Stake a Claim Solutions

[Gitli]

Hello all, this is my first post in the Guild forum having recently switched from Neverborn a couple of weeks ago. I currently have Perdita, Sonnia and Lady J boxes along with Aurstringers and Dr Dufresne on the way. 

My gaming group and I were theoryfauxing what we would do if we were playing Stake a Claim. When in Neverborn i had a few different options including Silurids and the Cherub reducing the cost of interact actions. But I have no idea how I would go about this strategy  with a Guild crew. 

Any suggestions on this topic are most welcome. 

[Ludvig]

McCabe. Luna makes dogs significant and gives them walk to go far enough to place a marker each turn, McCabe gives nimble and reactivate. You should have no difficulty placing two markers each turn. He can also push any model 8" with his (0). He is hands down your best option. Even without hounds he has good Stake a claim game.

Lucius can do it with some difficulty but you don't get the same number of markers since guild don't have minions with walk over 6 and he needs to spend all his AP and 2 8+ cards doing basically what McCabe does for a (0) and a 4 of tomes.

[MR TORGUE]

Just guild your way through problems. shoot it, shoot everything! and then place markers when you've boarded the player.

On a serious note; perdita's crew has some good reposition abilities; but with the boxes you have it does appear challenging without dedicated scheme/strat runners being bought into the collection. 

Edited December 8, 2015 by tollstar_deluxe

[Myyrä]

Hoffman is a pretty obvious solution. He can give nimble to one model and reduce the cost of interacts on another.

[Ludvig]

Just guild your way through problems. shoot it, shoot everything! and then place markers when you've boarded the player.

On a serious note; perdita's crew has some good reposition abilities; but with the boxes you have it does appear challenging without dedicated scheme/strat runners being bought into the collection. 

I guess heavy family with Nino in the list can shut people down pretty hard.

[Myyrä]

Just guild your way through problems. shoot it, shoot everything! and then place markers when you've boarded the player.

On a serious note; perdita's crew has some good reposition abilities; but with the boxes you have it does appear challenging without dedicated scheme/strat runners being bought into the collection. 

I guess heavy family with Nino in the list can shut people down pretty hard.

Dead Silurids won't drop markers.

[Rurouni Benshin]

lol, to be perfectly honest, for me at this point, it's more about "which Master does this better than Perdita?"

That said, for "Stake a Claim", I would definitely give the nod to McCabe, but only because I've never played as Hoffman yet.  Luna is an amazingly good totem, especially in games where scheme markers are needed.  Can't go wrong with 2-3 Guild Hounds in the crew for them, although 2 and Luna should be plenty already.  Leaves plenty of room to bring along some beatsticks to come and keep the opposition preoccupied.  Executioners are good to bring along, especially with their ability to use Scheme Markers to make extra actions.  Basically, any model that can have an easy time keeping pace with McCabe going towards combat are the models you'd want to bring along with you.  Add Francisco for extra lulz.

[Chumbalaya]

Dr. Grimwell is quite good at it with Nimble. 

[Rurouni Benshin]

Dr. Grimwell is quite good at it with Nimble. 

Or pretty much anyone with Nimble, at this point.

[lusciousmccabe]

I think Chumbalaya meant that Grimwell is good at it because he has Nimble himself. He does have Nimble, doesn't he?

Edited December 8, 2015 by lusciousmccabe

[Rurouni Benshin]

Yes, he does.  Although with his other abilities, my initial thoughts for him would be to send him against the opposition, and running strategy/schemes as a secondary.

[ArcticPangolin]

One of the thing to watch for with the Hounds is making sure to have Luna within range for the pooch to get +1Wk on its 2nd activation. Moving 6" and Staking a Claim removes the Claim marker that you dropped the previous activation.

[Durza]

Mcmourning can injection other models around, and with how fast he is himself he can manage it all on his own.

[Adran]

The best Guild masters for Stake a claim are McCabe, Hoffman and McMorning. Perdita and Lucius can be ok (thanks to the abilities to move models outside their activation), but there aren't the go to non master figures in Guild that other factions have. (Fundamentally leaper's.) meaning Sonnia and Justice will struggle here more than most. 

