody here has made me think i want to try different styles of McCabe, my post covers 1 out of many playstyles and I'm interested to see the rest of them. Sadly my wallet isn't!

 

O and I definitely have no problems with shooting, Ophelia FTW. 

[MasterDisaster]

 Samurai are shooters, so don't have that place. Tengu look a lot better than Wastrels in 10T. 

 

Samurai are also more than competent in combat. They have the same Daito as the Ronin allowing them to deal something like 2/4/5 which ignores armour. They are very goo din combat, the fact that they have a big gun is often a distraction to a lot of people. 

[Rathnard]

What MasterDisaster said. All his upgrades but the Fire one directly help his melee too, so he shouldn't be a slouch in combat.

 

Also his shooting doesn't need any extra buffs from other models, so the lack of support in that sense is a non-issue. 

[dgraz]

Talking with everybody here has made me think i want to try different styles of McCabe, my post covers 1 out of many playstyles and I'm interested to see the rest of them. 

So many masters are like that now. I've played a slew of games with Marcus so far and I'm not even a little bored with him. Mixing up the crew really changes everything (and really throws your opponent for a loop)....."Oh, Marcus again? I know what I'm taking against him......(an hour later)..... wait! What just happened here?".

 

A lot of the dual-faction masters really push this aspect of the game. McCabe, Misaki, etc....but there are plenty of non-dual masters that do it too.

One of the design goals of M2E was to take the focus off of playing complete factions and making one master players viable.........I think with at least most masters it has met this goal.

[chris_havoc]

I am going to try out the following list tonight or next time I play based on some of the stuff you've said. Nice thing about McCabe having Promises is that he gets positives on his attacks too. Also, trying out Misdirection to get him into some combat and really throw around some damage. I would run Smoke and Shadows on Ototo but I find it gets in the way of Misdirection in Misaki games at least.

McCabe - Badge of Speed (for Ototo), Misdirection, and Promises.

Ototo - Call the Thunder

Mr. Graves - Recalled Training

The Lone Swordsman - Recalled Training

Torakage x 2

[Crescent]

Have anyone tried running Bishop with McCabe? Seems like he would synergise well with a beatstick focused McCabe crew.

[Myth]

Bishop does sound like a good match with McCabe. He's not a great Sabre target since his built-in attack is very similar to it, but he looks like he would be a very effective target with Nimble.

 

A Nimble Bishop and a Reactivating, Sabre-Wielding (somehow) Luna... that's a pair that can fly across the board and do some very bad things to vulnerable parts of the enemy crew. Especially since McCabe probably isn't far behind and you can bring along a pack of Guild Hounds who also have the speed to keep up.

[Vile the mad]

Sensei yu sounds like he could do wonders with McCabe, anyone try this out yet?

[grave13]

McCabes crew box caught my eye. I like the whole Indian Jones theme with it. But how is its playstyle with it? Does it have high damage out put? Is it Dual faction? And Sidir looks boss!

[MasterDisaster]

His play style is unique, Lucas' primary shtick is to pass his upgrades around to benefit his crew, he can also play offense and support roles depending on the upgrades he takes. It's a very fun and effective crew.

 

His core crew tends to be comprised of cheap runner around models (Wastrels) who are damn good for their cost of 4ss, they can run schemes, hold objectives and if needed lay down McCabe's brand of law. With McCabes upgrade support they become a whole lot better! Sidir is a machine gun totting badass and is one hell of a Henchman who focuses primarily on bodyguard duty for McCabe and Co. but also excels at ranged attacks and is more than confident up close and personal. Lucas excels at making weak or average minions great. Luna for example can make Guild Hounds amazing scheme runners and they work well when in teams. I often take Luna and 3 hounds making tag teams for scheme running or hunting packs. 

 

Generally the damage output of ANY crew is dependent on it's build. McCabe's crew certainly has some amazing combinations that can ramp damage on models to really scary heights. Toshiro can come to the party with his Punk Zombie buddies who can be given a Glowing Sabre and re-activate + Nimble for a devastating killing machine when combined with the Punk's Flurry Action. 6x Attacks at Ml 6   with 1/3/4 and the Critical Strike trigger. Whilst the Punk is within 6" of Toshiro it also gains  to Melee Attack Flips. This will utterly devastate pretty much anything that it hits. This is just one example of the stuff he can pull off with a little setup. 

 

McCabe is Dual Faction, he is both Ten Thunders and Guild. He has Infiltrate Guardman and Black Sheep meaning he can always take his theme crew (Black Sheep) and can also bring some others to the party from the Guild when he is 10T. Austringers, Riflemen and Wardens make nice additions to his 10T crew as does Dashell. 

 

Finally Yes.... Sidir DOES look Badass! 

