Rusty Alyce in Shifting Loyalties?

[Mutter]

Hey,

we're about to embark on a Shifting Loyalties campaign soon, and so far I'm pretty undecided what hench(wo)man to field.

Been thinking about Rusty Alyce, she seems pretty versatile, and wouldn't mind getting Leveticus later on as the master.

Other alternative at the moment seems to be Taelor, but I'm sure what kind of crew I'd play with her.

 

Does anybody have any pointers, or comments/advice?

Thanks ...

[Phototoxin]

I asked this a little while ago, might be worth trying to dig it up?

[Kirby]

I am currently running Rusty Alyce as my campaign leader.  She's probably our best overall leader henchman due to a few things:

• High mobility - Walk 6 is as fast as we get
• High Survivability - Cannot be charged by anything with a 3" or less, Bullet Proof 1, adequate wounds to make soulstones keep her upright for a while, and access to double heals fro the Librarian (though this last part is all Outcasts)
• High Damage - 12" range Sh6 with 3/4/5 and Rapid Fire is fantastic.  2" melee with Ml6 and 2/3/8 is also fantastic.
• Summoning - I started with the Desolate Soul upgrade to summon off of kills with her gun.  Abominations like being up ahead in your opponent's crew being annoying little speedbumps.  From Aether is also very good, even moreso when you have Ashes & Dust (adds mobility) or the Instinctual campaign upgrade (only 5 scrip, 0ss add-on, lets you both drop a scrap marker and summon an Abomination each turn).

I started with a pretty standard Henchman Hardcore crew:

• Rusty Alyce - Desolate Soul
• Johanna
• Ronin
• Freikorps Librarian

This comes in at 31 scrip which lets you carry 3 scrip into Week 1 and start each game with a decent cache.

[Mutter]

I asked this a little while ago, might be worth trying to dig it up?

Yeah, found your topic - not sure why it didn't show up in the search I did.

My bad.

 

@Kirby: I like the sound of the Librarian, but don't have the von Schill crew. But I guess the healing ability is well worth it in the campaign.

How useful is the rest of the box if one doesn't really fancy playing von Schill?

[Kirby]

The Freikorps Librarian and the Trapper are both golden in any crew.  The Trapper lets you start influencing the game right from the beginning by either removing linchpin support models or cutting off lanes by threatening them.

The Specialist doesn't see as much use, but some people really like him with certain crews.  Sonnia Criid in particularly loves having him around.

The Freikorpsmenn are solid generalist models for 5ss.  They're nice in the campaign because you get a 5 scrip discount on your first hire each week which essentially makes them free hires.  They're decent at scheme running with Wk5 and Unimpeded, decently survivable with the Freikorps Suit, and decent in combat.  Their primary downside and reason for not being taken too often is because of their jack-of-all-trades nature.  For pure scheme running there are Void Wretches for 4ss, for a better gun there's the Trapper at 6ss, and for better melee and technically still having a gun there's the Ronin for 6ss.  None of that takes away from the Freikorspmenn, but Malifaux often rewards specialists more than generalists.

[Mutter]

Okay, I'll keep this in mind. Nut sure if I want get (another!) crew box just for one or two models.

Maybe I'll try the campaign without the librarian, I have ronin and convict gunslingers.

 

Anybody thought about Obedient Wretch and three Malifaux Rats in the campaign? Gets you lots more models and a ton of activations.

Seems pretty good to me ...

[Kirby]

If all you're after is the Librarian or Trapper then I probably wouldn't pick up the crew box.  That said, as far as your future Outcast play goes, Von Schill is a pretty great master.  He's like an amplified Freikorpsmenn in that he's a generalist: solid in melee, solid in shooting, and solidly survivable.  However, he also buffs nearby Freikorps models (Freikorpsmenn, Librarian, Trapper, Hannah, Lazarus, Anna Lovelace) and his totem, the Steam Trunk, is just plain great and is a cool little model.

He plays the Living Attrition game, helping his crew survive by giving out Hard to Kill (but not called HtK so it gets around things that ignore it), plenty of healing and condition removal, ripping his shirt off for more healing, condition removal, high defenses, and the ubiquitous Freikorps Suit for more armor and ignoring pulses/blasts.

I originally bought the box and sold off the non-Librarian/Trapper bits.  Now I'm in the market to buy another because Von Schill is a fantastic answer to things like Ressers and other attrition-based crews.

