Moving on from the tara crew box - things for Karina to summon, or Death Marshalls?

[apes-ma]

I have been playing Jack Daw for a while, and I now have his crew box, Crooked Men, The Hanged, Sue, Bishop, Convict Gunslingers and the Hodgepodge Effigy. I also have the Tara crew box, and I now have a moderate amount of spare cash, and was thinking of expanding upon my outcast masters - specifically getting a box of models to augment Tara. My question, then, is given the core box for Tara and the models that I have, would I get more mileage out of a box of Death Marshals, or models that Karina can summon? I assume the latter is true, since Karina gets a LOT better with models to summon, whereas I feel the crew is OK without Death Marshals, but then the NEXT question is this - if I can only buy a single box of minis, are Crooligans or Punk Zombies going to augment my crew more? Crooligans are easier to summon, and would make for useful scheme runners, but then Void Wretches are pretty passable scheme runners. On the other hand, Punk Zombies are harder to summon, but are immediately offensive, with a Flurry right off the summon, and then more cool stuff once they are unburied. I guess the final question is is there a box I haven't even considered that would power up Tara (or Jack?) that I haven't even thought of?

[Freman]

Remember that when Karina summons a model it comes in on full wounds, and not slow, but has to be buried, losing half its wounds at the end of its activation. Crooligans therefore would lose most of what you're paying for since, as summons, they can't interact on the turn they come in, and then you're going to have to do some stuff with Tara to dig them up again. On the other hand Punk Zombies are brutal, even coming with slow. Acting normally for a turn before burying is even better.

Punk Zombies all the way.

As an aside I'd first get a Death Marshal as they make Tara's bury/unbury game even stronger.

[apes-ma]

2 hours ago, Freman said:

Remember that when Karina summons a model it comes in on full wounds, and not slow, but has to be buried, losing half its wounds at the end of its activation. Crooligans therefore would lose most of what you're paying for since, as summons, they can't interact on the turn they come in, and then you're going to have to do some stuff with Tara to dig them up again. On the other hand Punk Zombies are brutal, even coming with slow. Acting normally for a turn before burying is even better.

Punk Zombies all the way.

As an aside I'd first get a Death Marshal as they make Tara's bury/unbury game even stronger.

Yeah - that totally makes sense actually. When you put it like that it seems pretty AP and card intensive to get a half-wounds Crooligan to drop some scheme markers! Thanks for the advice! I think I'll get myself some Marshals before getting some models for Karina to summon then - she can always just sit somewhere and shoot stuff for something to do...

[Furio]

And if you're buying punk zombies you might as well spend a couple more $ and get the Nicodem box... and welcome to ressers

[Freman]

Furio is right about that. Outcasts lead naturally into Resurrectionists.

 

MacMourning is quite cool too.

[Munindk]

And with Death Marshals and McMourning, you might as well play Guild too

Seriously though, with several of the Tormented models Jack Daw can field from ressers, the undead that Levi can hire and the fact that Tara is dual faction its a slippery slope.

[apes-ma]

8 minutes ago, Munindk said:

And with Death Marshals and McMourning, you might as well play Guild too

Seriously though, with several of the Tormented models Jack Daw can field from ressers, the undead that Levi can hire and the fact that Tara is dual faction its a slippery slope.

Haha, I hear you there... I already have a few Ressur models (The Hanged, Crooked Men), and I was thinking of getting some Nurses for Jack, which means I might as well buy the McM box (that + Crooked Men seems a pretty reasonable 50SS crew to play now and again), and then horrors for Tara and... well yeah! The thing is, other than McM I'm not particularly enamoured with any of the Ressur masters...

[Freman]

Molly and Kirai are sympathetic characters, particularly Molly. Seamus is a combination of Jack the Ripper and The Mad Hatter, with a bit of Mr Hyde in his avatar form. MacMourning has the whole Dr Frankenstein vibe going for him. Nicodem is perhaps the hardest for me to take an interest in because story-wise he seems to be a generic "I'm in it for power" character. On the other hand, the ability to end the game with 100 soulstones of units, when you started with 50, should not be underestimated. He's powerful, just not particularly interesting to me.

Tara is, of course, an Outcast, so I'd take her anyway. I'll play her as Resurrectionist one day.

I don't really have much interest in Ten Thunders, outside Misaki and McCabe, so Yan Lo doesn't do anything for me. I'll probably have to buy his box to get Chiaki at some point, but then I have Johan if I need a status remover.

[apes-ma]

18 minutes ago, Freman said:

Molly and Kirai are sympathetic characters, particularly Molly. Seamus is a combination of Jack the Ripper and The Mad Hatter, with a bit of Mr Hyde in his avatar form. MacMourning has the whole Dr Frankenstein vibe going for him. Nicodem is perhaps the hardest for me to take an interest in because story-wise he seems to be a generic "I'm in it for power" character. On the other hand, the ability to end the game with 100 soulstones of units, when you started with 50, should not be underestimated. He's powerful, just not particularly interesting to me.

Tara is, of course, an Outcast, so I'd take her anyway. I'll play her as Resurrectionist one day.

I don't really have much interest in Ten Thunders, outside Misaki and McCabe, so Yan Lo doesn't do anything for me. I'll probably have to buy his box to get Chiaki at some point, but then I have Johan if I need a status remover.

