Gaining Grounds 2016 Schemes: A Summary and Thoughts

[Whut]

RETURNING SCHEMES:

Take Prisoner - This scheme has been kept entirely the same.

Covert Breakthrough - Modified Breakthrough - Exactly the same as Breakthrough before, but you cannot reveal it for an easy 3rd VP.

Detonate Charges - Modified Plant Explosives - Exactly the same as before, but if only 1 scheme marker was "exploded", it caps at 2 VP

Frame For Murder - Modified Frame For Murder -  Same as before, but now 1 VP is for the death, 1 VP for being killed by a Master/Hench, and 1 if
it happens by Turn 3

A Quick Murder - Modified Murder Protege - Same as before, but now 2 VP for the kill and 1 if it happens by Turn 3

Set Up - Modified Spring the Trap - Same as before, but you select any Master/Henchman/Enforcer model at the beginning of the game to spring on

Undercover Entourage - Modified Entourage & Bodyguard - Works just like Entourage before, but the 3rd VP comes from being at greater than half
wounds (and on the enemy half of the table) rather than having the scheme revealed.

Hunting Party - Modified Make them Suffer - Same as before, but now Henchmen/Enforcers score on kills, not Masters/Henchmen

Exhaust their Forces - Modified Cursed Object - Peons Cannot receive or give the condition, you give the condition within 1" instead of
engagement, giving the condition to a model who is already activated is a (2) action, and removing the condition is now just a (1) action while
not engaged, but is NOT AN INTERACT ACTION. (This means Don't Mind Me does not help you get rid of it while engaged)

Catch and Release - Modified Distract - Peons Cannot receive or give the condition, you give the condition within 1" instead of engagement, and
removing the condition is now just a (2) action while not engaged, but is NOT AN INTERACT ACTION. (This means Don't Mind Me does not help you
get rid of it while engaged)

Neutralize the Leader - Modified Assassinate - Score 1 VP if you bring your opponent's master to half wounds. Score 2 VP if your opponent's
master ever leaves play.
    - I love this scheme. It is such a better version of Assassinate. It allows for partial completion so it is much less all-or-nothing,
and it allows for bury effects to have a more important role in winning the game. For those complaining about Levi, f*ck Levi. You have 6 other
masters in your faction, learn to play two of them. You even have Hannah who is a goddess at scoring this scheme on an enemy master.

NEW SCHEMES:

Convict Labor - Spiritual Successor to A Line In The Sand - You now score on this every turn after first rather than at the end. You need 3
scheme markers within 2" of the centerline to score, and these markers cannot be within 2" of another friendly scheme marker or an enemy model.
    - I like this. It means crews with strong marker placement abilities don't automatically get 3VP from this by stuffing the centerline
with 7 markers by turn 4, because you can deny during the course of the game. Also crews without scheme placement abilities have an easier time
with this because the markers can be within 2" of the centerline.

Inspection - Spiritual Successor to Outflank - At the end of every turn after the first, score 1 VP if you have a non-peon model within 4" of
the point where the centerline meets the table edge.
    - I love this. They fixed Outflank. You no longer need to keep enemies away from your model, you no longer need to reveal it at the
beginning to get full points, and you no longer need to stand directly on the centerline. Now, that doesn't mean this is easy. You still need to
survive at opposite sides of the board for the majority of the game!

Leave Your Mark - Spiritual Successor to Protect Territory (Barely) - At the end of every turn, for 1 VP remove a scheme marker more than 6"
from the center of the table on the opponent's side  and not within 4" of a non-peon enemy.
    - Very interesting. By throwing a marker deep into enemy lines, you can score once per turn. Be very careful though, this scheme allows
for a LOT of counterplay, and while it may be sometimes easy to score on, other times it will be nearly impossible.

Mark for Death - Spiritual Successor to Vendetta (Barely) - Use a (1) interact action while engaged to "Mark" an enemy non-peon. Then at any
point if that enemy leaves play, you score 1 VP.
     - I'm loving this scheme too. It slows down the killing and forces you to pause to mark in order to score VP. The nuances of scoring
this scheme will become apparent as you play with it more, I'm sure. For example, making a charge is strange because you won't be able to mark
before hand. Models with Nimble or Lure effects are going to be strong in this scheme.

Show Of Force - BRAND NEW! - At the end of each turn, if you have equal to or more non-zero-cost upgrades on non-master models within 6" of the
center of the board than your opponent does, you earn 1 VP.
    - Wow. This is cool. It adds a Turf War style objective to any strategy. As long as this is in the pool, you have to keep upgrades in
mind, even if you're not taking it yourself.

