2 beast crew questions

[docbungle]

So I have 2 marcus crew based questions.

1) how ofen do you go out of faction? With exception of Rogue Necromancy, hounds and Shikome. Not sure any other beasts offer anything above and beyond arcantist beasts.

2) what have people found with skinwalker for Myranda?

Cheers

[AnythingBut]

1) Im no expert Marcus player but there are a few more beasts to comsider from outside the faction.

 

The neverborn have a couple of excellent scheme runners, arguably better than the choices we have inside the Arcanists itself. 

 

Silurid - A decent defensive choice. camoflage gives neg flips if he hasnt activated yet and he has leap for amazing mobility if you need to get somewhere for the purpose of a scheme. 

 

Waldgeist - Maybe also worth a look if you want a tougher, harder to kill 'cheapish' beast for turf war and the like. He has armour and camoflage and his (0) action allows him to place two 50mm markers with the Ht5, severe and soft cover traits meaning he can give the rest of your crew some staying power against ranged opponents aswell as being naturally tough himself.

 

 

Dawn Serpent - You want some shooting? This is your guy. has a good ML attack which gives poison and has a ranged attack with hands out burning. Being 'hard to kill' and having a (0) action heal makes him alot tougher to bring down than his Df5, 10 wounds would suggest. He also has flying and movement 6 which makes him alot quicker than some of the other options which can put out the same amount of damage. 

 

 

Im a mainly Rasputina player myself but there is a great article written by DGRAZ pinned at the top of this forum which is where I got most of the knowledge ive used in my marcus games so far and would definitely recommend you give it a thorough read!  - http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/92826-m2e-marcus/

 

2) Ive never played Myranda with the skin walker upgrade but im sure DGRAZ talks about the pro's and cons in his article. 

[Adran]

I echo the above post, and would also add Gupps and on occasion Spawn mother.

Gupps have a similar mobility to a terror tot, and the old school (wave 1) approach of pairing a moleman with a silurid works just as well with a gupp (changes what you need to leap from a 5+ to a Mask), but saves you 3 stones

 

And if you're going leap heavy, then the spawn mother can be useful. Also in missions where you might want to add new troops in near the end.

 

Canine remains add other ways to create beasts, which can be useful.

I've not tried the pigs yet, but could see some uses for some of them, its just a case of balencing compared to the downsides they bring with no gremlins.

 

 

Skin walker is an upgrade I've just not seen get much use. If you have a plan for it, then it could be good, (Entourage on Myranda becomes very easy for example) but it isn't an all use upgrade.

[dgraz]

So I have 2 marcus crew based questions.

1) how ofen do you go out of faction? With exception of Rogue Necromancy, hounds and Shikome. Not sure any other beasts offer anything above and beyond arcantist beasts.

2) what have people found with skinwalker for Myranda?

Cheers

Wow. No offense, but I don't think you could be more wrong. You just need to try them out sir.....you're really missing out by not reaching for other beasts. I love the Arcanist beasts.....I always include some of them.......BoD, Cerberus, Myranda, Cojo, Rattler, Moles, Raptors....all top choices. What the Arcanist beasts do not have are cheap objective runners.........you could count the Molemen, but in my experience they can sometimes struggle to get past the center-line. Canine Remains, Guild Hounds, and Silurids don't have that problem.

 

The Canine is one of my favorites......4ss for a Significant Minion with Wk 6, H2W, a de-buff on your Df, and a gravy Trigger to reduce your Wp and make you a Beast......oh yeah. They have some Synergy (beyond the beast trigger) with the rest of the crew....they can Charge for (1) against poisoned models, and the RSR and Myranda both cause auto-poison on attacks. They're Ml 4 is pretty bad, but I like to run them as a pair with one Canine and one Guild Hound....the Canine has the resilience and the Hound hits better....together, they are both Significant....and the Canine can move up and drop a Scheme Marker allowing the Hound to charge for (1).

 

For Objective Running that needs to get done....like Power Ritual, Deliver Message....the Silurid is one of the best options in the game.......I couldn't tell you how many times just one of them has scored me at least 3VP. 

 

For lock-down/tanking, few things match the Waldgeist.......6ss for Armor +2, good Wds, and a 4" reach...with some seriously awesome triggers......taking two of them locks down a massive section of the table (I like to run Cojo with 2 'Geists for serious shutdown)...that's no interacting, charging, or shooting.....it's a real pain for the enemy. Really great in Turf War and Squatter's Rights.

 

I've used the Dawn Serpent, and it's an awesome piece.....I just haven't used it with Marcus yet (been dabbling in 10T).....but beasts generally lack range and the Serpent has that.....most beasts also have Ca actions, so I don't see why the Serpent couldn't Call the Chi to heal at least 3-4 points a turn.....and with H2K, that's boss.

 

I'm also looking forward to trying a Swampfiend list with Gupps, Silurids, and the Spawn Mother......I haven't used her yet, but she seems like a great support piece.....giving other models +2 Cg is pretty big for a bunch of melee models....and don't forget that Leap uses the Cg stat....so something like a Cerberus or BoD could have a massive - massive threat range. I think I'd really use her with something like Protect Territory or Outflank so she can drop Gupps that hatch toward the end of the game to be in position.

 

Marcus is an interesting guy.....he's the beast master, but if you really look at him he doesn't really do anything for the beasts themselves....except for possibly the Chaunt, Howl and Alpha....what he does is de-buff the enemy (which those things I just mentioned can also be used for) and provide a beat-stick or objective runner to cover any holes.........this allows the beasts he brings to do their jobs.....and most of the beasts are really designed for a specific job......that's Marcus' power, his strength......it's his ability to pick the right beast for the job....based on the Strat/schemes, terrain, and the possible enemy crew......so taking those out of faction beasts that can do a certain job is often the best way to go. It's also usually the trickiest part of playing him....knowing which beasts are good for what and picking them at the right time.

 

It's funny that you mentioned the Rogue and the Shikome.....as those are the two out of faction beasts that I use the least. The Rogue works better with Rezzers that can buff him and the Shikome works better with a crew that can dish out the Adversary condition.

 

I'm not a fan of Skinwalker. Myranda is a fantastic support model and I like to have her on the table doing that job right away.....if she was more a killer than a supporter then I would use it more probably. It's also something completely reliant on the opponent doing something...which I'm not a fan of......if they don't kill a model, she doesn't come out.

 

@Anythingbut......thanks for the shout-out, I wish I had time to go back into the Marcus thread and fill in the Wave 2 stuff....one of these days I will.

But until then, the Pull my Finger Wiki also has some good info on beasts....some of which I worked on, but several other people did some good articles there too.

[docbungle]

Cheers guys.

The NB beasts were ones I was sort of looking at just couldn't decide.

The hound and canine mix sounds good as well.

I do have a dawn serpent, so will check him out.

Think my biggest issue is knowing that he can take any beast makes head explode lol