Actually Molly IS a pretty good character - I had forgotten about her. I don't really know how she plays, but she seems like she'd have a pretty fun play style (although I'm basing that purely on what I see looking over Crossroads), and Philip and the Nanny is a super cool mini. McMourning, however, is someone I can't wait to try out. I really like his model, and the Flesh Construct is great as well - plus I love the idea of a cackling mad scientist scooting around the board poisoning people and stealing their organs. So cool! I just wish the Nurses weren't so pointlessly gratuitous (if I can find someone to split the starter box with me I might use the orderlies as proxies - they're much more what I imagine for the role).

[Munindk]

If you're picking up some Horrors for Tara you've got the beginnings of a Horror Molly list... althoug the common advice is to pick Seamus' box too, to get Madame Sybelle and the Rotten Belles. Seamus likes Nurses and The Hanges, which you were already getting or have for Jack Daw.

As for the nurses you could, depending on your green stuff skills, cover them up a bit. Longer skirts, less cleavage and that sort of thing. Their models reflect their fluff though, they're beauty obsessed women who have gone mad because plastic surgery is Malifaux is a bit... unconventional

[SpiralngCadavr]

Short version- no question, a box of Autopsies and some death marshals; then either punk zombies or the transmortis set (I prefer the former, despite the latter having more flexibility). I'd say you can get by with 1 marshal, 2 autopsies, and 1 punk if you're really on a tight budget and can split the sets. Karina is utterly worthless if she can't summon- don't ever take her, since she's horribly overpriced without the option.

Long version.

 

[apes-ma]

5 hours ago, SpiralngCadavr said:

Short version- no question, a box of Autopsies and some death marshals; then either punk zombies or the transmortis set (I prefer the former, despite the latter having more flexibility). I'd say you can get by with 1 marshal, 2 autopsies, and 1 punk if you're really on a tight budget and can split the sets. Karina is utterly worthless if she can't summon- don't ever take her, since she's horribly overpriced without the option.

Long version.

 

Haha, the long version helped me choose the Outcasts when I started the game (I thought "Jack Daw is cool, and Tara seems great as well! This will be my faction...")

I would get some sutopsies but they aren't out in plastic yet, and I am having a hard time finding the models - I might use some other models to proxy in the meantime, if that's cool with my play group... I think I agree about Karina though, she hasn't really done ANYTHING in the games I've played her except make a few potshots and occasionally give a buried thing slow... I really want to be taking her though, since I am a sucker for fluffy lists! Thanks for the tips though! I will definitely get a box of  Death Marshals, and see if I can't stretch to SOMETHING to summon as well (Punk Zombies, I guess, given what's available, and the higher price of the Transmortis set...)

[SpiralngCadavr]

Well, glad it helped

Re Karina, I'd proxy her as another pistolier if you can't get your hands on an autopsy pack (or just proxy something else as them as a stop-gap, like a couple DM's without coffins so they're clearly different)- you're not guaranteed 7's, and a lot of what crooligans have to offer is lost since they're insignificant the round they're most effective.

[Carl GT Frank]

This is relevant to my interests also. Finally managed to get my first game under the belt, and even if I lost by 1 point, against a slightly more experienced Dreamer crew I see the potential discussed here.

Question: How good is Aionus to a tara crew?

Spiralingcadaver, I stumbled across your blog post above, but for some reason I moved on believing it was for 1st ed, will definetly read it in depth.

I bought a box of Punk Zombies when starting out aswell as the Lady J box for Marshals, thinking about branching out into both Guild and Resser later. Seem's I'll put down some Autopsies on the shopping list also.

[apes-ma]

On 3/10/2016 at 0:23 AM, SpiralngCadavr said:

Short version- no question, a box of Autopsies and some death marshals; then either punk zombies or the transmortis set (I prefer the former, despite the latter having more flexibility). I'd say you can get by with 1 marshal, 2 autopsies, and 1 punk if you're really on a tight budget and can split the sets. Karina is utterly worthless if she can't summon- don't ever take her, since she's horribly overpriced without the option.

Long version.

 

Quick question - If I only had access to the Drowned, does that make Karina worth the stones to play? I want to play Tara this week, but I haven't assembled or painted my punks yet, so I just have her core box, the marshals, and then the Drowned that I use sometimes with Jack. They seem OK to me, provided they can be summoned into melee, since they are pretty resilient, and if they get merked they'll drop a scheme marker. I'm not sure I would be as excited to unbury one like a punk zombie that can swing his katanas around wildly, but then on the other hand they are 1 card easier to summon. Just a though!

[Freman]

Anything you summon is a free model and 2AP you didn't start the game with. Drowned are fairly decent melee models so why not?

[SpiralngCadavr]

9 hours ago, apes-ma said:

Quick question - If I only had access to the Drowned, does that make Karina worth the stones to play?

I'd say drowned and a couple autopsies would be way better; just drowned and you're starting to get into gambling territory (since she's definitely not worth 5ss on her own, meaning if she doesn't summon anything, there were far better 4-5ss options). I don't think the drowned is that much worse than the next couple of tiers, so it's definitely enough in that regard. Having a combatant available on a suited 9 is 1.5x as likely to pull off, though, and that's only in terms of raw numbers, since you probably won't want to spend a red joker on an okay summon and might not want to use a king, so it's closer to 2x as likely, and I've actually gotten lucky summoning autopsies without a card while I'd probably never try that with anything pricier.

It's got enough potential that it'd be worth it to try her out, but it'd do in a pinch.