The Emmisary can be helpful with this,  and I think the mounted guard will start to show up for this as well. 

 

The other option is something like 2 watchers (although 2 of any Cheap minions with at least wk 4 would work), with them hopfully alternating dropping claim markers and moving, This on the whole costs about the same as a Silurid, and drop about as many Markers. 

[Gitli]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Lots of ideas to consider. Having been spoiled with options in Neverborn I think I'm going to dislike Stake a Claim coming up for my Guild!

[Ludvig]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Lots of ideas to consider. Having been spoiled with options in Neverborn I think I'm going to dislike Stake a Claim coming up for my Guild!

Na, you will just realize that any master can't do any scheme like people are fond of saying since the guild has a lot of abilities tied into certain masters. Armour denial is very similar since I don't think guild has a single model able to do it without suited triggers so against some lista you are almost forced into one of 3 masters to have a shot at killing Izamu.

Ps. I don't count filthy mercs. Ds

[ArcticPangolin]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Lots of ideas to consider. Having been spoiled with options in Neverborn I think I'm going to dislike Stake a Claim coming up for my Guild!

Na, you will just realize that any master can't do any scheme like people are fond of saying since the guild has a lot of abilities tied into certain masters. Armour denial is very similar since I don't think guild has a single model able to do it without suited triggers so against some lista you are almost forced into one of 3 masters to have a shot at killing Izamu.

Ps. I don't count filthy mercs. Ds

I think that's part of why I find it so hard to give up the Glowing Sabre, it's so useful for many defensive abilities and can be given to anyone. I certainly love giving Joss a taste of his own medicine.

[Ludvig]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Lots of ideas to consider. Having been spoiled with options in Neverborn I think I'm going to dislike Stake a Claim coming up for my Guild!

Na, you will just realize that any master can't do any scheme like people are fond of saying since the guild has a lot of abilities tied into certain masters. Armour denial is very similar since I don't think guild has a single model able to do it without suited triggers so against some lista you are almost forced into one of 3 masters to have a shot at killing Izamu.

Ps. I don't count filthy mercs. Ds

I think that's part of why I find it so hard to give up the Glowing Sabre, it's so useful for many defensive abilities and can be given to anyone. I certainly love giving Joss a taste of his own medicine.

Exactly the same thing for me. Some less friendly players might call McCabe my crutch but since he fills a function that is extremely basic to succeed at the game (ignore armour, hard to kill and incorporeal) and a lot of the other masters can't gain access to that function from any other models in Guild I feel I need to play him against both Arcanists and Ressers almost every time to not be at a disadvantage.

I don't know every model in the game by heart but even Neverborn who I have heard described as having a hard time with armour have a generic upgrade and the widow weaver available no matter which master you play.

It's the same with the schemes. We don't have anything remotely close to gupps, tots, necropunks etc. 

It mostly hurts newer players who chose the "wrong" master for their regular opponent and can't adapt by just getting a new minion box but has to learn a completely new master. It also limits which masters you can take in a single master tournament. For a player that has a large part of the faction it isn't much of a limitation and the good news are that almost any model is good with someone so we don't have as many obvious auto takes as some other factions.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ludvig

[admiralvorkraft]

I would say that McMourning can do a lot of what McCabe can do. Maybe not exactly as well, but he fills a similar hole in my mind.

[Ludvig]

I would say that McMourning can do a lot of what McCabe can do. Maybe not exactly as well, but he fills a similar hole in my mind.

I completely agree but I haven't played him yet, partly because I feel they have similar interactions and partly because I'm too damned slow to get everything painted. I have a strong feeling I will like his playstyle. 

Masters that don't get around this are basically just Lucius, Hoffman and Lady Justice. Justice has decent damage but against Izamu at armour 4 or above she really isn't doing much.  Hoffman has the triggers so if you can get a bunch of high tomes you can deal with it. He also gets to hire metal gamin and a couple of those can help out in a pinch. Lucius can (and probably should most of the time) hire pathfinders. The problem is after the enemy pushes his/her big beater into melee with a bunch of stuff. Randomizing isn't very fun. If I had some Ronin I would be able to handle armour better with him but I can't buy every model in the game... Or can I?! (The answer is that I refuse to buy an entire crew box to get one model that one of my masters will use frequently but no one else in the entire guild will probably use).