Search The Ruins - BRAND NEW! - At the end of the game, earn 2 VP if you have at least 3 scheme markers within 6" of the center. If at least two
of these are on the opponent's side of the table, earn 1 more VP.
    - A second scheme that adds a Turf War to any strategy. I like it.

Public Demonstration - BRAND NEW! - Note 3 minion models with a combined cost of at least 15 SS. At the end of any turn, reveal to score 1 VP
for each of these minions within 4" of an enemy Master/Henchman/Enforcer.
    - This is so cool. It really adds an interesting layer to the game - NOT wanting Henchmen and Enforcers! It also has multiple ways to
go about it - do you take 3 sturdy minions to survive long enough to score? Or do you take 3 fast minions to run up and quickly score in a
suicide run?

Occupy Their Turf - BRAND NEW! - Reveal this scheme at the end of any turn and score 1 VP for each minion model more than 10" away from the
centerline on your opponent's side.
    - Interesting, another scheme that requires careful crew construction and allows for lots of partial scoring and counterplay.

A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FALLEN:

A Line in the Sand: The "I have scheme marker tricks" scheme. You pretty much knew going in if you could get 100%, or 0%. Good Riddance.
Protect Territory: The "I score 3 VP" scheme. Everyone took this, all the time. It was way too easy. Good Riddance.
Outflank: The "I want to play 3 VP down" scheme. Terrible scheme, way too hard, took too many resources. Too easy to deny. Good Riddance.
Plant Evidence: The "I like an easy Breakthrough" scheme. It really was just that, an easier version of Breakthrough. Pointless. Good Riddance.
Vendetta: The "I hope this goes well for me" scheme. You either did something dirty with an Austringer or hoped for your opponent's ignorant
cooperation. Good Riddance.
Deliver a Message: The "All or nothing" scheme. You either played 1 VP down, or hoped that your opponent couldn't stop you, knowing full well
what you were trying to accomplish. Good Riddance.
Power Ritual:The "Terrain dependent -> score 3 VP" scheme. See Protect Territory (as long as it was flank or corner deployment). Good Riddance.

A NOTE ON NOT EVER REVEALING SCHEMES:

This. Is. Amazing. I love this. I'm sick and tired of every pool including the likes of ALitS, Protect Territory, Power Ritual, Breakthrough,
Plant Evidence - "Always reveal" schemes that make the game much more open and gives little room for trickery. And others like Deliver a Message
and Murder Protege which basically leave you at a disadvantage if you DON'T reveal them. Having every scheme unrevealed - gives you a reason to
leave things unrevealed. Your opponent can't use process of elimination to know that in a pool of Bodyguard, Protect Territory, Plant
Explosives, and Outflank, your unrevealed scheme is almost definitely Plant Explosives, defeating the purpose in having a hidden scheme in the
first place.

A NOTE ON PARTIAL CREDIT:

Almost all the schemes now have the chance to get "partial credit", and in general the scheme pools encourage going for a win and denying your
enemy more than going for 10 VP yourself. I expect it will be much rarer to see results like 10-8 and we will be seeing more results like 6-4. 

A NOTE ON AREAS OF CONFLICT:

More Schemes now encourage different "Areas of Conflict." In the past, the Strategy usually defined where the action will happen, and then for
schemes the players would have to play around that. For example, Turf War would present you with "Stay in the middle" and you would score for
protect territory and power ritual by staying out of that area where there aren't many scary enemies. Now, Schemes play a much more pivotal role
as far as "zones" where conflict should be expected. Imagine Headhunter with Show Of Force and Search the Ruins in the pool (as well as Convict
Labor). This completely eliminates any kind of "Turtling" that can happen (which I see often in these schemes that don't push you to control the
board). If you don't come out of your shell, you could be giving up a 6 VP advantage. 

A lot of interesting combinations come from this. There's the schemes just mentioned that encourage moving to the middle, theres ones like Occupy
their Turf that encourage moving a large force to the enemy side, or Leave your mark that pushes you there early. Inspection makes the corners
potential conflict zones.

A REVIEW OF THE SCHEMES OFTEN AVAILABLE:

Always:     Convict Labor (Mod ALitS)
Doubles:     Take Prisoner
Rams:        Show Of Force (Mini Turf War with Upgrades)
Crows:        Hunting Party (Mod Make Them Suffer)
Tomes:        Leave Your Mark (Place markers deep into enemy territory)
Masks:        Exhaust Their Forces (Mod Cursed Object)

Get used to these schemes. Especially Convict Labor - it is always available, and unlike ALitS is more easily accomplished by most generic
crews.

