Henchman Hardcore crew discussion and tactica

[Kadeton]

That leaves 1 SS for an upgrade and I honestly don't know what to spend it on.

Given how powerful healing is in the format, as well as potential other uses, Dampening Field seems like a decent choice. Expert Sleuth could also work for that one all-important Initiative flip.

[Tuttleboy]

I think I like Expert Sleuth on Ryle. Not that he needs another 0 action, but it would be nice for initiative for sure.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I tend to like the following list:

 

Valedictorian w/ Unnerving Aura

 

Yin w/ Unnerving Aura

 

Jakuuna Ubume w/ Unnerving Aura

 

Graveyard Spirit

 

 

Your entire crew save for the totem has Terror or Manipulative. Yin has a negative twist to duels that attack her and dmg flips against her. The Valedictorian has Armor and Hard to Wound. Jakuuna has Incorporeal. All have decentish to above average wounds, and any or multiples can have a boost of Armor from the Graveyard Spirit, and since the three main models all have larger bases its easier to hide the Graveyard Spirit from just getting destroyed.

 

Move in a block with all Auras overlapping and just by existing any model that wants to party potentially has to deal with a hazardous terrain flip, as well as three sources of 2 dmg each and every round in addition to the dmg the models themselves can dish out. 

 

Each and every model also brings fun things to the game. Yin can rebuff the opposing WP and CA duels making it much harder to attack your models, as well as locking down an enemy that might be a problem by preventing it from moving in with one of her abilities.

 

The Valedictorian has the potential to just shut off opposing triggers.

 

Jakuuna Ubume can also lock down movement, and has Lure to bring the model you most want in the overlap of your auras.

 

Graveyard Spirit makes the already AP intensive task of killing your models even harder by boosting one or multiple models armor by 2.

[jonahmaul]

Nekima fears given form

Killjoy

Alp

Alp.

Kill my own alp works just fine. Gets killjoy out. Kill joy then eats people. Sometimes if playing Arcanists might swap fears given form with retribution's eye on kill joy. Either way super killy not much thinking involved and hit like a truck.

I'd be tempted to not even start him Buried in HH.  With close deployment and Turf War encouraging people to head towards the middle just make sure he can't charge any of your things first turn and charge him forward.

 

Haven't played many games but had some fun with this list:

 

Fuhatsu (Armour +2, HtW and a (0) heal make him a git to assassinate and he also can't be moved anywhere)

Torakage

Torakage

Yamaziko with Recalled Training (she's good at holding down areas and anybody targetting her Wp will have a hard time)

 

Not sure on Yamaziko as I seem to spend a lot of SS keeping her alive and without a Master on the table she loses a lot of her usefulness.

[Tuttleboy]

I'm thinking of the following for Strategy & Schemes.

 

Turf War

 

Entourage

Take Prisoner

Assassinate

Make Them Suffer

 

Possibly dump Entourage and replace it with Cursed Object.

 

Thoughts?

[jonahmaul]

I don't think Entourage, Take Prisoner or Cursed Object work with HH.  The idea (to me) is short games focused on killing which none of these schemes encourage.  Entourage is particularly harsh as it requires you to move one of your miniatures away from the Turf War bubble.

[akaean]

Judge- Unrelenting Leader, Thalarian Stone

Exorcist

Death Marshal

Brutal Effigy

 

Unrelenting Leader competes with Lead Lined Coat, Armour +1 is nice, but ultimately Unrelenting Leader offers a bit more support as well.  Thalarian Stone because I can't take Vengence Bullet on the Exorcist, am a point short for Lead Coat,  and with Hard to Kill the discard for heal might really come in handy.  In other news, Fear not the Sword combines really well with Bullets and Blades, helping keep the Judge slashing and alive.

 

Exorcist provides ranged support, helps deal with Incorporeal, and can turn somebody undead for his own instant kill trigger, or Judge's Bound by Law.  

 

The Marshal is very powerful in Hardcore, as throwing a major threat into the box really helps take a ton of pressure off the rest of the crew.  

 

EDIT:  Make them suffer is a very good addition for some games.  It really adds a new element of trying to protect your minions.  Especially in more elite crews that only have one cheap minion.

[Zwergenkrieger]

I´d run

 

Hungering Darkness

Illuminated

Illunimated

Depleted

 

or change one Illuminated for a Doppelganger just to get some more tactical flexibility.

[entropolous]

I don't think Entourage, Take Prisoner or Cursed Object work with HH.  The idea (to me) is short games focused on killing which none of these schemes encourage.  Entourage is particularly harsh as it requires you to move one of your miniatures away from the Turf War bubble.

I think Bodyguard might be a decent replacement for Entourage.  It is the same type of scheme, but is a lot more manageable in a low model count turf war game.

I am also twisting around in my mind how well Frame for Murder would mesh with Make Them Suffer...

[Tuttleboy]

The problem with Bodyguard is that with 25 minute rounds there's a good chance that the game won't be long enough to score full points. When I played this the other night we didn't even have time to finish all of round 4. I don't think I'd take Bodygurard in a tournament of any kind.

[Ten11ths]

Is it just me (I'm not looking at the card but I believe it can be equipped to a Leader rather than just a Master) or is Misdirection insanely good in this format? Clumped melee is perfect to take advantage of the upgrade. 

[EntrepeNinja]

Misdirection is very good in this format- but I did play against a stall tactic crew which will nine times out of ten end in a tie- Kang with misdirection, a pair of low river monks, and an illuminated. Illuminated soaks damage, Low Rivers give defensive. Kang survives. (Live... liiiiiiiveeee).

 

It stayed alive like crazy, but it always has trouble putting out enough damage to deal with other survivability tricks.

