Gaining Grounds 2016 - how did we do?

[mythicFOX]

So how do we feel we fared under the new schemes as a faction?  Which masters won/lost?

My view, based on masters I know;

Ramos - takes a hit from Hunting Party being in the suits, summoning low wound spiders is easy points for the enemy.  Makes up some ground on Exhaust Their Forces and Show of Force.

Kaeris - Grab and Drop takes a hit on scheme marker placement rules and the loss of scheme marker schemes near the DZ. Other than that looks fairly neutral for her.

Marcus - Hunting party is good for Marcus, plenty of hard hitting models to score this with coupled with his buffs / de-buffs. Also his wide hiring pool that lets him adapt more to these objectives.

Rasputina - Feel like she looses out a bit here, Hunting Party, Quick Murder and Exhaust don't look like they work in her favor.  The need to get more done further up the board will hurt most ranged masters.

More generally the Mech Rider may be reined in a bit by Hunting Party, and the need to have scheme markers away from other markers and enemy models in several schemes (Mark and Convict Labor). 

What's everyone else thinking?

[Ludvig]

I'm thinking that the supercharged Langston + Joss duo can make Hunting party kind of fun for Ramos. He just needs to think twice about where to drop those spiders and make sure he activates them for the heal before the enemy can beat them to a pulp. Low wound spiders were already a liability in the old equivalent Make them suffer.

[Sordid Strumpet]

Upon first glancing at the document I thought Colette will love many of these. With everything being hidden, excessive free scheme marker placement will be beautiful. Am I detonating charges, setting a trap, inspecting ruins or something else? Do you really want to go near that marker to find out? Oh, by the way if you do go near them you better be sure I'm attached to them or Willie will explode it. Or it was a bluff and you wasted 2 AP discarding it.

Mannequins will really come in handy now I think. Breakthrough and entourage are as easy as ever with PP, Cassandra and a dove.

I'm curious, though, what scheme marker placement rules do you mean that Kaeris is affected by?

[mythicFOX]

If you look at where you want markers now, you want them much further up-field and more dispersed than before, this makes Grab and Drop less effective IMO, as they can only radiate so far from Kaeris. 

 

[Sordid Strumpet]

Oh right, yeah that seems a fair assessment. Might need to keep a few cheap ranged things like fire gamin near her for card draw from truth in flames, then late game make them fly off and drop schemes. Or use Coryphee who can then just come back to her in turn 4?

[Breng77]

Colette might be hurt a little as having too many markers is now a negative in some cases.  

Agree with the Ramos assessment, essentially having make them suffer in the game frequently hurts summoning overall.

[mythicFOX]

Yeah, but as summoning is arguably a little to powerful overall I think Hunting Party will be good for balance all round.  

[Breng77]

I agree, it hurts but it is a good balance.

[Jordon]

I think overall the schemes are more difficult this year. Having most things be scoring on a turn by turn basis and without any reveal mechanic to net you free VP, I think most masters are going to have a harder time than they did previously baring a few exceptions. 

 

Colette - Still the scheme queen and despite the shift, I still think she'll be able to perform just as well as she did before. I would also say that performers get a bit better since their ability to remove scheme markers got a little more lethal.

Marcus - I think he's doing very well. The removal of bodyguard helps Myranda out and typically he's running an elite - upgrade heavy team so most of the suited schemes are going to be in his favour. 

Raspy - I think she's about where she was before. Having access to the ice dancer makes scheming easier and the slightly shorter range on convict labour helps her slower crew. Hunting party I think is good for her since the emissary, golem and BoD are all enforcers and all are regular staples in her list. 

Ramos - He probably took a slight hit with regards to some of the schemes that were gained/lost but overall he's still very powerful so I think this was a good shift. 

Kaeris - Loosing out on bodyguard hurt her a little. However she's basically as good as she was before with regards to dropping schemes. I'd say she's overall slightly worst off, but not by much.

Ironsides - Not having assassinate as a suited scheme is absolutely huge for her. I play her a lot and I can say that she often dies in most games I play her in. Her mobility and hitting power makes her ideal for denial and a great candidate for hunting party. Overall i'm most hopeful for her and I feel like you may see more people taking Ironsides competitively. 

Mei Feng - Basically the same things I said about Ironsides can be applied to Mei. She's a brawler who likes to be in the thick of it, and the removal of assassinate helps her out tremendously. 

 

Overall it's a bit of a shift, but I think the Arcanists will weather the storm just fine.

[Bengt]

That Deliver a Message is gone is pretty nice for Ironsides, and to some degree for Mei Feng.

[MagicGis]

I think this overall looks more balanced. I also appreciate a hit to summoners especially those that are now more often forced to get the heal in their crew to present less easy targets. 

 

This is a great way to handle mech rider btw... makes me question even more why htk on the gamin was removed though if you already know this is in the pipeline.

 

However I think it benefits Mei and Marcus a bit which is good, and forces ranged masters up the board a bit which makes them easier to handle for newer players.

Overall I think loses and wins balance for arcanists but promote a more diverse master pool. Thats a good thing...

[Yvarre]

Practiced Production and a Raptor seems really good for Leave Your Mark, especially in Turf War and Extraction or any pool that encourages the center line and opponent's half of the table as a zone of conflict.

[MMW-Kyle]

I think you'll see some amount of wind gamin spam for hunting party. They're still extremely cheap, VERY good at completing many of the schemes/strats and since they dont die until the end of the game if you're careful you can deny all but 1 hunting party point.

I've been toying around with Mei Feng, Captian(or langston), Joss, and 5 wind gamin.

Also I see soulstone miners becoming much more of a thing. They were already awesome but now they can pop up and help you with a lot of schemes. Inspection, search the ruins, covert breakthrough, setup, public demonstration, and occupy their turf come to mind

*braces for WAAC comments*

[Bengt]

If you don't want to go for resilient minions I think a single Raptor is a better insurance against Hunting Party. It can spend most of the turns buried, always poping out in the currently most hard to reach spot. Even if your opponent has brought Aiuoiunoius, or whatever he is called, you could try to keep it hidden and only bury to relocated if you can do it after he has Activated.

[madaxeman]

Raptors are tremendous enemy-VP-denial tools for Interference and Convict Labour.