Then we have the other five. In the past we had:
Bodyguard -> Never Take
Assassinate -> Player's Choice, but usually not.
Protect Territory -> Always Take
Breakthrough -> Almost Always Take
Distract -> Depends on your faction/crew.

None of these really changed your crew composition. Assassinate makes you save a few stones for defending your master, and maybe Breakthrough
encourages you to get a model or two that can move around enemy lines. But aside from that, nothing changes. Compare that to now. Take Prisoner
is a really interesting one that encourages quickness, out-activation, tankiness, lures, or something of the sort. Show of force encourages
pushes and Henchmen/Enforcers with upgrades (and justifies upgrade bloat!). Hunting Party encourages a balance of Henchmen+Enforcers vs Minions
+Peons. Leave your Mark encourages speed like Breakthrough before it. Exhaust Their Forces means you want some sort of pushes and control. All
of these things encourage different things, and will break up the monotony of "Take Protect Territory and Breakthrough, declare both, try for 6
VP".

[katadder]

I really dont get why people thought outflank was hard, I almost always took it as found it very easy

some of the crews are going to find the new convict labour a pain compared to LITS but then others find some stuff easy, Gremlins for example can score 3pts occupy their turf turn 1 so have gained an easier 3 pointer than some of the others.

[mythicFOX]

Nice write up Whut. Well said. 

@katadder - it has to be revealed for full points, it requires two models to do, and can be denied so very easily by an opponent. This is the easiest scheme for an opponent to generate Diff with in any pool. So if your opponent's are regularly letting you get 3VP from this then, frankly, they're not very good at the game. 

[Tokapondora]

11 hours ago, katadder said:

I really dont get why people thought outflank was hard, I almost always took it as found it very easy

some of the crews are going to find the new convict labour a pain compared to LITS but then others find some stuff easy, Gremlins for example can score 3pts occupy their turf turn 1 so have gained an easier 3 pointer than some of the others.

If you're up against a halfway decent opponent it's one of the easiest schemes to deny. It may be easy to achieve but it's even easier to screw your opponen't over.

[Breng77]

I like that centerline schemes are within a certain distance now, nothing was more annoying than needing to constantly check the line for some schemes or risk being slightly off and screwing yourself .

[mythicFOX]

Yeah that does make it simpler, it also makes terrain around the center line less of an issue. 

 

[katadder]

yes it does, however depends what you use to flank and what they try to stop you with as well as their schemes anyway.

fast hard hitting stuff can easily get it by clearing out enemies and I usually kill alot of stuff so makes things like outflank better for me.

yes it can be easy to deny but whatever is denying it has to be fast enough to get there or tough enough to survive to turn 5

[Adran]

10 minutes ago, katadder said:

yes it does, however depends what you use to flank and what they try to stop you with as well as their schemes anyway.

fast hard hitting stuff can easily get it by clearing out enemies and I usually kill alot of stuff so makes things like outflank better for me.

yes it can be easy to deny but whatever is denying it has to be fast enough to get there or tough enough to survive to turn 5

It doesn't need to get there until turn 5 to stop it. If you've sent something fairly hard hitting there in the mid game, then you are probably out numbered in the conflict areas, and they can move after you to counter it.  Even something like a fully healthy Cerberus in the turf war zone in turn 4 can be stopped from scoring it by a cheap model even if they have to activate it first. They can walk into a spot that means you can't put your model in a legal spot to score it and remove them in 1 activation. 

[katadder]

to each their own. lots of "common" wisdom online doesnt follow actual games. some people slate gunsmiths (i know mythicFox did in his blog) but mine have done great things for me including at a tourney this weekend. 

for me it works, for you guys maybe not, so use what works. this is just an easier outflank for me so its more likely to be chosen

[Csonti]

19 hours ago, Whut said:

Then we have the other five. In the past we had:
Bodyguard -> Never Take

Hmm interesting... aside from strictly timed tournament matches Bodyguard was a highly prefered Scheme for me. Easily scored 3 points from it most of the time. To each of his own, I guess.

Great write-up btw!

[Dogmantra]

As a person who likes to win, I'm sad that cursed object is a more difficult version now.

 

But as a person who likes variety, I am very glad that cursed object is a more difficult version now.

[Whut]

2 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

As a person who likes to win, I'm sad that cursed object is a more difficult version now.

 

But as a person who likes variety, I am very glad that cursed object is a more difficult version now.

It needed to be changed because fuck Gremlins. They had way too easy of a time scoring on this and Distract by out activating and speed.

[D_acolyte]

6 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

As a person who likes to win, I'm sad that cursed object is a more difficult version now.

I hated curse object, but at least it is better than distract.

