Mei Feng p.2

[EntrepeNinja]

Has there been much talk about Mei Feng post wave two? I know that there are lot of people who think that Arcanist is the only way to play her due to their cheap plentiful constructs that both add to friendly defense and take away from enemy defense, as well as a lot of the thematic models having foundry means she can hire all the 10T models into the arcanists with ease- There weren't a ton of 10T models that were itching to make their way into a mei feng list-

 

However, with wave two out, there might be more of a reason now, eh? Super weasel has a ca7 method of handing out burning at range (Take THAT Emberling!), The High River monks with their burning tricks have some obvious synergy, Sensei Yu can do some cool movement shenanigans as well as focus and burning tricks, and of course, the new bread and butter, the Komainu which feel like maybe they were put in to make Mei Feng come back.

 

Komainu have Hard to Kill and Armor (much like a gamin), more wounds than a metal gamin (though, lower defense), the ability to attack at cb6 and trigger for either burning (if they're soon to be a mei feng target) or Slow (If you're just trying to tie them up...) they move faster than a metal gamin and have a 0 action that pushes them 3" (Not further than magnetism, but it's also irresistible). and a 1 action that grants a (1)ap attack against a model that tries to cast spells near you. Also a construct. You're probably not gonna get "Guard", unless you bring Chiaki or something, but regardless.

 

I've no experience playing these models, I just wondered if there had been people who've tried these particular combinations out, and to what degree they've had success. Maybe because 10t might be in my near future depending on my new meta.

 

ENinja

[Malicte]

It's something we've discussed at a bit of length in my local meta, though not had a chance to try yet on account of our Mei player not having that many 10T models.

 

You've correctly identified a lot of the synergy available, and it's definitely very valuable.  It's all certainly viable.

 

What I think makes 10T most interesting as a faction, though, and what I think a successful 10T player needs to do to some degree or another, is to take advantage of the abilties of other factions.

 

Mei can use scrap counters to railwalker, and her crew will certainly leave them as they die off, since she likes constructs.  Why not Toshiro?  He'll buff your minions, he's a solid model in and of himself, and he lets you summon on a relatively easy cast off of both corpse and scrap.  As you've mentioned, Komainu are very solid and the Emberling can drop scrap to get that engine rolling.  Toshiro will more than like pay for himself this way (although it requires some mid to high cards) in addition to what he brings on his own.

 

Yin brings the abilitiy to target WP and bring fear abilities, plus control, in a way that Mei might have some difficulty getting access to.  Not bad to be able to hit more than one defense.

 

Shadow Effigy can help keep Mei alive in melee with its (0), and can provide a little bit of scheming tricks that she might lose leaving Arcanists.

 

Sensei Yu unfortunately doesn't have any awesome (0)s to copy off of Mei unless she's bringing Hard Worker, which may or may not be a super great idea.  That said, he can spread burning, help move your units around, and generally make himself useful wherever you put him.

 

Lone Swordsman is an interesting replacement for, say, Howard, if you're after a way to accomplish Assassinate or Murder Protege away from Mei.

 

Kamaitachi pushes friendlies around and spreads burning, but may not compare well to Emberling.

 

Tengu make a good scheme runner and are equivalent to Molemen in many ways.

 

Katanaka Snipers bring a (very) long ranged threat that the crew can often lack, and synergize well with Mei since she's in melee and may or may not survive the end of the game.  You might get that Reactivate out of them. 

[DeleteAccount]

Pretty much what Malicte said, the first law of thunder is to break the theme and see what options from usually other crews can give you. At the end of the day, Mei only really needs 2-3 constructs to work, the rest is pretty open ended. So take advantage of that and go full bore.

[bertmac]

Other than rail workers and kang are there any tt foundry models?

[EnternalVoid]

For Sensei Yu If one of the upgrades from the third round of the Beta stay in it had another (0) action, on Wings of Wind.  It a 4" push to another model, so if Mei Feng had it she could at end of turn get a push, push with her (0), and Sensei Yu could push with his (0) plus his normal tricks.  Be alot of options for pushes.

 

One thing I want to try out at some point is Toshiro with his upgrade and some Rail workers together.  His bubble giving positive to hit plus the rail workers (0) action could be a surprisingly accurate attack unless your opponent burns their hand.  Add into this that Toshiro could also make one fast and maybe give it a push or use the pulse that gives Focus +1, you could really make a small group of rail workers that much scarier.  And if any of them died they could drop either a scrap or a corpse marker depending on what you had or needed for Toshiro's upgrade.