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ludvig

[Adran]

I would say that McMourning can do a lot of what McCabe can do. Maybe not exactly as well, but he fills a similar hole in my mind.

I completely agree but I haven't played him yet, partly because I feel they have similar interactions and partly because I'm too damned slow to get everything painted. I have a strong feeling I will like his playstyle. 

Masters that don't get around this are basically just Lucius, Hoffman and Lady Justice. Justice has decent damage but against Izamu at armour 4 or above she really isn't doing much.  Hoffman has the triggers so if you can get a bunch of high tomes you can deal with it. He also gets to hire metal gamin and a couple of those can help out in a pinch. Lucius can (and probably should most of the time) hire pathfinders. The problem is after the enemy pushes his/her big beater into melee with a bunch of stuff. Randomizing isn't very fun. If I had some Ronin I would be able to handle armour better with him but I can't buy every model in the game... Or can I?! (The answer is that I refuse to buy an entire crew box to get one model that one of my masters will use frequently but no one else in the entire guild will probably use).

To be fair if Justice is facing an Armor+4 Izamu, her best thing is probably to remove Armor+2 and then hit him. Metal gamin are quite poor against Izamu. But Hoffman can ignore armor, or hire Joss. 

Witchlings are often a good shout against Armor and Incorporial. They don't ignore them, but they do 2 seperate sources of damage,so will end up doing at least 2 damage to the armoured model for its 1 attack, no matter how high its armor is. (Granted 2 attacks will probably only do 3 damage). 

A pair of Guild hounds can do a similar job to Gupps or tots. But it does require a little more thought and care. 

Merc wise, consider buying Bishop. He is a merc swiss army knife. 

I've seen Sonnia played really well in stake a claim, It requires more thought from the player, and probably a little more out of the box thinking than the neverborn view of Hire a Silurid, but a single master is still competative in the faction. (A lot of Sonnias way of facing neverborn in a  stake a claim list was to focus on removal of the silurids to deny the opponent the chance to score)

 

[Ludvig]

I don't think hounds are close to comparing to gupps. A single gupp can place two markers in a turn or one marker 11" out (hazy on the distance here but I think they're W 5/ Ch 6). Two hounds together can place one marker 6" from where they started (staying within 5" but placing on the far edge of their base). The hounds have other strenghts such as a very decent attack on such a cheap model and 1ap charges under the right circumstances but they don't have the raw marker placement advantage over even a single gupp.

Compared to tots you should probably compare three hounds to two tots. The hounds could probably be considered the best choice for most markers (so good for protect territory) but the tots can achieve a higher distance to place a marker and so are arguably better at breakthrough and power ritual. Another big difference is that the hounds need to hang out together so can be neutered by a single blast or locked down while the tots can go one on each flank and be very hard to stop.

With the right masters I feel the guild can easily match tots/silurids/gupps for scheme running but not every master has the same tools available was my point. Not saying it's necessarily a bad thing. It does dissuade cookie-cutter easy mode builds because you can't just say "get a gupp" no matter the master but I also feel it punishes players who haven't had a chance to buy every box in the entire faction.

I agree with all of your other points Adran.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ludvig

[Adran]

Gupps are Wk 5 cg 5. 

Hound can move to 3" from other hound and drop a marker, then second hound can move past first to drop a marker that is just over 4" away from the first. You have little chance to alter positions (there is some flexability, but not much), but they should just out drop the Gupps 1.5 scheme markers a turn. 

I agree there aren't as clear cut tools availible, and the way the different masters use them will make a big difference to what they need them to do. 

[Munindk]

How about orderlies? They are Wk6 and have unimpeded.

[Ludvig]

How about orderlies? They are Wk6 and have unimpeded.

I'm sure they could work quite alright if you also think you might need to scrap it out with another cheap scheme runner but watchers are 4ss and Wk 6 with flight which is better if you think you can scheme unopposed. As previously stated, other factions have models who can move a lot farther and place a marker who are only 4ss.