[Sancho of Rime]

If you don't wanna get the Liberian you could try for a malifaux child. Super cheap , another activation and could provide healing in a pinch.

 

[Kirby]

While the Malifaux Child is cheap, I don't think I'd recommend it for this format.  Its heal requires an 8+  and there isn't anything for it to copy until a master is introduced and even then it would need to be a master you'd want to take the Child to.  With the 5 scrip discount on new hires I think this current format favors multiple mid-range models as opposed to low-range ones.

[Mutter]

Well, I've read up on Von Schill and now I'm almost convinced I want (need?) his box anyway (like it always happens when I start to read stuff about masters I don't have yet), so I'll probably get my librarian.

 

Anybody have any input about that Wrench/Rat idea in Shifting Loyalties for getting more pieces on the board?

Edited September 17, 2015 by Mutter

[Adran]

I have a feeling that the Wretch/rat route ends up being hugely complicated in working out when you need to take a finishign off flip. Your rats will probbaby take fatal injuries fairly quickly. 

 

Mind you I've only just got my copy and am starting to work through the rules, I've not played a campaign yet. 

[Mutter]

Somewhere I read that you don't take finishing off flips if you sacrifice a model to summon something new ...

But then I don't know how that works when you then sacrifice THAT model.

 

[Adran]

If the model that you summoned by your sacrifice dies, then it takes a finishing off flip and applies it to the original model ( I think, I'm working through that section at the moment)

[asrian]

If the model that you summoned by your sacrifice dies, then it takes a finishing off flip and applies it to the original model ( I think, I'm working through that section at the moment)

That's correct Adran. Which means if you had 4 rats that turned into a Rat king...no flip. If the rat king dies or turns into a Rat Catcher then you flip for the original rats. Same is true for Leveticus. He summons a waif and sacrifices/buries. No flip. When he returns at the end of a turn, sacrificing the waif, he makes a flip (only one a game, but basically he'll be making a flip every single game). 

Edited September 17, 2015 by asrian

[Adran]

Surely Levi buries rather than Sacrifices, so he won't take the Finishing off flip until the end of the game If he is still buried.

 

And even if that wasn;t the case, its only if you kill the waif he first turned into, so he could happily pop out of either his 2 free waifs, or any others he summoned that weren't the first waif

Edited September 17, 2015 by Adran

[katadder]

levi wouldnt need flips unless he is buried at the end of the game as he doesnt die or sacrifice himself, he buries.

I assume the waif would need a flip as its sacrificed unless it was your freshly summoned one.

 

it only effects things like miranda, or rat kings etc for original models as they have to sacrifice to summon due to the rules of the game (fluffwise obviously they would actually turn into said newly summoned things instead)

[Kirby]

Now that'd be amusing.  Hollow Waif takes an injury due to being sacrificed to unbury Leveticus.  During injury, flip a Red Joker.  This applies a useless Near Miss to the Waif. 

[jonahmaul]

Yeah, Levi like Bete Noir, Bad Juju etc. specifically states he is not killed or sacrificed so no Finished Off flip.  I'm not sure if there would be at the end of the game as if you're Buried at the end of the game don't you just count as dead for VP purposes (not got rulebooks to hand so not sure if SL has anything specific to say about it?).

[Adran]

Shifting loyalties says models buried at the end of the game count as killed so need the finishing off flip. 

I hadn't though the waifs through, you hire 2 don't you (unlike the old rules where they just magically appeared when you deploy), so they need to be in your crew roster, so will take the finishing off flip if they are killed or sacrificed. 

 

[Kirby]

Yes, the first time a hired model is killed or sacrificed it needs to do a Finished Off flip.  The only way you can repeatedly bury and unbury without a risk is to only use the summoned Waif to come back with.

Hollow Waifs being peons means they can have up to 1 injury without being Annihilated.  But they're also 0ss and (I think) Rare 3.  So even if one gets Annihilated at some point through the week, it seems like during the next week's hiring point you can hire fresh ones at 0ss.

[jonahmaul]

Shifting loyalties says models buried at the end of the game count as killed so need the finishing off flip.

 

Thanks!

Yeah my thinking on Waifs is that you'd just re-hire them each week for them get finished off.  Still if you play Levi in a campaign you deserve some hurt ...