Ten Thunders Tournament Master - Misaki or McCabe

[SurreyLee]

Okay, I'm playing in a fixed master tourney soon and while I could revert to never born, I'm 90% taking ten thunders as I'm enjoying the challenge. The issue I have is which of the above masters to take. I find in the time allowed we are generally getting 3 turns in. Maybe 4. I'm slightly ahead learning wise with Misaki but feel McCabe offers a faster crew thus potentially getting more bang for buck in a tourney setting.

What do my fellow 10t players think?

[Kadeton]

Take Misaki and encourage your opponents to play faster.

Personally I think Misaki is the better all-rounder. McCabe is fast, but Misaki is tough, elusive, a bit deadlier and less crew-dependent. If you know the strategies and schemes in advance, others might be able to offer more specific advice.

[zFiend]

I just went with Misaki in my league.

[EnternalVoid]

If it was me I would go McCabe.  He is really good at scoring with certain schemes and can score some of them in the first few turns pretty easily if your model collection is good.  I feel he is more flexible on what he can pull off with his crew while Misaki is more stand alone, something that I feel shows its strength more when you know the game will go the whole 5+ turns.

[Patzer]

What models do you got available for both masters?

[osoi]

I would go Misaki, she is generally a little quicker in playstyle too

[SurreyLee]

I have available.....outside their boxes that is......Toshiro, Yamaziko, Low River Monk, Archers, Samurai, Pathfinder and traps, Fuhatsu.

 

I know Kang is a staple against Ressers and Constructs, but is there anything else i really should be looking to take?

[Joel]

I would say, and indeed took myself, McCabe.

[Captain Sparks]

McCabe. I find that he's so much more flexible than Misaki and makes quite a few schemes easy with his upgrades.

[scarlett fever]

Looking at your model selection I would also vote McCabe.

As for additonal models I'd pick up a Dawn Serpent. It's a minion so you can reactivate/buff with Toshiro, it gives you another heavy beater and it sits well between a couple of Low River Monks(buffing its heal).

[SurreyLee]

Okay, having not run a Dawn Serpent coupled with struggling to see the real benefit of the Low River Monks, how do they buff the heal of the Serpent?

 

Thanks in advance chaps. Also while see McCabe is faster around the table, can anyone advise why he is better?

[EnternalVoid]

I like McCabe when I am worried about the game not going to Round 5, more so when I might only get 3 rounds in.  While you can speed up your own activations to try and save time there is a limit to how you can shave off and you can never be sure with your opponents.  A prime example was some of our local tournaments right after M2E came out we ended alot on turn 3 due to time, but since then that has improved.  While when I went to Adepticon I did not have a game that ended earily due to time *even had a 7 and 8 turn game*.  But in those ones that I knew were not likely going to go the past 3-4 rounds you need to be able to Score confidently on turn 2.

 

For me that is McCabe.  With the right models you can really make it hard to stop certain schemes.  Line in the Sand, Delivery the Message, Plan Explosives, Power Ritual, Plant Evidence, Protect Territory, even Breakthrough.  He is also not bad at Entourage, Vendetta, and Frame for Murder as he can really give his models a boost to get them where they need to, some extra wounds, or some extra killing power.  Generally with 3-4 round games you are not likely to prevent Strategy victory points easily so it often comes down to Schemes and who can score both of their full VP with them.  That is why McCabe would be my man over Misaski, because I know he can be pure gold in plenty of schemes and have them done Turn 2, possible Turn 1.  It is not about what he can kill but what he can get accomplished.

[decker_cky]

They all boost each others' heals by having 0 Ca actions. I imagine the dawn serpent is pretty resilient with counterspell and condition removal added to that equation.

[SurreyLee]

I did think that with McCabe and the limited turns although i find him more of a thoughtful master thus slowing the game down a little bit. Misaki can be a lot quicker around the board than imagined though. Even if she gets into a combat, she has a lot of free moves and pushes that i would expect she could get anywhere on the board within 2 turns and the simplicity of her playstyle should speed things up a little and be slightly less card intensive than McCabe. 

 

That said, i've only played McCabe once and found him a little confusing. Maybe i should give him a bit more time.

