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Advice with Francisco


CiDevant

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I feel like I'm not playing him right.  

I always take Wade In and it never has an impact.  Hard to Kill has never mattered in any significant way and with only DF5, WP6, and WD8 wds he goes down fast even using stones to prevent damage and a (0) healing flip.  I also find keeping a model within 2" of him to give El Mayor becomes extremely hard after turn 1 or 2 without seriously limiting him or another model.  How do I keep him alive, or how do I best utilize him knowing he's most certainly going to be dead before turn 4 is over.  His movement and offense still more than makes him an auto include in any of my lists though.  I'd just like to get more out of him.  Giving him Lead Lined Coat takes him from pretty expensive to very expensive.  At that point I should just be taking something else. As it stands I basically need a bodyguard for my bodyguard.

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Unless it's turf war against an inexperienced opponent you can probably get ready to use him as a model Or a buff, not both.

I usually try to use him for el mayor turns 1 and 2 while dragging along the master (Sonnia) and then activate him really late t2 and send him on a search and destroy mission and forget about el mayor.

Sometimes you might be able to park a minion or something close enough for him to buff it before he charges t2 so that model has the buff during the end of t2 and a little bit for t3 but Franc himaelf is usually in for a proper beating and needs to go first t3 so why bother really.

Honourable mention goes to McCabe who can usually push him into a perfect spot before he activates to keep the buff up longer. 

If you want the buff you need to lure/push to engineer situations where he is in the right place. You can also charge a big target with Francisco and the model you want to buff, that should ensure he has someone close to buff next turn (if he is alive). 

I'd consider it an unexpected luxury to have him alive as long as t4 since he should be priority 1/2 on your opponents kill list (and since he usually buffs the prio 1 target he naturally slides up to the no 1 spot ;) ). 

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Well thing is he is so utterly useless in my lists he always survives.. Because he does nothing. :D

That would be using him as a buff instead of a model. You should put Hermanos on him when playing him with anyone not named Perdita, so he can do something useful besides giving the buff.

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Well thing is he is so utterly useless in my lists he always survives.. Because he does nothing. :D

That would be using him as a buff instead of a model. You should put Hermanos on him when playing him with anyone not named Perdita, so he can do something useful besides giving the buff.

Yeah that was a good point yesterday. I need to do that.

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Well thing is he is so utterly useless in my lists he always survives.. Because he does nothing. :D

That would be using him as a buff instead of a model. You should put Hermanos on him when playing him with anyone not named Perdita, so he can do something useful besides giving the buff.

Yeah that was a good point yesterday. I need to do that.

Whoah there! Have you been playing him without hermanos? I thought that was mandatory :D

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At the start I liked fran party due to him being mvp in some of my earlier games, but the more I play with him against more experienced players I find him just buff perdita for 2-3 turns and getting beaten up but any other henchman / enforcer. For a a base 9ss cost I feel the judge is better when you would hire fran as a beater. Starting to look at other options to spend 8-9ss.

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Francisco is a great, great model (even if the actual plastic and that bloody ridiculous hat isn't that hot). I run him in more games than I don't - he's great for keeping vulnerable models safe and if all  else fails, he's one heck of a beater. 

El Mayor is useful but there's more to him than that. I always run him with Hermanos and Wade In - Hermanos gives him a way to pull friendly models out of combat or drag them up the board with him to stay in El Mayor range.

The 1 action Enfretante a Mi (I know I've spelled it wrong but you know what I mean!) is where it's really at though. You pick an enemy model, place Francisco in base to base with that enemy model, then push away all friendly models that are engaged with it. No Cast, it just happens, so if the enemy crew has rushed in to engage a model (like Sonnia, for example, a Master who absolutely must have Francisco standing next to her) their target is now free and clear and they have Francisco standing next to them. You then 0-action Finesse to put that model on a negative to attack him in Ml. They then have a problem.

Francisco's attacks are also great. Ml7, doing a minimum of 3/4/6 (well, 2/3/5 but he has Crit Strike and a built-in Ram). He can also Flurry. His pistol may look like an afterthought but a 12" range, Sh6 and more Crit Strike make it a very viable option. 

Hard to Kill isn't a great defence of itself, but it usually means the opponent has to take one more AP than they would normally to kill him. That can be very useful, particularly if they're struggling to get through the negative flips from Finesse or (as my opponents always seem to) you're flipping like a demon on SoulStone damage prevention. The heal is OK but the suit dependency makes it a bonus if you have that spare 8 of Rams - I wouldn't all out for it.

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I've only played Francisco with Perdita, so my experiences with him and other Masters is minimal.  However, that said, I've had great success with him as a buffer and as  a close combat specialist.  It is true that putting "El Mayor" on a priority target (Masters, some Henchmen/Enforcers) is usually easiest in the first couple turns of the game, but a lot of it also depends on variable factors as well (ie - Strats/Schemes, deployment, position of other crew members). 

If you're playing him with Perdita, more than likely you're also running the Enslaved Nephilim, who can provide great positioning support with his "Shackled" ability.  And if you're not playing him with Perdita, I would imagine "Hermanos de Armas" would make a great upgrade to keep him close to people who can benefit most from "El Mayor" or just people who want to get to combat faster (ie - Lady J.)  Personally, I'd willingly run him with Lady J in a game, if anything to make better use of her "Riposte" trigger.  And being that it is likely that they go to close combat together, it's likely she can benefit from "El Mayor" more frequently.

For other Masters that don't get into close combat as much (Sonnia, Hoffman, and Lucius), Francisco wouldn't be as practical of a choice since their playstyles contrast to his abilities more. 

And as for "Wade In", I wasn't sold on that upgrade when I first tried playing the box crew, but I've realized it is well worth it's 1 ss cost.  Having a (0) action heal is a lot more useful than you might think, and unless you're facing a crew that can ignore it, having Hard to Kill is never bad. 

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Honestly I tend to take him with Lead Lined Coat and Wade in. Expensive but it makes him a super annoying speed bumb to deal with. Though he usually just shows up in my Lady Justice lists and follows her around. 

Me too, but it's been a while since I've given the ol' fella a run and I've been questioning the Coat lately.

I find that I use Finesse ~80% of the time over any other (0) that he has access to in order to keep him alive, so he barely has any time to heal, let alone Hermanos anyone.

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Finesse is the best defence. Wade in is only good for HTK which will usually keep him alive for an extra slap. The Ram needed for the heal flip is too high a price to pay. Use the SS for damage prevention. 

I've been thinking a lot about how to use guild lately. I think frank (and a lot of guild games) benefit from a game where you don't need to go to far into the board. So guard the stash, or the centre of squatters, protect territory etc. When hes tagging along with masters as support i dont do much but dive about with Enfratate a mia and take a single swing then finesse up. 

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Finesse is the best defence. Wade in is only good for HTK which will usually keep him alive for an extra slap. The Ram needed for the heal flip is too high a price to pay. Use the SS for damage prevention. 

Durability to last one extra slap on a model like Francisco for 1ss sounds like a pretty good deal to me. The heal is just a bonus.

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Finesse is the best defence. Wade in is only good for HTK which will usually keep him alive for an extra slap. The Ram needed for the heal flip is too high a price to pay. Use the SS for damage prevention. 

Durability to last one extra slap on a model like Francisco for 1ss sounds like a pretty good deal to me. The heal is just a bonus.

The otter of truth has spoken ;) 

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