[rythos42]

I'm wondering what Komainu are, and also if anyone has ideas on suitable proxies? I really like the idea of pushing Mei into TT a bit, and I'd love to try this summoning list out!

[Hateful Darkblack]

I'm wondering what Komainu are, and also if anyone has ideas on suitable proxies? I really like the idea of pushing Mei into TT a bit, and I'd love to try this summoning list out!

 

What Komainu are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komainu

 

Suitable Proxy: http://www.amazon.com/Wyrd-Miniatures-Malifaux-Asian-Accessories/dp/B0090SZ8X2

[EntrepeNinja]

To my knowledge, they look like Fu Dogs: The stone sculptures they put up outside of temples:

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Komainu&l=1

 

http://shop.zenitminiatures.es/product.php?id_product=199&id_lang=1

 

Looks like these Zenit has a mini that's close, though I can't find an american source.

 

ENinja

 

(Ninja'd- I'da been faster but I went digging for Komainu proxies. )

[entropolous]

Bushido's Shisha would also be suitable models:

http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=79649#.U4fqLfldVCg

[Falconrider]

Some very nice looking Komainu types there.

[rythos42]

I was looking at this Reaper model, but I can't find a comparison photo to see how huge it is. Anyone have one and think it's 40mm?

 

Or whatever this business is: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giant-demon-foo-dog-statues-resin-kit-/150395967509

 

(and the LMGTFY link was classy. >.< I'm sorry I failed at Google! )

[EntrepeNinja]

 

Or whatever this business is: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giant-demon-foo-dog-statues-resin-kit-/150395967509

 

 

And you get some free peasants out of the deal. Get yourself a sensei Yu and a Shen Long proxy and you'll be in business

[flindo]

I think the base crew Mei Feng has was fine in Wave 1 and its still fine, a lot of heavy hitting and very tanky.

[flindo]

Other than rail workers and kang are there any tt foundry models?

you can run up to 4 from arcanists, so you can run the rail golem, Metal gamin and WIllie in your Ten thunder lists

[EntrepeNinja]

I'm sure that that's the case- I'm not worried about a wave one list working in both 10t and arcanists. The question that I'm posing, (half talking out loud so I can get my thoughts down, and half asking a community who's played the 10t faction quite a bit more than me) is, "Is there something that 10t models brings to mei feng that can benefit her more than just some models that hand out fire and are constructs?"

 

I think the answer is yes, but let me elaborate.

 

C. Hoffman, Or "Choffman", (or "Chuck" as he's asked me to call him...) loves hims some robots too. He and Mei are a lot alike that way. He heals them, he buffs them, he rides them, so the obvious answer is, Surround Chuck with a bunch of metal friends and he's a happy camper. He's the happiest camper you'll ever meet. Is when is too many robots too many robots? There's... like... a graph I want to put here... Pretend there's graph that looks like it kinda goes up to a point and then plateaus.... That point where it plateaus is where you have too many constructs.

 

I can hear you saying it, "You can't have too many constructs!", which is mostly right, but after a certain point the constructs are really just good in their own right, and you can start to phase them out for other things that are good in their own right. 

 

So, the point of the thread was what are the things that are good enough in their own right that Mei Feng might say, 'you know... another metal gamin might be nice... but... damn that Monk of High River is lookin' pretty sweet.' Or, "You know, i love running missions with you Kang. You know you're my main squeeze. But Sensei Yu and I have been running some drills lately, and I think his ability to focus the men up might be more important that the fearlessness that you impart."

 

 

 

With that in mind:

 

Ten Thunders Crew - 50 - Scrap

 

Mei Feng -- 7 Pool

 +Seismic Claws [1]

 +Thunderous Smash [1]

 

Kamaitachi [4]

Komainu [5]

Komainu [5]

Metal Gamin [4]

Metal Gamin [4]

Monk of High River [6]

Monk of High River [6]

Toshiro The Daimyo [9]

 +Command the Graves [1]

 

You've got Komainu and Metal Gamin to be set up in flanks- The komainu live near Toshiro, the gamin stay back a bit, so give mei some retreat points, and hold down the friendly fort. Toshiro and the Komainu go a little more front line. Toshiro uses corpses to create Ahigaru- no real synergy, but more models is more models, and scrap to create more Komainu- or resummon the ones that have fallen. He can also turn fallen Metal Gamin into Komainu so their loss is less felt. The Komainu, as stated earlier get their +book from being near an ancestor, and there for have auto slow or auto burning. They also have Spiritual guardian, or as I like to call it "Scent of Magic", which lets them take a 1ap attack when a model within six makes a ca action.

