First Attempt with Ironside Crew

[Jesy Blue]

First attempt at Archanist, had to proxy in Ironsides as she doesn't exist yet; I used Bishop cause same thing, right?

50ss; Turf War; Standard Set-up; A Line in the Sand, Assassinate, Bodyguard, Vendetta, Plant Evidence.

COLD IRON
Ironsides (Iron Determination, Warding Runes, Recharge Soulstone), Essene of Power, Snow Storm (Warding Runes, Recharge Soulstone), Malifaux Raptor, Johana (Bleeding Edge Tech), Soulstone Miners x3.  

HURTS TO HELP
Pandora, Poltergeist, Baby Kade, Teddy, Candy,  3 Sorrows (I don't know her upgrades)


Pre-Fight:  Revealed Line in the Sand; she revealed nothing.  I Soul Stoned for more cards, loading up on low Tombs, 3 in my hand.  

ROUND 1:
Triple move Ironsides 12" just back and to the left of the Turf marker.
Pandora moves around the building on the right side.
Double move Snow Storm 12" back and to the right of the Turf marker.
Poltergeist moves up about 8" in front of the turf marker.
I bury the Raptor.
Teddy moves once, attempts to cast to put himself in base contact with Ironsides, can't get the casting off (i'm sad), moves again.  
Miner generates a soulstone.
Teddy is now blocking Baby Kade's line of sight to Ironsides, so he walks twice.
Miner generated a soulstone.
Sorrow moved up twice.
Full on soulstones so Miner moved up twice.
Sorrow moved up twice.
Johanna activated, walked forward a little, keeping in range.
Sorrow moved up twice.
Candy moved up twice.

UPKEEEP:  Raptor shows up on the left side of the table.

ROUND 2:
Raptor charges Baby Kade, wiffs twice.  
Sorrow charges the raptor, does 2 wounds.
Ironsides makes Baby Kade charge her, spend a soulstone for a mask, within range of Essence of power gives a positive flip, goes off, get charged, cheat a 4 of tombs, get hit for 1, hit back for 2, get Adrenaline, triggers it again on a Sarrow, repeat, cheat a 5 of tombs, get hit for 1, hit back for 2, get Adrenaline.  Then punches Sarrow, soulstone for Ravens, gets a positive flip, hits for 2, get Adrenaline.  Finally punches Baby Kade, soulstone for Ravens, get a positive flip (are you seeing the pattern here?), hits for 2, gets Adrenaline.  
Teddy, now not able to charge Ironsides because Baby Kade and Sarrow are both in the way, beats up the Raptor and kills it in one shot.  
Essence of Power give +1 Ca totals.
Sarrow moves twice towards Ironsides.
Snow Storm shoots Poltergeist twice, some damage.
Poltergeist attacks Snow Storm, some damage.
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Pandora moves towards a building, drops a sceme marker, does some magic thing that way to high for me to stop and now Snow Storm is Insignificant until the end of game or Pandora is killed.  
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Candy moves and wails at Ironside, takes some damage.
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Sarrow punches Ironside twice for some damage, each time I cheat down with a tomb to hit back and gain 2 more Adrenaline.
Johana heals all three Miners 2 points.

UPKEEP:  I gain 1 point for Turf War, she gains 1 point for turf war.  Ironside heals 1 point from Adrenaline.  