I like the new schemes and think they will cause different builds and models to be used. It is Wyrd's reaction to the tournaments and I love the fact that they are supporting tournament play to make it more difficult and different from standard play. I am iffy on the fact that none of them can be declared but meh should make it more interesting.

[D_acolyte]

22 hours ago, Whut said:

Then we have the other five. In the past we had:
Bodyguard -> Never Take
Assassinate -> Player's Choice, but usually not.

Whut, your Meta is way different then mine is just based off of those two schemes.

[Dogmantra]

40 minutes ago, Whut said:

It needed to be changed because fuck Gremlins. They had way too easy of a time scoring on this and Distract by out activating and speed.

I mean I'm a gremlin player, hence the like to win part. That said, I don't particularly think that Exhaust and Catch & Release are that much harder than cursed and distract simply because they're ways to punish your opponents for being engaged, which in a melee focused game is pretty unavoidable if your opponent wants to actually kill you.

The biggest downside of exhaust is a slightly harder turn 2 point, but once you're engaged it's about the same.

[katadder]

well gremlins gained a new easy 3 pointer with occupy their turf. turn 1 3 points with a pigapult and 3 bayou gremlins

[Bengt]

Public Demonstration is also pretty easy with a pigapult. Just plop down your three demonstrators once any applicable enemy model has activated and wont be able to run away.

---

Kind of bugs me that the Marked condition doesn't go away when you score it since you can bury and unbury the same model repeatedly without having to do the Interact.

[D_acolyte]

Everyone should be happy that they did not add Blind Deployment to the tournament games, Justin if you read this think about that for next year lol.

[lusciousmccabe]

1 hour ago, Bengt said:

Kind of bugs me that the Marked condition doesn't go away when you score it since you can bury and unbury the same model repeatedly without having to do the Interact.

I actually quite like that part of it.

[JimTullis]

Public Demonstration - Note 3 minion models with a combined cost of at least 15 SS. At the end of any turn, reveal to score 1 VP
for each of these minions within 4" of an enemy Master/Henchman/Enforcer.

OUCH. 3 minions from the start of the game with a combined cost of 15+ SS?

Gonna be hard for a mostly pure Hamelin Crew.  Unless you start out with a Rat King, 2 of those minions HAVE to be Rat Catchers. Wretch, Winged Plague, and Crooligans are all 4 points. So, Max 12 for any combination of three there. Add a 6 point Rat Catcher and the max is 14. So two Rat Catchers and one of the others.

It would be nice to be able to "Note" down a model you plan to summon later for this. Then if it never gets summoned you would fail to score.

 

[BigHammer]

3 hours ago, JimTullis said:

Public Demonstration - Note 3 minion models with a combined cost of at least 15 SS. At the end of any turn, reveal to score 1 VP
for each of these minions within 4" of an enemy Master/Henchman/Enforcer.

OUCH. 3 minions from the start of the game with a combined cost of 15+ SS?

Gonna be hard for a mostly pure Hamelin Crew.  Unless you start out with a Rat King, 2 of those minions HAVE to be Rat Catchers. Wretch, Winged Plague, and Crooligans are all 4 points. So, Max 12 for any combination of three there. Add a 6 point Rat Catcher and the max is 14. So two Rat Catchers and one of the others.

It would be nice to be able to "Note" down a model you plan to summon later for this. Then if it never gets summoned you would fail to score.

 

"This scheme is difficult for x crew" is not, IMO, a valid argument against the scheme. Schemes are determined before crew selection, so if a particular crew wouldn't be a good choice for a scheme pool, simply don't choose that crew for that game.

[Adran]

I would also add that there are 5 schemes every game and you only have to pick 2, so if one of the schemes is very hard for a certain master and its a number scheme, then thats not too bad, it'll show up rarely, and you don't have to pick it. Plus, as you said, Hamlin can do it, even sticking to his thematic models, you just have to build your crew for it. 

 

[Math Mathonwy]

Hamelin is also the king of outactivation which is really useful for this Scheme. Sure, you might need to hire something from outside of his theme and Outcasts aren't noted for their wealth of amazing Minions at the 5-7 SS bracket but there's still quite a few good candidates.

[BloodBought]

That's weird, I always thought they had some really solid all-rounder models in that range between the Friekorps, Ronin, and Gunslingers.  Though I guess I can see not really wanting the Friekorpsmen or Gunslingers that close to enemy models.

[BigHammer]

5 minutes ago, BloodBought said:

That's weird, I always thought they had some really solid all-rounder models in that range between the Friekorps, Ronin, and Gunslingers.  Though I guess I can see not really wanting the Friekorpsmen or Gunslingers that close to enemy models.

The Gunslingers are Enforcers anyway, fwiw.