Thunder Austringers

[Ludvig]

Hello wicked enemies of the guild!

With McCabe being my main man i started pondering my options for trying him in TT. Owning most guardsman models I felt the natural progression would be to infiltrate half the list so I don't need to buy everything all at once.

Since austringers are severely hamstrung in the Guild by not being able to be affected by any support models I have a sish to try and break them in TT. 

Has anyone tried them extensively in TT or are they considered subpar?

I was thinking Toshiro to give them both focused and then the emmissary to make them have blast on moderate and severe damage as well as giving them fast and pushing them up. The scheme marker for Toshiro should be easy with Luna or a Hound who often chill turn 1 to not get picked off. A severe blast could put a dent in a lot of things I believe. That puts us at 19ss support for our 12 ss austringers but the support models could probably have other uses during the game.

Any thoughts on this? Or do you consider Katanaka snipers to always be better with the same combo? The range of the sniper is sort of wasted since you need the enemy model to be close to the emmissary for the blast.

/Ludvig

[Gennosuke]

 

I'd consider the austringers a Must with 10T McCabe (or with any Guild crew xD), even if you don't bring Toshiro, Sensei Yu, or the Emissary to uber-buff them.

Yep, either the archers or snipers have better damage spred, but Sh7, ignoring LoS AND cover, not randomiszing, shooting even if engaged, 1SS less, and of course Deliver Orders, makes the Austringer OP. Combined with McCabe and Toshiro, Sensei yu, or the Emissary to push/buff them, I can't sincerely see a reason not to take them.

[Yvarre]

Yea, I usually get enough mileage out of Austringers with some reactivates here and there playing the attrition game (especially cause schemes are mostly locked away turns 1-2), but this Toshiro and Emissary trick sounds pretty dirty.  It seems that it's gonna take 2-3 activations to set up depending on whether a hound or Toshiro drops the scheme.  The Emissary also needs to position to have the target in a 10" bubble, though he easily has a reach 21" up the board first turn with an extra AP on Standard deployment, and McCabe can push him around and give him nimble if needed.  It seems like a pretty clear telegraph, though, and the blast damage may be fairly easy to avoid, and it's only gonna be stellar on severe damage as doing 3 damage to a model and then 1 to another one or two models at best is a little iffy for the resources invested.  Though stacking that over a couple turns will make things dead, I'm also concerned that once someone gets hit with it once they'll keep models out of blast range.  4 damage with 2 blasts for 3 damage sounds really good, though... 

I'm waiting for the emissary to come out to use it, and I don't play Toshiro as much as I should.  I've had bad luck with him dying on me quickly and haven't gotten the chance to see what he can do and have thus favored models I know better in tournaments.

[Ludvig]

I'm thinking the blasts can come in later turns. 

The austringers being fast, focused and pushed 4" up the board would make the standard cheap models that move up to out-activate you very risky for your opponent and might affect the tempo of their advance.

Austringers feel so dirty that I very rarely take more than one. Against Leveticus I will take two without flinching since they keep his waifs in check somewhat.

[Patzer]

Having both the Emissary and Tosh might be too much of an investment to simply buff the Austringers (31ss in total). One of them would work fine, and I think the Emissary got the most synergy with them. Especially since it can also give them Fast in a McCabe crew, as well as free Focus. The possibility of handing out blasts is pretty cool. Certainly requires some set up since the Emissary cannot tank away for longer stretches, but it is a great trick to have in the bag. 

 

[Ludvig]

3 hours ago, Patzer said:

Having both the Emissary and Tosh might be too much of an investment to simply buff the Austringers (31ss in total). One of them would work fine, and I think the Emissary got the most synergy with them. Especially since it can also give them Fast in a McCabe crew, as well as free Focus. The possibility of handing out blasts is pretty cool. Certainly requires some set up since the Emissary cannot tank away for longer stretches, but it is a great trick to have in the bag. 

 

The focus from the emmissary will come so late, turn 4 is the earliest. I was hoping to not need it then but rather keep the pressure up from turn 1. With the pushes on the austringers, Toshiro won't need to babysit them but could hopefully get other stuff done and just pop a marker with the (0). With a little bit of planning that could work out well for other minions in the vicinity. In my guild crews McCabe rarely has a problem with taking two models near the 10ss mark since he can pad it out with a couple of hounds and wastrels. I guess Toshiro isn't stellar at damaging or surviving compared to similarly priced models so maybe it isn't worth it. 

In either case, thanks for your input everyone! We'll se if I get around to the Thunder way of things eventually.

[ArcticPangolin]

Thank you for asking! I've been curious myself, haven't gotten Crutchstringers yet for fear of them being in every possible list I made.

[Rurouni Benshin]

Emissary's "Dragon Breath" + Austringer's Focused Raptor attack + Sensei Yu's "Master of the Wandering River Style" would be funny to see.  Damage spread wouldn't be amazing, but being able to get to most things on the board would be pretty effective.

[Ludvig]

On 2016-01-18 at 7:24 AM, ArcticPangolin said:

Thank you for asking! I've been curious myself, haven't gotten Crutchstringers yet for fear of them being in every possible list I made.

It's not that hard to just forbid yourself from taking certain models. Doing that is probably the only way of growing yourself as a player since winning with the exact same list every time is not very fun. I have bigger problems with masters who are so versatile that you never want to play anyone else. I have that problem with McCabe and a lot of others seem to get "stuck" with playing Leveticus from what I can tell. Forcing yourself to change master forces you to change so much of your play style.

[Patzer]

8 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Forcing yourself to change master forces you to change so much of your play style.

That is why I am currently sticking to Misaki, in order to learn how to be more aggressive and how to apply pressure from turn one. This is a bit trickier with Misaki than Leveticus or Lilith (whom I am have played a bunch), so I am really up for the challenge. 

[Ludvig]

27 minutes ago, Patzer said:

That is why I am currently sticking to Misaki, in order to learn how to be more aggressive and how to apply pressure from turn one. This is a bit trickier with Misaki than Leveticus or Lilith (whom I am have played a bunch), so I am really up for the challenge. 

Sounds solid. It will grow you as a player.