 

ENinja

[Hateful Darkblack]

It seems like a lot of the best Hardcore Crews actually end up hiring one model in the 2-3 Soulstone range, just to satisfy the four model requirement while still allowing huge models.

 

This seems awesome to me. It means a very dynamic range of crews.

[EntrepeNinja]

See, that is why I'm for the choice between Make them Suffer and Assassinate for schemes- in one you want enough threats to kill a leader, while the other punishes not bringing at least one minion. However, if you don't make it past round 2-3 it can be very hard to make points off MtS.

 

Its also why I loooove the effigies in this format. 4 stones is still pretty cheap, and they're durable as hell, and usually bring some kind of trick along. For instance, I'd love to run:

 

Guild Crew - 20 - Shoot Out

 

Sidir Alchibal -- 4 Pool

 

Brutal Effigy [4]

Francisco Ortega [8]

 +Wade In [1]

Hunter [7]

 

Brutal is tough, allows Sidir some extra heals, and cards if he kills, Frank tanks, and cuts down big threats, Hunter either drags things into frank, away from Sidir, or pounce on chests. Two tough minions.

 

Eninja

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I have done well with

Judge

Franny

Nino

Stalker or effigy with franny getting wade in.

[Ten11ths]

I tried the following list yesterday with great success:

 

Toshiro the Daimyo 

-Misdirection

 

Punk Zombie

Punk Zombie

Wastrel

 

There isn't much that can stand up to fast punk zombies in this format...

[jonahmaul]

I ran Toshiro with two Punks to good success too.  Had a Belle as my third choice though.  I lost against a Candy led NB force though, thought I had the upper hand for a while but as soon as that little git is in the middle of the bubble you tend to keep Toshiro/Zombies in you're activating first and last so losing activations.taking wounds = ouch!  How did the Wastrel do?

[wizuriel]

What about something like:

 

Trixiebelle -- 5 Pool

 +A Gun for a Lady [1]

 +Stilts [1]

 

Pigapult [8]

Sammy LaCroix [7]

 +Dirty Cheater [1]

Stuffed Piglet [2]

 

Trixiebelle can push models away (except Gremlins) and Sammy can lock down their movement. Pigapult for 1 turn will do some good damage and the others it can still target 12" away not needing LOS 

[Dan34j]

I have really like playing the following :

 

Sebastian - Transfusion

Flesh Construct

Flesh Construct

Arcanist Performer

 

The flesh constructs can soak up a ton of damage pass out poison and be transfused. The performer can pull things out of turf war and expunge at the same time. Also with the close quarters if her lure causes a model to end in base to base it makes the person paralyzed. The other great thing is sebastian's 8'' cover bubble against shooting.

 

As a side note if I can pull in Mike Marshall and Cheated Fates Joe episode 11 of Before We Begin will be a discussion over this format and some different twists and tricks.

[EntrepeNinja]

@danissome1

 

I've seen that one first hand. Against you. At the FLGS. It was pretty friggin' brutal. What was worse was I was running guild so Sebastian's under cover bubble was a huge debilitating factor. I had some decent melee in Sidir and Frank, but Abuela was rightly shut down, and the Latigo Pistelero (while still giving out a  to defense) couldn't shoot for crap.

 

Then there was the priority issue- do I take down the performer so he can't sip o' wine? Do/can I take out sebastian to give me my shooters back? It was pretty solid and left me blinking for a bit.

 

ENinja

[Jeebus]

We played a lot over the summer. We played the same as OP. 20 minute limit. (summoning was allowed) 

 

My list was: Gremlins

Mancha Roja

Pere Ravage

Burt Jebsen

Gremlin Taxidermist

 

 

 

I was undefeated. (out of 5 or 6 games.)

 

First turn was always Taxidermist attack Pere and trigger for corpse counter. Summon a stuffed piglet. then Pere run forward to sit in the middle of the board and wait. (i know people dont like summoning, so im going to work out a list without the Tax-man) 

[Matney X]

It's not that we don't like summoning, it's that summoning tips the scales like crazy -- extra AP and stone value.

[Jeebus]

I'm thinkin Mancha, Pere, Lenny, Slop hauler is what I'm gonna try next. Sloppy lowers Df then Mancha and Lenny put the hurt on... Could be pretty not bad. I still like Pere in here with his I'll splode if ya get near me and you ain't even gonna like it...

[Matney X]

I ran Kang (w/ Blot the Sky and People's Champion (I took Tannen at 5SS, forgetting about the typo -- luckily, this upgrade didn't come into play AT ALL), Tannen, a Thunder Archer, and 10T Bro in a Henchman Softcore 3-player game (like Hardcore, but without the time limit, and 3 players).  Blot the Sky is EXCELLENT in this format -- an extra shot from the Archer? Why, thank you.

My Brother suffered the problem of not having a purpose from the start and he died as soon as he was within the Ortega's range (a shotgun blast from Abuela, followed by a finishing shot from either a Pistolero or Nino).

The Kang / Tannen bubble is key to this build, so I think I'm going to replace People's Champion and the Brother with a Performer to pull people out of their own protective bubbles and into my bubble of "You can't cheat, and if you're Undead or a Construct, Kang is going to straight murder you."  Plus Poison, and maybe -Df / -Wp.

[osoi]

I have been looking at what to take as an Arcanist for a while and while I initially thought Joss was the go to Henchman I'm leaning mroe towards the Captain with eth following crew

 

Captain

Howard

2x Metal Gamin

 

Captain has amazing control in position with his whoel suit of abilities and is no slouch when engaged as well, plus is slippery and semi durable.

Metal Gamin help keep themselves and Captain alive

Howard goes on the assassination run

 

Nothing is subtle but it controls every element of the game, I would love to get Patrons Blessing upgrade on Captain but need to look for something good at 10ss cost that can pull off the assassination.