SS cache size - rule of thumb?

[RaguRagla]

I'm curious if there's some sort of rule of thumb on how many SS a crew should have. I have played like two dozen or so games and usually when building my crew, I would spend all my points on models (mostly bringing 8 models regardless of master); ending up with something like a 2 SS cache for some games. The highest I used was 4 SS with Kirai i think. I now realize that this may not be a very wise thing to do.

I'm guessing it depends on the Master how many SS one will need, so I'd like to hear how other players approach their SScache size

[Furio]

I aim for a cache of 4 or 5 for most masters, unless a specific master benefits from more (for example I find Nicodem always wants the full 7)

[daniello_s]

4-5 should be enough unless you go card heavy lists or full of Henchman then 7SS is required.

I play with 3SS pool from time to time but only with Masters who can easily recycle SS with Hodgepodge Effigie's ability: Levi, Von Schill, Viks.

[Adran]

Its very dependent on master and play style. 

Some soulstone users have a high dependence on suits, such as Rasputina, Kirai or Nicodem, and they will use a large number of stones adding suits to reach the TN or trigger.

Some  are relatively fragile, such as the Viks or Nekima, and will spend a significant number of damage prevention (or at least want to be able to).  

Some are very number dependent, such as Dreams of Pain dreamer, and will spend them for extra cards in the draw step.

Crews with multiple henchmen, especially combat henchmen, are going to have more pressure on their stones, as more models will be able to do damage prevention. 

When I'm building a crew, I consider if my master is a dependent master, and if they aren't I'll build my crews and just see what I get left with. I will consider crew size as I build it, but I don't have a set number of activations I try to get.  Normally it ends up as 1 or 2 over cache, more than  that and I'll be strongly looking at another model or upgrade. 

[Gnomezilla]

Four extra soulstones in hand are a minion's worth of AP I'm not getting, that's how I look at it. And I play Guild, I'm already short on AP. Therefore I want every soulstone in hand to guarantee me at least one AP, preferably in turn 1, with maybe one extra held against the need to reflip initiative and keep an important model alive that way. I discount the need for reactive soulstones otherwise. Fortunately Hoffman's cache is exactly the amount I'd need if I needed to buy a suit for every one of his AP in turn 1, and since Hoffman can find a use for nearly any card which could appear in my hand, in practice that means I'll still have at least one stone left at the end of turn 1. Therefore there is no need to add more unless they are left over during crew selection.

[LunarSol]

I generally believe in taking minimal stones.  3-4 for combat masters, sometimes 5 if I'm getting the hang of them.  4-5 sometimes 6 if they need suits for things like summoning.

[Masquer]

It's a good thing Lucius starts with a cache of 4, my usual list doesn't leave room for extra stones.

[Tokapondora]

I know I should probably up my SS game, but I usually just try to fill my team up as tightly as possible, and end up weighing SS and upgrades against each other. I rarely have more than 1, on a funny day  2, left to add to my cache.

[RaguRagla]

This is all very helpful. Coming from mainly playing Misaki, I was usually at 2 or 3 stones and wished I had more quite often. But whenever I had the points left, I would rather get an upgrade. Looks like im going to try 4-5 stones for a couple of games which seems to be a good number to aim for regardless of the Master.

[LunarSol]

There's probably a good rule, like 3 + 1 per additional soulstone user +2 for summoners or something like that.

[Dogmantra]

Nearly always hit 50 stones in my crew, but I play gremlins and for some reason all the gremlin masters have huge caches (with four on my main three)

On the rare occasion I play a master with less than 3 cache, I normally try to make it up to at least three, and if I play a summoner that needs suits (other than Som'er because he can give the suit to himself), it's 7 all the way - those extra stones will guarantee models far in excess of the 5 or so stones you spend to up your cache.

[Bengt]

4-5 normally, 6-7 if I expect to stone for suits to summon or some other key effect.

[Math Mathonwy]

I aim for 6-7 for basically all Masters. They are an incredibly versatile resource and can be used to mitigate bad luck in various ways and I'm a strong believer in the idea that minimizing the chance for disasters is the path to victory in most games and consistency wins the day. I do tend to use quite a few Henchmen often as well, though.

[SpiralngCadavr]

at least 4 for anyone; aim for 7 for ones that are very suit-dependant or I really want the protection for certain henchmen

[wrabbit37]

I go high on stones, trying to hit 6-7 on almost everyone.  As Math says, they're an incredibly versatile resource, making my best models on the board that much better.  Each one is essentially an additional 1-3 wounds on a Master or Henchman, and I like to play aggressive with them.  Or it's a better hand, or a shot at initiative.  I actually rarely stone for suit, though I don't play a lot of summoning masters right now.

I have never regretted taking lots of stones, even if I end the game with 2-3 remaining.  I have, however, regretted taking few stones in a game.

[Bucket Monkey]

Usually minimum 5 for me. Depends who im running but usually spent on damage prevention, cards if my hand Is shockingly bad or middling, or rarely for suits, if I need the burning off on Sonnia or the extra ram to guarantee killing something. Will go up to 7 if I'm running Justice and assassinate is in the pool or sometime who wants to be close like McMourning, or if in just running a few henchmen