When do you want to Activate your master?

[Hagisman]

I recently was listening to the new Before We Begin with Mike G planning on taking a Gremlin Master, one of the questions that came up would be if he would activate his master first. It got me thinking. When do I as a Guild player want to activate. 

Lady J

Typically I'm running her last on turn 1 to set her up for a turn 2 charge on the initiative. It's all about getting her to delete one of two difficult models as early as possible.

Perdita

Typically I run Perdita 2nd activation on turn one. The first one being Francisco giving her El Mayore and moving up to give her a relocate target. Then she will push forward when an opponent puts a juicy target a little too close to her 8inch push and 14 inch shoot range.

Sonnia

Late turn activation if I can help it  her df is atrocious and getting it up with Frank seems to be my best bet. Aside from her 0 action. The late turn is so I can eat my opponent's hand away and get Ca9s off with a better chance at blasts.

McMourning

My experience with him says any time. His ignore armor condition he can give out in Guild might put him closer to the front lineup but typically my opponents don't have armor.

Lucius

This is a tough one for me. I feel like he should go last, but because of the resources he needs(7's of X suit) if he goes last he can't do anything. And his commanding presence could paralyze someone if you aren't careful.

Hoffman

Little less experience with Hoffman but I found he tends to like to be in the middle of the pack/early on due to his Power Looping. After first turn I typically let him stay unactivated unless I need a fast model or power loop on a new target.

McCabe

I tend to activate him either second or third turn 1 so can gauge which minion to reactivate with badge of speed. Though if I have hunters in the list I typically want him to go after them with his net gun.

 

what do you guys and gals do?

[4thstringer]

I don't think you are wrong on most of these, but with Hoffman, the timing of the activation depends mainly on power loop.  I will usually power loop  turn two, and then activate late turn 3 to get the most out of it.

[Gnomezilla]

I used to do that with Hoffman when I sat in the back and waited for the other crew to get to me, but nowadays I've shifted the powerloop bracket up to 'early turn 1/late turn 2' etc. because there will be melee on turn 2 and people don't fight for initiative on turn 1 quite as hard. I'm still constrained to 1 scrap per Hoffman activation so attaching all modifications instead in the first activation isn't achievable. Yet. (I have to add that initiative control from the other player isn't quite the auto-fatality it's made out to be if the board's already been decently flooded with constructs. I don't need my best construct in range to machine puppet, I just need one construct in range*. It's an argument to revert to the construct-heavy army if you are going to be playing against the positioning or initiative game.)

Since I learned with Hoffman, McCabe I activate similarly as soon as possible, with ideas on what minion gets reactivate and which other models will carry the upgrades/need the pushes already firm before I see the opponent. Later turns he lets the brutal effigy go first so he can heal back the inevitable damage, but otherwise still tends to activate early, especially if he's still horsed. I don't want to lose the 'free' activation the turn that Dismounted McCabe hits the table.

 

*Of late I've been trying having a relatively weak construct be the chariot and armor sink. All the heavy hitters go forth and hit, spread out into a neat little network of constructs. The opponents are still of a mind that separating Hoffman from his armor sink is good, but when that separation then brings him back within range of the heavy hitters...

[EnternalVoid]

My Perdita is generally the last one to activate on turn 1, Frank generally the one right before her.  I generally want to get a good grip on where my opponent's models are and to get the most bang for my buck on turn 1.  Turn 2 largely depends on how Turn 1 went, if I need to pile more on she activates first and if I am looking good she waits to let my opponent activate some models before dedicating her.

McMourning varies a lot but one of the big deciding factors is how damaged he is.  If he has taken a bit of a beating already I might activate him early to try and get some wounds back and/or remove a threat before it can lay into him.

Hoffman I find activates early Turn 2 for me, maybe not first activation but generally second or third.  It is often because I want to start setting up my models or get out of activation actions to react to something.

McCabe is almost always mid to late turn 1 and early to mid second 2.  He generally does not commit turn 1 till I see the model I want to target first turn has activated so I can start prepping my guys for action.  He sometimes thought activates as a sort of filler if I am trying to buy time before activating a certain model, but that is rare as generally I have plenty of grunts.  Turn 2 he sort of sits on his high horse and kind of picks the time where he can safely move stuff around or is safe to buff a model with reactivation.

[Ludvig]

I'll comment on the ones I actually feel comfortable playing. As a general rule I find the rest of the crew and how sticky of a situation you've put yourself in has more impact than the master you are playing. For instance I often activate Francisco first and flurry+heal if he is on one wound engaged with something etc. Those kinds of priorities wheight heavier than what master I am playing. I know some of the insane backline summoners have very strict activation orders but if you would activate in the same order in each game I don't think you're playing a very exciting crew/game. Do note that I realise there is a very good chance that you are playing a better game than me if you have rigid activations, risk isn't always rewarding but often fun  

Lucius: You could go late to maximise his damage from the hidden sniper or command minions into dropping markers and what not. If you have two or more wardens this becomes even more true. Personally, I find that I often want him to go first or really early to get red tape on someone (companioning with the scribe to get it on 2-3 models for instance) so that he can protect his minions. It can also be important to reposition him so his ml buff is where you want it for the next minion to activate etc. If your opponent placed a very nasty beater in a dangerous position anticipating to go first and you red tape it a couple of turns in a row you can really destroy their game plan. If you have a shooty+squishy crew build (lookin' at you riflemen) then he might be very well served as your first or second activation by commanding some shooty models to shoot and then walking to tie up something that could have threatened your gunline. Opening a turn by switching places with Francisco and companioning to him doing a flurry against an unactivated opponent is also a decent move a lot of the time.

McCabe: I rarely want him to be the absolute first activation since he usually has upgrades out that someone could use first but apart from that I'm not that bothered with when he goes, it can be nice to see which minion the enemy left alive before giving it the sabre and reactivate. Normal reasons McCabe does goes first would be to push someone who is engaged and on low health away from whatever is threatening it. This is often necessary with wardens and wastrels who ended that last turn charging something that is really out of their league to keep them in the game.

Sonnia can go anytime and it really depends on where her flamewall markers are and where the opponent is threatening to engage you. If they can't get past them beacuse of terrain I'll keep her until last and just laugh at them wasting AP. If something is right in my face I will go first with her, set a couple of things on fire and then put a wall between us to neuter their biggest threat to me. Bonus points if you are a stickler for theme and have brought Samael because now you have a wall between you and your opponent but Samael can see them and will do min damage 4 because Sonnia has put them on fire. She is really a crutch for him instead of the more usual situation where henchmen support their masters. 

If you drop cards for her Ca 9 it means that she can really push attacks through almost no matter what the opponent cheats from their hand. With the Loco Box I often find that Ca 7 is more than enough so I can keep the cards in hand or raise her defence. If she took a beating from something last turn and is engaged you need to figure out if you need to go early and heal her + discard for defence/wp or if you have something else that can bail her out like Francisco pushing or something killing the offending model (a stalker charging and companioning into Francisco can put a dent in most stuff without too much armour and might net you a freshly summoned stalker).  If you have a crew heavy on witchlings and went aggressive there is a 90% chance you have a withchling that you know is going to be dead this turn that you really really want to activate first. Since Francisco's buff has nothing to do with when Sonnia activates you just need to plan for him beginning each of his own activations within 2" of her or charging away from her when you think she will be safe on the next turn.

 

Sorry if I went a little too much into detail but I really don't think there is a satisfying way to create a rule for when your master needs to go and I tried to explain what I wheigh into the decision instead.