Starting up with Ortegas

[Leonardo]

Hi everyone!

I'm new into this and i fell in love with ortegas. I'm trying to establish sone strategies and links between the models..how do you play them? 

My favourite combo right now is 'francisco-abuela, or maybe francisco-dita-abuela, with cisco in the backline.

Abuela with hair trigger,

Cisco with diestro

I usually push abuela forth toward the biggest bad guy, el-mayoring her for her safety (she's old, poor thing..), waiting for her to be charged. When the time comes,  thanks to her abilities she will get away with just a scratch. Then, the routine is:

0 action: listen up young un on Cisco, that performs enfrentate a mi: he gets into engagement and push back abuela

Then, the two AP of the granny go on hair trigger, pullin out 3 shotgun attack on the unfortunate guy, unabled to cheat due to Diestro, triggering slug on the third attack if necessary. 

I think this combo is pretty decent, but i do not see abuela listed in many crews. Why?

For the rest of the gang.. how do you couple them? I think dita and papa together make a good couple..the only ortega i usually leave home is santiago because of his poor synergies with the others, bringing up in exchange the latigo fellow and a watcher (using him well can save me the 2 ap of trick shooting on dita, or let me use the 0 ap action to negate armor while watcher nagates cover)

Every suggestion is welcome!!!

 

[ArcticPangolin]

I think many people may hold off getting Abuela for a few reasons:

1. There are other more obvious killier or scheme-ier models available than a granny with a shotgun in a wheelchair to meet the needs of the Ortega box.

2. She's another pricier model SS-wise in a fairly low model-count crew.

3. At first glance she doesn't seem to offer much to the crew that they don't already have.

 

Santiago is my stay-at-home Ortega model this edition. He is purely about dealing damage and not much else, so not randomising for Family in melees is about the only saving grace for me. His extra damage starts at too low health for it to be worthwhile and the rest of the crew can cover the damage that he would have been putting out.

[Leonardo]

Granny claim her price in terms of ss, but for now she's my favourite ortega (not in that way..)

Shotgun wedding on a scheme runner such watcher works great to shukle family members where i need them.

Pull me closer is a free walk action, or an emergency exit for engagement

Listen up young un is a good 3rd action on other guys...

Than, try to invest some point on her, with a lead line coat on that old knees and her df trigger, you got an armor 2 old granny. 

Oh, and you csn always say that an old ma shotgun your opponent crew down XD

[Chumbalaya]

Abuela is indeed pretty great for all those reasons.

The Ortegas do lack for cheap filler and scheme runners.  Guild Hounds and Watchers are great for filling that niche.  Hunters are solid for a more expensive runner-that-kills-other-runners.  Austringers are their normally awesome stuff.  Wtichling Stalkers can help with conditions.  A Death Marshal is nice for boxing up Papa to keep the + to damage on 'dita.  Ryle is a solid standalone piece with good shooting and melee.  You've got a lot of good options.

[Rurouni Benshin]

My favorite scheme runner when I play the Ortegas is my Guild Austringer, and occasionally the Brutal Effigy.  My typical combo with Abuela is to make the Emissary "Family" first, so that Perdita can relocate to it when she needs to.  Every turn after the first, she's using "Listen up Young'en" to make the Austringer shoot (usually).  Unless I'm playing Stake a Claim, Perdita does all the other strategies pretty well, although I'd make a case that McCabe can do Reckoning just as well (or perhaps better) as she can.

Some things to keep in mind though:

1. Models within 6" of Abuela can't charge, so be sure to always have that pre-measured to optimize avoiding getting charged.
2. Always take "Wade In" on Francisco.  1 ss for Hard to Kill goes a longer way than you'd think.  Plus a 0 action heal is never bad.
3. Unless you're looking for a challenging game, leave Papa Loco out.  Unless you're bringing either the Emissary or a Death Marshal along, he's going to end up costing you more than he's worth. 

That said, all the Family members are pretty useful in their own way.  It's more a matter of how you'd like to play the game.  Perdita is powerful, but relies on a few Family members around to be at her potential so she can use "Relocate" when she needs to.  My usual strategy when Abuela is on the table, is to wait for Perdita and Francisco to get further up, and follow up with her.  Her gun packs a punch, but it pales in comparison to little 'Dita.

[Ryin]

RB, do you leave Nino and Santiago at home as well?

I've never really seen anyone take him outside of for giggles. I remember he was an auto include in 1.5 so I can see why he got von schill'd, but still. Is he utterly non-competitive?

[TeoKoz]

I take Nino often for the Spotter ability to prevent points. He is squishy if caught, but usually Dita or Cisco can protect him well enough.

Santiago I've found mediocre, he's been good exactly one time when a criminal amount of masks appeared for his shots.

[Rurouni Benshin]

14 hours ago, Ryin said:

RB, do you leave Nino and Santiago at home as well?

I've never really seen anyone take him outside of for giggles. I remember he was an auto include in 1.5 so I can see why he got von schill'd, but still. Is he utterly non-competitive?

