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Advice for a Guild McCabe newbe?


Zwergenkrieger

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I'm going to keep trying him, but it's very different from what I'm used to.

 

I know what you mean. Perdita, Sonnia and Lady J tend to be fairly aggressive Masters. Although McCabe can do this it's not his only focal point and certainly not his strength. You need to learn how to adapt McCabe to the specific requirements at hand. Personally I let McCabe support his crew so they can do the heavy lifting until they are done with their job or dead then McCabe pulls the weight. Passing upgrades, pushing his crew, buffing, healing and handing out slow is what McCabe does best in my opinion although his offense is fairly badass it's no wise to throw him out there right away. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok, two more games with McCabe under my belt and I think I'm in love.

 

First was against Guild in Reckoning.  I picked Cursed Object and Plant Explosives.  I had Lucas, Sidir, Luna, 2 Hounds, 2 Wastrels and a Peacekeeper.  I went up against Perdita, Francisco, Santiago, Brutal Effigy, Abuela and 3 Pistoleros.  Tossing upgrades to Peacekeeper and Sidir to get them moving up, along with bonuses from Badge of Speed or Elixir of Life's unimpeded aura.  Once they got to midfield, they went to town on the aura-dependent Ortegas.  Peacey harpooned Abuela and dragged her to her doom, a Guild Hound with reactivate managed to give 3 enemies Cursed Object after making a 1 AP charge on scheming enemies and reactivating from Black Flash.  Peacekeeper again used his free push and nimble to plant explosives within range of 3 enemies.  It was awesome!

 

I played the same crew today against Seamus and Co.  Strategy was Squatter's Rights, Schemes were Assassinate, Bodyguard, Line in the Sand, Make Them Suffer and Vendetta.  The Peacekeeper with pushes and Elixir of Life got 3 from Bodyguard really easily.  A Wastrel with a rather dapper hat had a score to settle with a Rotten Belle, and with some help from the Glowing Saber he cut her to ribbons for another 3 VP.  I lost out on Squatter's because I lost too many minions to get replaced with Belles.  I gambled on Lucas when he got dismounted turn 6, sacrificing him to pick up another point for Squatter's.  However, my opponent picked Assassinate and we ended up tying 9-9.

 

I'm really enjoying this McCabe game.  He has a lot of control over his crew's mobility and can turn them into damage soaks, killing machines or track stars.  The main things I'm noticing that I need to work on are proper item distribution and hand management, as I find myself down 2 cards quickly to get off Black Flash and 2 castings of Take This.  In addition, I feel like I really need to run Hounds with Luna and after Wastrels I don't have a ton of stones left for my crew.  Will keep playing.

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Using Luna and attendant Hounds depends entirely upon the strat/scheme pool for me. I've also started cheating/using stones a bit less for From The Stash, as although the extra movement is fantastic, you just can't afford to keep it up and still be able to support the rest of your crew with Fate cards very well, especially if you want that Black Flash every turn too (and who doesn't?). It's absolutely delicious getting more stones from McCabe's Glowing Sabre and Loot ability, and cycling cards from the Wastrel's Bravado but you certainly can't rely on them.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I have played a lot of Lucas lately and he really excels at schemes that can score early (plant explosives, deliver a message etc as opposed to bodyguard or entourage).

I have had my opponent concede at the end of turn two/beginning of turn three every game as at the end of turn one I have between 3-6 vp and turn two and three Lucas and Sidir hand out the massive amounts of slow and/or kill something very important to their crew (I almost feel bad...almost XD). In short: the Luna bomb is amazing, focus on the right schemes, don't care about killing anything unless you absolutely have too and try to take enough models to out activate your opponent so the luna bomb can go off reliably. My 2 cents on the subject.

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I'm guessing it's a nimble, reactivated Luna who (with walk 7) can be inside anyone on the board's grill with AP left over to cursed object, place scheme markers for Plant Explosive, or deliver the message.

 

But that's just what I gathered from the Previous Poster. I'm interested in your answer as well. :P

 

ENinja

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Sorry my bad.

ENinja basically nailed it!

