Marcus Crew in Henchman led games

[Sandals]

Hey guys,

 

I'm at my second Malifaux event on Sunday, and as part of the event there are two 35SS Henchman led games. I've not played at this level before, being fairly new to M2E, and I have only collected a Marcus crew so far. I play Malifaux as a second gaming system (being primarily a WFB player) and have stuck rigidly to the fluff so far - my Marcus crew has nothing in it that isn't a Beast. I originally thought that this wouldn't be a problem, as I had plenty of Beasts to choose from, but I've now realized that without Marcus to lead the crew I'll be stuck to just Arcanist Beasts.

 

So, here's the question:

 

If you were running a 35SS crew led by Myranda, and could only choose Arcanist Beasts, what would you choose?

 

 

I know what the Strategies are going to be, but won't know the Schemes till the day. The first game will be Stake a Claim using standard deployment, the second will be Turf War with close deployment.

 

I know certain things will be better at certain schemes, but with such a limited model choice I was hoping for some generic advice!

[sssk]

I've only played a few games with Myranda leading the crew, but she seems extremely strong for it (as you effectively get a free Cerberus, which is a big swing at low as games). Personally I haven't used non-arcanist beasts for ages. My impulse would be a list of Cerberus, 2 Razorspines, 2 molemen, and something else to fill in points.

That gives plenty of survivability (for turf war), plenty of speed (for stake a claim), and plenty of Cerberuses (for "because I can").

From wave 2 you might want to consider a blessed of December, or maybe the big bear for stake a claim. Perhaps consider Cojo.

Just remember that Myranda will turn into whatever you're missing.

Good luck and enjoy

[decker_cky]

Razorspines are all around gold if you have a few. Molemen are great for objectives. Hoarcat prides are surprisingly tough and hard hitting, though a bit slow. Then you have cerberus and blessed, both of which are solid hard hitters (more resilience on the blessed, more hittiness on the cerberus). Myranda can fill a hole - most likely Cojo or a Cerberus. 

 

There's a decent selection of beasts that are all at least fairly good now so it isn't that much of a handicap. Just remember, a lot of henchmen led lists depend on the henchman to do the heavy lifting, and Myranda can't do that. But you have a lot of solid choices (and Myranda boosting rattlers defence flips makes them into an extremely hard gathering).