Nino is very situational.  Unless the scheme pool is Interact heavy, or if I'm playing Squatter's Rights, I usually leave Nino out.  "Spotter" is great, but he is pretty squishy.  I avoid taking him in Reckoning almost all the time as well.  When I do bring him, I usually have the Emissary not too far away since he can shoot into melee and is Ht 3, so can see a good portion of the board, pending terrain.  Worst case scenario, you can always pine box Nino for a turn, but that also means giving up "Spotter" for at least a turn.

I have a "love/hate" relationship with Santiago.  Fluffwise, he's my favorite character out of the entire family.  I'm currently playing him in a campaign, and he's been my anchor quite a few times.  Tag teaming him with Francisco has been the key strategy for me, and has largely worked in my favor.  In competitive play though, he tends to take a backseat to Abuela.  Between Perdita, Francisco, and the Emissary, I have A LOT of firepower already, in an already "Enforcer" heavy crew.  Though I will say that if it weren't for the Emissary being available to me, I'd more likely bring him instead. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say he's utterly non-competitive, if you don't have other models to bring.  In a "Family" heavy crew, he's good.  When compared to Papa Loco and Nino, he's a much more well rounded choice, and less situational.  I usually put "Hair Trigger" on him when I take him, to make as much use of his Peacebringer attack.  The bonuses he gets from "Es todo lo que tu tienes" are nice, but don't depend on them.  Usually he's the one finishing off anything that Francisco or Perdita haven't killed yet, or have brought down within striking distance to put down with a single shot or 2.

[Ryin]

Nice to see he might not be completely leave at home. Do you take Perdita's upgrade when you take the Emissary?

[Chumbalaya]

Santiago might get more play with Hunting Party.  Perdita can soften things up, Santiago/Francisco can finish them off.

[Leonardo]

I think that Nino is not so situational. Yes, it's not an auto-include, but he plays his part.

For the damage itself, it is not a killer, but i usually play him this way: from the shadow-line of sight with a totem/scheme runner/focus. And the sucker's out. 

Or, with a good crow in your hand, try make him go first/last and shoot on the biggest/meanest thing: if he goes first, you wil make your opponent drop two card for sure. If he goes last, maybe even a soulstone

[ArcticPangolin]

Back when there was only M2E book 1 Nino's Df6 and sensible positioning kept him in pretty good stead for my games. Haven't used Ortegas much since Crossroads hit, Df6 started to mean less from then on. Pistoleros are really nice if you can get them; Ruthless, Family, Look Out!, Press the Advantage, able to Interact and helping to get you more activations make them better than they might otherwise seem.

My problem with Santiago was that he isn't anything other than Family and a turret; he offers no other utility other than to put Hermanos de Armas on him. I suppose I should give him a go with Expert Sleuth for some possible extra mobility.

[Rurouni Benshin]

On 1/26/2016 at 1:58 PM, Ryin said:

Nice to see he might not be completely leave at home. Do you take Perdita's upgrade when you take the Emissary?

Absolutely.  What's not to like about a suited "Obey"? I've only had to use it a couple of times, but only because she herself wasn't within range of any viable targets for one turn. 

From a competitive standpoint, Nino is very situational.  In games where interactions are dependent to win on, he's great (Squatter's Rights is HIS game).  Reconnoiter/Stake a Claim in any kind of deployment (aside from maybe Close) are his second best game, since he's able to set up somewhere where he can interact on Turn 2 or drop necessary scheme markers.  Turf War, he's "hit or miss", depending on scheme pool.  Avoid taking him in Reckoning, unless Frame for Murder is on the table, otherwise he's the best choice for it.

In campaign and casual play, I take him just for fun, given how OP Perdita can already be.  But if you really want a challenge, bring Papa Loco.  Good luck!

[Ryin]

Yeah, that's the way I look at it. It's not costing you anything, so if you DON'T use it, you don't lose anything, but if you NEED it, it's there.

sometimes I think an option is worth more than a sure thing that might have a more specific use.

[Rurouni Benshin]

Exactly.  Don't get me wrong, it's great, just never the first thing I'm looking to do.  It helps keep your options open for a lot of scheme running as well. 

[Yvarre]

Luckily I've not yet played against Nino with Frame for Murder in the pool because I drop him turn 1 about 60% of the time and turn 2 the rest.  I also purposely deploy weak scheme runners behind cover if I deploy first against him.

Papa Loco can be really good in a Turf War, Extraction or any situation where you can reliably get 2-3 big models in his range for Take You ALL to Hell with Me and his explosion on death.  It's a high enough TN that it's going to take some serious resources to prevent that 6 damage, and doing it twice on 3 models and then doing the 5 damage from dying is gonna put most things in the ground regardless of how great a hand an opponent may have, and trading one activation for at least 2-3 still puts you ahead especially if you just dropped something like Izamu or Howard.  I've seen some super effective uses of Papa even when he's spent 3 turns in a Pine Box to pop out and decimate the core of a crew.  Then again, we do have the 3rd or so ranked player in the US in our local meta, and he almost always plays 'Dita and the family with a tiny splash of Sonnia who also likes Papa.