Activate Lucas second to last use, cast reactivate on Luna from the badge of speed then use his zero with tome trigger(stone or card for suit) to push her 8" give her nimble and any other upgrade you want. If you have out activated you opponent (not essential but useful) Luna can then get two activations starting 8" from your deployment with nimble and that 7" walk. Then you can usually score 3 VP for plant explosives and maybe hand someone a cursed object or deliver a message etc. Even when you know it's coming it's really hard to play around due to Luna's range not to mention the mass of cheap minions that can be sacrificial scheme runners too.

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Sorry my bad.

ENinja basically nailed it!

Activate Lucas second to last use, cast reactivate on Luna from the badge of speed then use his zero with tome trigger(stone or card for suit) to push her 8" give her nimble and any other upgrade you want. If you have out activated you opponent (not essential but useful) Luna can then get two activations starting 8" from your deployment with nimble and that 7" walk. Then you can usually score 3 VP for plant explosives and maybe hand someone a cursed object or deliver a message etc. Even when you know it's coming it's really hard to play around due to Luna's range not to mention the mass of cheap minions that can be sacrificial scheme runners too.

You know this works better with a Guild hound as the target right? It is allowed to companion itself (check the FAQ), so do both activations in a row at anypoint during the turn.

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As I said it's not essential to out activate but knowing where all the opposing models will be is useful, they have no chance to remove schemes and/or kill luna plus turn 2 onwards Lucas and Sidir focus on giving out mass slow. It adds to the make them concede plan:

 

" you have how many more models to activate? My team all has slow.. you already have 3-4vp... I concede"

That is usually how the sentence goes. maybe with a F**king McCabe added in for good measure.

 

Also helps that all the models are fantastic in the 3-5 ss range 

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Still tempted to do it with the hound as luna with warning bark and pack leader to me (with my limited knowledge mind) seems to important to keep. I know I lose 4-6" in movement, but I can just do it again next turn with another hound.

Should be fine with a hound but as of yet Luna hasn't died for me as I have used the last ap to move out of sight or into cover but fortune favours the bold! Either way post how it goes with the hound, will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Edit:

In chess terms I see Luna as the queen she is not to be thrown away needlessy but you do want to use her offensively, this is why out activating is huge imo.

Also I'm willing to stone turn two for initiative, then either Luna pulls back or thanks to her no randomized in shooting and positives to Lucas' net gun the mass slow is much easier.

Either way for a 4ss model after scheme placement and helping slow maybe 2/3 models she has more than made up her cost by that point so if they waste what few AP they have left killing her instead of playing for strat or scheme all the better.

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Don't forget if the hound starts the first activation near Luna and/or a Guild Sergeant it gets a bonus to its walk for the turn. You can speed them up that way.

Excellent point also if the opponent has placed a scheme marker and is near it, you could get even farther for 1ap by charging and then still deliver a message or curse etc. I do like the idea now of on turn two loaning back the upgrades off Luna and putting them on a hound.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh wise ones:

 

I might be able to get me some McCabe in form of a box without the Wastrels. So my question is: In a Guild McCabe crew, do you miss the Wastrels when they are not there? And if so: what do they bring to the table other Guild minions can't?

I would not miss them too much. They are cheap and quite good at shooting stuff. I would never use them without McCabe so they aren't exactly great.
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Oh wise ones:

 

I might be able to get me some McCabe in form of a box without the Wastrels. So my question is: In a Guild McCabe crew, do you miss the Wastrels when they are not there? And if so: what do they bring to the table other Guild minions can't?

 

They are very good little 4ss minions but they certainly aren't required. You'll be fine with Death Marshalls, Stalkers, Wardens etc. They can be suprisingly survivable with Swagger and the card cycling with Bravado is also really nice too. 

 

 

I would not miss them too much. They are cheap and quite good at shooting stuff. I would never use them without McCabe so they aren't exactly great.

 

 

I can see myself trying them with Lucius when I get him built. Having them use their gun with their Focus +1 trigger then have Lucius force an extra shot or two out of them could be pretty good

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I can see myself trying them with Lucius when I get him built. Having them use their gun with their Focus +1 trigger then have Lucius force an extra shot or two out of them could be pretty good

I considered using them with Lucius, but then I realized that spending his ap to have Wastrels get some extra shots is not very good use of ap.
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