ROUND 3:
Ironsides activates, gains 4 Adrenaline due to enemies, takes 2 damage for the Sorrows,  spends a soulstone for a Ram, kills Baby Kade, both Ironsides and Snow Storm each gain a Soulstone (Recharge Soulstone  Upgrade), trigger uses 2 Adrenaline, moves 2 inches, uppercuts the Sorrow, spends a Soulstone for a positive hit, kills the Sarrow, built in trigger uses 2 Adrenaline, moves 2 inches, punches the other Sarrow, Spends a Soulstone for a Ram, kills the Sarrow, trigger uses 2 Adrenaline, moves 2 inches, Uppercuts the Poltergeist, does some damage, built in trigger uses 2 Adrenaline, stays where he is, punches the Poltergeist, spends a Soulstone for a Ram, flips the black joker to hit.  For Ironsides' second action point, she punches the Poltergeist and misses.  Third action point, hits and kills the Poltergeist finally.  Use the (0) action to lose all my Adrenaline and heal Ironsides to full.
Teddy uses gobble you up on Snow Storm, and gets into base combat, then flurry's on Snow Strom, triggering the push/follow action once to get Snow Storm away from Ironside and Essence of Power, with uses of soulstones to prevent damage only takes 6 wounds.  
Snow Storm swings at Teddy, still in range of Essence of Power, so spends a soulstone for a Raven, triggers double positive flip damage, gets sever, spent a Soulstone for a Mask, red joker flipped for damage, kills Teddy, trigger heals 5 points.  
Candy wails at Ironside twice for some damage.
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Pandora walk twice to an outcropping of trees, put down a Scheme Marker.  
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Sarrow moves twice, staying on the center line.  
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Johana heals all the Miners 3 points.
Essence of Power moves behind  Ironside so there is no line if sight from Candy.

UPKEEP:  I gain 1 point from Turf War.  

ROUND 4
Essence of Power gives +1Ca.
Candy Wails at Ironsides for some damage.  
Ironsides makes Candy charge her, does some damage.  Two more swings on Candy are met with lots of soulstones to not die.  
Pandora moves down the left side 3 times.
Snow Storm charges Candy and wiffs on all attacks.
Sarrow readjusts his location on the center line.  
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and generates a soulstone.
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and walks twice towards centerline.  
Johana walks twice towards centerline.  Reveal Johana is the Bodyguard target; in spite she reveals Candy is the Bodyguard.


UPKEEP:  0 Points for Turf War on both sides; 1 point each for Bodyguard.

ROUND 5
Essence of power gives +1Ca bonus.  
Candy wails twice on Ironsides for some damage.  
Snow Storm attacked Candy and killer her, gain 2 soulstones for killing a living model.
Pandora moves to rocky outcrop on the edge of the table, places a scheme marker .  
Ironsides put down a scheme marker on the center line.  Used (0) action to place Ironsides in base contact with Sorrow on the centerline.  Took both action points to kill the Sarrow.  
Miner, in range of Johana, heals one and put a sceme marker on the centerline.  
Johanna put a scheme marker down on the centerline.
Miner generates a soulstone.      
Miner generates a soulstone.  

UPKEEP:  I gain 1 point for Turf War; I gain 1 point for Bodyguard; I gain 1 points for Line in the Sand.  She gains 2 points from Plant Evidence.  

FINAL:  
Cold Iron crew 6 VP
Hurts to Help crew 4 VP

 

 

Comments, Concerns, Criticism, other words that begin with "C"?

[Sybarite]

You spent 18ss to just stand around and make soulstones all day? And 3ss to just stand around and boost cast? Dont you think it would be good to spend those 21ss on models to be more active abd do things on their own in the game? Was it worth it? Well obviously you won hmmm

Btw it is tomes not tombs.

[Sezar]

It would have only needed one Incite from Pandora, with Candy around, to have Ironsides paralyzed and then the whole crew would have fallen apart. Even easier with a Voices Upgrade on Pandora

Still, an interesting tactic

[brdparker]

I dunno, I've had this thought as well. Maybe not have three miners, but two at least would be fun. Consistent stones can 1) keep the cap and IS alive and 2) give them both their ever-useful Df triggers. With 6 Wds and regen, they can go where they need to T1 (within range of the heal), SS T's 2, 3, and 4 (total of 6 SS's if you took 2), and assuming they are still alive T5, scheme or attack with plus to attack and damage. Spaced well, they might be able to last that long. And I've definitely used Siphon SS on IS before to good effect (almost auto against Grem's).

 

Depends on who you're facing though. Not so great if you know they're going to have sniper models or fast hard-hitters to down your Miners. Might be something to consider for Reconnoiter. All-told, nicely done. Jesy

[Jesy Blue]

 And 3ss to just stand around and boost cast?

every time Ironside or Snow Storm spent a soulstone, they got a positive flip also since i had the Essence of Power within 5 inches; the boost to casting was icing.