 

There is some great info on McCabe here http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Lucas+McCabe

[grave13]

His play style is unique, Lucas' primary shtick is to pass his upgrades around to benefit his crew, he can also play offense and support roles depending on the upgrades he takes. It's a very fun and effective crew.

His core crew tends to be comprised of cheap runner around models (Wastrels) who are damn good for their cost of 4ss, they can run schemes, hold objectives and if needed lay down McCabe's brand of law. With McCabes upgrade support they become a whole lot better! Sidir is a machine gun totting badass and is one hell of a Henchman who focuses primarily on bodyguard duty for McCabe and Co. but also excels and ranged attacks and is more than confident up close and personal. He excels at making weak or average minions great. Luna for example can make Guild Hounds amazing scheme runners and they world well when in teams. I often take Luna and 3 hounds making tag teams for scheme running or hunting packs.

Generally the damage output of ANY crew is dependent on it's build. McCabe's crew certainly has some amazing combinations that can ramp damage on models to really scary heights. Toshiro can come to the party with his Punk Zombie buddies who can be given a Glowing Sabre and re-activate + Nimble for a devastating killing machine when combined with the Punk's Flurry Action. 6x Attacks at Ml 6 with 1/3/4 and the Critical Strike trigger. Whilst the Punk is within 6" of Toshiro it also gains to Melee Attack Flips. This will utterly devastate pretty much anything that it hits. This is just one example of the stuff he can pull off with a little setup.

McCabe is Dual Faction, he is both Ten Thunders and Guild. He has Infiltrate Guardman and Black Sheep meaning he can always take his theme crew (Black Sheep) and can also bring some others to the party from the Guild when he is 10T. Austringers, Riflemen and Wardens make nice additions to his 10T crew as does Dashell.

Finally Yes.... Sidir DOES look Badass!

There is some great info on McCabe here http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Lucas+McCabe

Hell yeah! Thats the type of reply thats worth a praise. Ill have to pick up his box set when i can. He does sound awsome to play. What would you recomend to purchase with the crew box. Anything available in plastic that would complement his crew nicely?

[Dirial]

Hell yeah! Thats the type of reply thats worth a praise. Ill have to pick up his box set when i can. He does sound awsome to play. What would you recomend to purchase with the crew box. Anything available in plastic that would complement his crew nicely?

 

Pathfinder and Riflemen for the Guardsmen build, and melee Enforcers or Samurai for the Promises build. For starters.

[MasterDisaster]

 

Hell yeah! Thats the type of reply thats worth a praise. Ill have to pick up his box set when i can. He does sound awsome to play. What would you recomend to purchase with the crew box. Anything available in plastic that would complement his crew nicely?

 

Dirial offers some great suggestions and to piggy back on that and make a few other suggestions Austringers, Wardens, Executioner, Dashell & Guild Hounds are all nice picks for Guild. Austringers, Hounds, Wardens and Dashell are all Guardsman models who can greatly benefit from McCabe's shenannigans and McCabe can help the Executioner out with one of it's big weaknesses due to being a lard arse with sucky movement. Also Witchling Stalkers do well in damn near any Guild crew because they provide a cheap source of condition removal.

 

For Ten Thunders again Dirial offers some nice suggestions, I tend to use Toshiro w. Punk Zombies, Illuminated, Archers, Izamu  & Torakage and others that are on my list to try with him are the Dawn Serpent, 10T Brothers & Katanaka Snipers. 

 

He does well with lots of stuff, it's actually quite tough to decide which is one of the reasons I love playing McCabe 

[grave13]

Dirial offers some great suggestions and to piggy back on that and make a few other suggestions Austringers, Wardens, Executioner, Dashell & Guild Hounds are all nice picks for Guild. Austringers, Hounds, Wardens and Dashell are all Guardsman models who can greatly benefit from McCabe's shenannigans and McCabe can help the Executioner out with one of it's big weaknesses due to being a lard arse with sucky movement. Also Witchling Stalkers do well in damn near any Guild crew because they provide a cheap source of condition removal.

For Ten Thunders again Dirial offers some nice suggestions, I tend to use Toshiro w. Punk Zombies, Illuminated, Archers, Izamu & Torakage and others that are on my list to try with him are the Dawn Serpent, 10T Brothers & Katanaka Snipers.

He does well with lots of stuff, it's actually quite tough to decide which is one of the reasons I love playing McCabe

McCabe sounds very flexable on builds. I think I would like to stick with 10t build for him.....and Illuminated with him?! Holly hell man thats a scary combo i definitly want to try that out. Also i would like to run with his de-buff theme. Would barbs be a more suitable upgrade to go along with that theme?

[grave13]

To everyone who plays McCabe do you think he is a competitive master?

[Dirial]

To everyone who plays McCabe do you think he is a competitive master?

 

Not anymore or less than any other Master. So yes!