Marcus + smell fear crew

[Walrus152]

Hi guys, im very new to malifaux but not wargaming in general (joining you guys from vadious other games which shall not be named). For my first master i was looking at Marcus and spotted that a few beasts have the smell fear rule and the upgrade pack alpha(?) gives it to other models too. So, my question to you all is how could i build a crew a crew that takes advantage of the smell fear rule as much as possible and is it actually worth trying to do?

thanks guys, any advice is appreciated  

[Griffin839]

I tried it as well when I first started playing Marcus. I bought 2 crew boxes and then ran Cerberus and 2 Razerspine rattlers. Marcus would debuff the target, the rattlers would slither to engage the target, and then the victims would be stuck. Either they try to attack the snakes and fail a terrifying check, or they would try to flee and take the damage from its disengaging strikes. It didnt work out exactly as Id hoped but its definitely possible to build a crew around putting the fear out. There are like Infinite different playstyles possible when playing Marcus. The main problem I ran into is his things are only scary to living models. Many crews are construct or undead horrors, and dont care. But against guild or outcasts, i could see it being viable.

[Walrus152]

Thanks, i have almost no experience of the game so im just throwing around ideas 

[Bengt]

You don't have to rely on Horror duels, it's any Wp duel. Several of Marcus' attacks are against Wp and there are other useful models like Performers who can attack Wp. It's also good to remember that the attack from Smell Fear doesn't have to target the model that failed the duel.

[Adran]

Yes, it can work out as a reasonable way to get extra attacks, but you need to make sure that you have a decent number of ways to make your opponent take Wp duels. 

I've done it to some success in Reckoning games, and would certainly consider in it other kill based games, but not sure its worth it in the area placement games (Reconnotre and interference in particular) as you generally fight less often in those. 

[Trample]

A couple of weeks ago I ran a Marcus crew with Bishop as my main attacker with a Wp focus. Got the beast characteristic on Bishop, used Pack Leader and Howl to give Bishop an easy stat to attack and get an extra one most of the time (+ alpha). I know that isn't exactly the same thing you're talking about, but it is a Wp-focused strategy with Marcus that most people don't expect. Smell Fear was just a small part of it. 

[Mxbedlam]

On 5/16/2016 at 8:04 AM, Trample said:

A couple of weeks ago I ran a Marcus crew with Bishop as my main attacker with a Wp focus. Got the beast characteristic on Bishop, used Pack Leader and Howl to give Bishop an easy stat to attack and get an extra one most of the time (+ alpha). I know that isn't exactly the same thing you're talking about, but it is a Wp-focused strategy with Marcus that most people don't expect. Smell Fear was just a small part of it. 

This. Run Bishop and Rogue Necro. You will have all the WP duels you need to make things dead. 

[thebarbalag]

I usually have Marcus cast his (0) that turns the target into a Beast to proc the Wp failure, once the other Beasts are in position, but Bishop seems a hilarious (if expensive) way to do it as well. It's possible to absolutely eviscerate entire crews with this trick, if used at the right time/positioning.

[Patzer]

Marcus can force plenty of WP duels, debuff WP, and there is quite a lot of Terrifying checks in his crew too. Shouldn't be too hard to get it off at a good rate. Blessed of December seems to be a good target to attach the upgrade on. Its Ht 3 and can keep models in LoS quite easy. Its also one of the beasts with most staying power thanks to Eat Your Fill. For 1ss I think the upgrade is a worthwhile investment as long as you have a Soulstone to spare.