 

i used 12 soulstones this game and could choose my triggers regardless of cards in my hands or flip luck, which kind of changes the whole game; at one point i was down to 0 soulstones, so i think 3 Miners might be good for me; i'll try 2 if i'm fighting more "Living" stuff because then the Recharge Soulstone would likely be more active.

 

my main issue is with my Henchmen.  Is Snow Storm the best combo with Ironsides?  i took her because i could use the large base to hide Essence of Power on the first 2 turns.  Snow Storms attack trigger heals if kills, making her self sufficient.  The other Henchman i wanted to try was The Captain as his wind action could move people to Ironsides before she activates for more Adrenaline, but he has no heal and a lot of his other triggers would move people away from Ironsides in error.   thoughts on a better Henchman to synergize with Ironsides and this tactic?

 

Also, thanks for the input everyone!

[The Godlyness]

I am confused at why Pandora wasn't it smashing ironsides with her CA :close attacks. Or killing snow storm I don't know. But I did like the factory you had going on.

[Ampers&nd]

really interesting to read, very different from the M&SU heavy lists I play Ironsides with (though yours seems more successful) the SS factory is a good idea, especially on Df flips, the boosts from the essence are also very clever. thanks for sharing it is definitely food for thought.   

 

As for henchman I have had the most success with Joss (because Joss?) once he's taken some damage (and I usually smack him with a Raptor or Mobile toolkit early on to nick a wound off) hand picked men makes him an absolute nightmare. The Captains movement shenanigans are very useful, especially when 3 Ca a turn, but with that upgrade he is 12 ss which is quite an investment as he is proper squishy compared to Joss, Snowstorm etc. Relic Hammers are great for the 3" range, but very situational so his melee attack isn't as useful as it could be. 

[MasterDisaster]

It would have only needed one Incite from Pandora, with Candy around, to have Ironsides paralyzed and then the whole crew would have fallen apart. Even easier with a Voices Upgrade on Pandora

Still, an interesting tactic

 

Not really given Johan / Johana can happily remove said Paralyze.

 

A very interesting little tactic used in the game but 18ss in models generating SS and Johana at 7ss just to fuel Ironsides seems very steep. Still... it got the job done! Gratz on your victory. I may have to try something similar one day. 

[Ampers&nd]

On reflection I do wonder why you took two sets of Warding Runes without the Oxford mage to optimise it? replacing a miner with a mage with Blood Ward would have given condition immunity, as well as it's own pretty useful toolkit? did you consider the mages at all?

[Sholto]

Very interesting crew, and a very useful write-up, thanks.

 

I might have to try this (having just finished painting a Snow Storm proxy!)

 

As a Snow Storm replacement Cassandra is always worth considering, esp with Plant Evidence and ALITS in the Scheme Pool (use the Raptor with Trap Doors off the Practised Production Upgrade to place 1 Scheme Marker anywhere on the board once a Turn from Turn 2 onwards). She would not be available to help generate SS, however. She can tank (Smoke and Mirrors and/or Imbued Protection) if you need her to, and with S&M and her pushes could tank and place Scheme Markers at the same time. She can also borrow Rebel Yell from Johanna and stone for the suit needed.

 

I would also consider Mech Rider, because she can tank from Turn 3 onwards, when IS might be flagging. The Rail Golem is worth a look, as well. Very survivable but incredibly hitty. He would directly compete for Tomes, though, and frankly having used him in a Hoffman crew I prefer him there.

[decker_cky]

If you're taking something to get sunk in with Ironsides, it doesn't get much better than Joss, since he benefits from hand-picked men on top of everything else he does. 

 

I think it's an overall interesting concept, but I think you went further than you had to. You used 12 soulstones, but spent 21 on soulstone generation (or did you have Johan and bleeding edge focused on healing/keeping alive the miners, in which case you spent 29!). You can start with 7, and 2 miners around bleeding edge will get you 10 more through the game. You can probably use two soulstone miners and have bleeding edge on Joss, along with recharge soulstone on Ironsides to get enough soulstones that you aren't worried. Then you can fit in a few mages to boost Joss and Ironsides.