 

Kamaitachi doesn't get to use any of his cool upgrade in/out tricks, but he's got a ca7 way to put burning on a target Mei wants to light up, is able to give mei, or a jump point in komainu or the metal gamin, a bit of a push with it's 0 action- so he can help both offensively as well as defensively.  

 

The monks of high river are a more direct aid to burning- they have great speed at 5 walk, and a 0 action push which makes them effectively 12 walk- with a 2" push they can get out of engagement easily. Their meleee attack can give burning, as well as disengaging strikes, so tying up enemies makes burning a near guarentee. The 2" push can get them into a closer charge range, giving them an 8" charge range (out of engagement), and discarding a card makes them take three attacks as well! At combat six, we can only hope they'll land at least one burning fist. They're a little bit squishy at 6 wounds, but if the enemy is getting tied up with them, they're not stopping the freight train that is mei feng's activation. Which with most of the models on the table putting out burning is going to hurt.

 

 

This list puts a lot of different types of models with a lot of different types of roles on the table without spreading itself too thing (I believe). It has some lateral summoning (in both scrap and corpse counters can turn into new models), gives mei some ways to hop around, and when a model dies it turns to scrap. Is still a leap point, and can turn back into a construct. The opponent will have to thing hard about diverting resources to stop the summoning, stop the jump points, or stop the burning distribution- and as all the models are quite mobile (even the mostly dead toshiro is a quick 5 wlk) with 0 action pushes or relatively high walks which makes scheme markers a bit easier to accomplish with models outside of the general engagement. 

 

Seems a little more interesting than, "Oh, I guess 3 rail workers, and some metal gamin. Maybe a rail golem, I guesssssss".

 

There's absolutely a place for that list too. I'm just hunting for the interesting combos. The reason that Mei may call herself a 10 thunders master. It's in the cards somewhere. I want to find it.

 

ENinja

[rythos42]

I haven't played her as anything but Arcanists, but you have me intrigued! Very interested to see this on the table.

[Da Git]

I had 40SS game tonight using Mei as 10T against Arcanists.  Ran the following list:

 

8 Rail Crew  40

1 Mei Fang 3  

   Seismic claws 1

   Recalled Training 1

1 Kaimatachi 4

1 Toshiro, the Daimyo  9

   Command the Graves 1

1 Willie 6

2 Komainu 10

2 Tengu 8

 

The game was possibly one of the most fun games for me.  Mei was awesome!  Seismic claws pushing people into hazardous terrain & then killing them with the follow up kick!  When Wave 3 comes out, I think Wings of Wind will be almost auto for Mei as she doesn't have a (0) action to compete with the (o) push (which is really good in itself) & being able to push at the end of the turn just adds to her already impressive pushing repetoir.
The Kaimatachi was gold too.  Even though Mei never needed to discard Recalled training it was there & being a signifigant minion being able to push people (including itself) is really good.  All I actually used it for was its impressive speed, its pushes & being able to place a Stake a Claim marker.  All of which it shone at!

Toshiro & the Dogs (there's a '60's band name for you!)  performs well as always.  These are becoming some of my favourites!

Willie was in there mostly for fun (Everyone loves a good Willie!)

The Tengu, did what they do... I needed them for the Strat & Schemes, which they are undeniably brilliant at! 

 

Another good Synergy piece would be the Dawn Serpant.  He's a minion, so Toshiro can give him Fast & the Kaimatachi can push him & he's breath attack gives out Burning which goes nicely for Mei to claw.  One to think about for a 50SS game...

Such a fun game!  I'd deffinately reccommend for people to break out of the "theme" list... Theres so much for Mei in 10T!

[EntrepeNinja]

(I think when I edited in the second part of my post, it just did a second post... >.<

[EntrepeNinja]

Yay! Look out there! On the horizon! Do you see it? Hope! Triumph! Punches!

 

Dude, and Willie' blast has a book trigger that adds burning... with blasts. Push him with kamaitachi, then focus and shoot.

 

ENinja

[daemonkin]

Great to hear people are using Mei in 10t. I will be using her this way in m upcoming Irish GT if there are an odd number of entrants. Will post any results I have.

 

D.