 

Great on the Dawn Serpent but trying to stick to models i have available.

[scarlett fever]

The key with McCabe is to get your head around the way he uses his upgrades (both from himself and passing to others) and how to keep his upgraded models within his control bubble whilst getting what you want done.

 

I'd suggest putting him on a table with some models and just playing a few dummy hands to get a feel for the order you should activating models and where/when you should be handing out upgrades. Eg; Fuhatsu starts the turn with Badge of Speed, he nimbles, fires, McCabe activates, takes back badge, puts reactivate on the archers, passes Badge of Speed to an archer, it nimbles, rapid fires then reactivates, rapid fires and nimbles back into position, all from one upgrade.

 

He does take a little more time than Misaki on the board but once you have your head around this stuff he'll play quicker.

[SurreyLee]

Okay, so for example, fuhatsu starts the turn with badge but not starts the game, right? As the upgrade is restricted to McCabe so assume he must start the game with it?

It then also means fuhatsu won't have it turn 2 as you've given it to the archer......

Is that right?

[EnternalVoid]

Not exactly.  Badge of Speed gives Nimble to someone other than McCabe, the extra AP for the Walk action is generated at the start of the models activation.  So if Fuhatsu has it at the start of turn 2 because McCabe gave it to him, you activate Fuhatsu, have him do his turn.  Next activate McCabe, take the Upgrade back, use the upgrade to give the Archer Reactivation from Black Flash, then use your (0) action to toss said upgrade to the Archer.  So Fuhatsu got to use it turn 2 and then it went over to the archer.  His example was not Turn 1 but what to do on Turn 2.

 

Here is a pretty common set up for me when I am playing McCabe;

I tend to have 8+ models unless it is Reckoning *even then I might*.  I indentify what action I really want completed first turn.  It might be flipping two Squatter's right markers, laying down 2-3 scheme markers for line in the sand, setting up for Delivery the Message, starting my attack run on Vendetta, dropping a Claim Marker, or doing a long distance assassination attempt on a model *99% of the time a Non Master model, generally someone like a December Acoyte, nino, or something*.  To put my opponent on the defensive/force them to be reactive from Turn 1 I like to snag the momentum early.  At that point I identify which model is going to reactivate and need what upgrades.

 

I then use my activations for the rest of my crew to get alot of my opponents activations out of the way, so that he is less likely to interrupt my actions or able to counterattack.  When it is time I have McCabe activate, generally cast Black Flash here, use his (0) action to pass the badge, get the trigger if I need to throw a second upgrade, and then move McCabe into a position so that the model that has his upgrades will be with in 10" of him when everything is said and done.  By this point my opponent generally is running out of activations unless they took the Outcast Malifaux Rat trick for activation, are a horde of Bayou gremlins, or a horde of spiders.  When the go to model activates it has already had one 4" push from when it got the badge and often a second 4" push from the second upgrade.  Add this to Nimble and it is not unheard of to have a model 12-15" up the board already.  Then it gets the rest of its turn.  Then it reactives to finish what it started.

 

A prime example of this was a game against Hans.  I knew he was planning to blow my upgrades off when I tossed them around but he only had 8 models while I had 10 thanks to some Guild Hounds.  So I was able to keep from tossing any upgrade till after Hans activated.  In the end I pushed an Austringer I brought forward 8", had given it reactivation and it had the Badge for Nimble, so it could Focus and shoot at Hans in the back.  Then on its reactivation I focused and shot again to kill him before retreating back with Nimble a little.  Suddenly my opponent's plans were forced to change as he had lost a high SS model, had lost a tactical tool, and he felt like I was already starting to corner him from the very first turn.

[HowNot2Wargame]

Never wanted to play mc cabe before this thread.... Damm you!

[zFiend]

Never wanted to play mc cabe before this thread.... Damm you!

McCabe seems really interesting! I had zero interest on playing him til a while back I heard similar things.. Now he is on his way to my collection.

[SurreyLee]

I don't work for Wyrd, honest....8)

 

It's given me a lot of food for thought ahead of upcoming tourney though so thanks all. very helpful.