Tara, Leviticus, and Hamelin - Shared Models?

[Tzarcastic]

As a new player heavily drawn to (1) odious combo-based rules-breaking, and (2) my budget, I'm considering the Outcasts (especially the Masters mentioned in the Topic, obviously), but I have a question.  All of them, of course, have a stable of models they summon or are otherwise indelibly attached to.  But beyond that, do they have any real similarities among their support pieces?

 

How workable would it be to get 2-4 boxes and those masters' Crew Boxes (possibly neglecting Hamelin for a bit, to see if he gets announced in plastic any time soon) and make an assortment of playable lists from there?

[SpiralngCadavr]

Tara and Leveticus share a lot, since Tara's dual faction and karina can summon horrors, while leveticus is able to field all horrors under one upgrade and the Students under either. Tara runs okay with Leveticus's set, too.

 

Everyone can run Hamelin's rat swarm for activation tricks and void wretches are similarly pretty strong scheme runners, but other than that there's not a lot of additional overlap with the other two. The Nothing Beast is pretty hard to run outside Tara's set, but the rest of models are possible (if not optimal) in any crew IMHO.

 

Tara and Leveticus, I'd probably start with Autopsies (mostly for tara though leveticus can use some cheap range), Punk Zombies or Transmortis (tara summons them well, and they can do a decent job with leveticus), Desolation Engine (for Leveticus mostly), and the core Friekorps box adds a lot of strong outcast options regardless if you can push a little more, otherwise maybe an old metal trapper and/or librarian are both nice options there. Or, any of the bigger heavy-hitters. Can't speak to Hamelin, since I don't know him well or know what his box would bring.

[Ausplosions]

Also Hamelin doesn't have a current box set yet.

[SpectreEliteGaming]

You've mistaken. The answer here is Freikorps, lol.

Freikorps is the Frank's Red Hotsauce of Malifaux - you can put that sh*t in anything.

[Hateful Darkblack]

I have seen people be very successful with Ashes and Dust with Tara, with Jack Daw, and with Leveticus.

 

But if you're worried about budget, be very careful with Leveticus.

[Kadeton]

But if you're worried about budget, be very careful with Leveticus.

So much this. If you struggle with impulse control, avoid Leveticus or you will buy ALL the things.

If you want to start with Levy and Tara, I'd recommend adding Killjoy, Hans and something else you like the look of - Bishop, Hannah, a box of Punk Zombies, Transmortis or the Freikorps are all good options to have available for both Masters.

I recommend Killjoy and Hans in particular because Tara has all sorts of horrible shenanigans with them, they work well with Levy, and Hamelin (for your future expansion) absolutely loves them both.

[SpectreEliteGaming]

The problem is once you buy a Freikorps box you're going to realize you need another one then you are going to wonder what the hell you are going to do with a spare Schill ( shirt comes off conversion!) and stupidly huge steambox (er... stash marker? at least you can actually put it on a 50mm for that one lol).

[jonahmaul]

The problem is once you buy a Freikorps box you're going to realize you need another one then you are going to wonder what the hell you are going to do with a spare Schill ( shirt comes off conversion!) and stupidly huge steambox (er... stash marker? at least you can actually put it on a 50mm for that one lol).

Second Steam Trunk's aren't difficult to sell on.  There's a lot of us with the old metal Freikorps box who don't want to buy plastic versions of pretty much the exact same models just for the Steam Trunk.

[Kadeton]

The problem is once you buy a Freikorps box you're going to realize you need another one then you are going to wonder what the hell you are going to do with a spare Schill ( shirt comes off conversion!) and stupidly huge steambox (er... stash marker? at least you can actually put it on a 50mm for that one lol).

What do you actually need from a second Freikorps box? The only things I ever use more than one of are Trappers. A second Librarian could see the table occasionally, but everything else in the second box is wasted.

I'd definitely be in the market for someone's spare Luggage, though.

[lusciousmccabe]

The thing about Hamelin is that he can summon all but 12 stones worth of his thematic models and doesn't care much about synergy otherwise, so you can usually make up a lot of his lists with generic good stuff. He also doesn't have the whole undead hiring angle the other two have apart from Crooligans and Canine and his other out of faction stuff is kind of awkward to get if you don't happen to play Neverborn.

 

You're probably best off focusing on the other two for now as you said. Hamelin's crew box when it comes out will probably have most if not all of his thematic models and you'll probably have amassed enough generic outcast enforcers and minions to run him quite happily by then. 

[Tzarcastic]

There's a lot of great stuff in this thread - thanks, everyone, it's very helpful!  I've certainly learned that I need to try a proxy and/or demo game as both Tara and Leveticus, since that sounds like a pretty plausible way to get started!

 

I'm not so sure about Von Schill, though.  He's less up my alley.  "I really want rules-warping schenanigans, so much so that the faction playing host to Colette herself isn't quite enough... oh, I know, I'll use the Friekorps!"

[Arash_Suri]

Even if you dislike Von Schill himself, the box has a lot of really useful stuff. I would say 90% of my lists have either the trapper or the librarian, in fact I think I used the trapper in every single one of my adepticon lists. The specialist is also useful if you know you are going to be facing ressers. The fact that you get a master on top of that is really just icing on the cake. 

 

Additionally, I like running the more tricksy masters, and thought that Von Schill wasn't going to do that for me. But I've actually found that I really love using him and his crew, usually end up running him at least once a tournament. He is a super solid counter to most Neverborn lists. 

 

Kadeton's advice is very solid. 

[AverageGatsby]

Tara and Levi can both make good use out of the desolation engine, but I'm probably the only person on earth who actually hires the thing rather than hoping for the off chance that it gets summoned. When you figure it drops 8pts worth of models when it dies, and can (with the right coaxing) fly up the field turn one and start smashing things, I really like hiring it for Tara. 

[moxypoo]

Tara and Levi can both make good use out of the desolation engine, but I'm probably the only person on earth who actually hires the thing rather than hoping for the off chance that it gets summoned. When you figure it drops 8pts worth of models when it dies, and can (with the right coaxing) fly up the field turn one and start smashing things, I really like hiring it for Tara. 

 

Completely agree. I've always been of the mentality that hiring the Desolation Engine is much better than trying to summon one (the real threat is RE-summoning it), since it essentially costs only 5SS. Both Tara and Leveticus like the DE for different reasons; Tara can transport it around easily and give it fast to ensure that it gets the maximum number of attacks, rather than "wasting" AP on walking, while Leveticus can use it and the Abominations it turns into as resources to fuel his attrition war (plus he can re-summon it!)

 

I've never tried it with Hamelin, but the DE does like getting extra attacks and heals from Obey.  Hamelin can also pull enemy models closer to the DE to maximize the number of hits it gets.  Might be worth a try!