How many snipers are too many snipers?

[hydranixx]

Having played almost exclusively so far with short ranged crews, I'd really like to change things up and play with long ranged models. Or more accurately, base a crew around a bunch of snipers*.

I'm interested in stacking 3-4 Katanaka Snipers with Shenlong, Yu & his Peasants for long ranged cheesy synergies. My (admittedly naive) opinion is that Shen & Yu are both flexible in their own right with their various stances. They also seem capable of nullifying condition-based and movement based-synergies that my opponent opts for, which is great for holding the fort while the snipers plink away at scheme runners etc.

Can anyone recommend other supporting enforcers or minions that can help out?

*I am well aware this type of crew is spending a lot of its stones on raw firepower, and would lack mobility. I know that it would be on the back foot for many schemes; I don't intend to play such a crew unless the strategy & schemes on offer make it a vaguely viable choice.

[D_acolyte]

Katanaka Snipers are Rare 2, so if you have 3 you are braking the rules. Even if they where not rare 2 I would not run more than 2 because of the strain on stones vs pay off of objectives.

[Yvarre]

Right, so three snipers is too many as per their rule.  Two can be pretty fantastic, though, in corner deployment with one on each flank.  Not only does it save you the AP of having to get that far out, it also challenges your opponent with the proposition of needing to use all the AP to get to both flanks if they want to try to remove them.  Meanwhile, they can weaken whatever does decide to advance on them, and as early as turn 2, you can have a scheme marker on both flanks.  This isn't particularly synergistic with Shen Long, however, as he likes them to be in a 6" bubble of him to get the free focus. 

If I'm going Sniper blitz with Shen, I'll often take Toshiro along as well.  Witness a Miracle drops a scheme and summons an extra peasant who can each activate to force the opponent to possibly deploy unfavorably or turtle to avoid getting shot.  Toshiro can then use the scheme marker to give the snipers both focus.  Then each sniper can take a focus shot, 0 for a focus, and then take another one.  If Sensei Yu is near them, granted only a 3" aura, he'll make their Sh stat 6.  This combo is pretty stone intensive, but it can be devastating on a fairly open board.

[Mutter]

1 hour ago, Yvarre said:

If I'm going Sniper blitz with Shen, I'll often take Toshiro along as well.  Witness a Miracle drops a scheme and summons an extra peasant who can each activate to force the opponent to possibly deploy unfavorably or turtle to avoid getting shot.  Toshiro can then use the scheme marker to give the snipers both focus.  Then each sniper can take a focus shot, 0 for a focus, and then take another one.  If Sensei Yu is near them, granted only a 3" aura, he'll make their Sh stat 6.  This combo is pretty stone intensive, but it can be devastating on a fairly open board.

With two peasants you don't need Toshiro for this; both peasants can give give focus to the snipers, who can then shoot focussed twice (with Shen giving out focus for a 0).

[Lakshman]

If you really wanted to have 3-4 snipers, you can always hire Freikorps Trappers/Hans as mercenaries (there's still a limit of 2 mercenaries). Wouldn't recommend that though. And with McCabe you can also bring Austringers - not your typical sniper, but still benefits from increased range with focus, and can be extremely useful thanks to ignoring LoS and the "Deliver orders" action.

[daniello_s]

NVM

[ArcticPangolin]

Something else to consider is the Shadow/y Emissary, it's got to slog up the field but can give a  to damage on enemies on Moderate and Severe damage who were hit by a Focussed attack. I've been planning to give it a go with Shenlong when I get him but don't play often enough these days

[OneLittleThunder]

The only time I can recall bringing more than one Katanaka Sniper was a "perfect storm" game where the setup was something like: Corner deployment, Squatter's Rights, with Inspection in the scheme pool. The Snipers deployed next to the outermost Squat markers and could spend their first turns firing, then flip a marker and move back to the Inspection zone on turn 2. Good times...

[hydranixx]

Ah, yes, Austringers. They really have a habit of finding their way into every crew somehow, don't they?

I don't think I'd go for Trappers; I like Katanaka Snipers specifically because they're snipers who happen to also be no joke in melee. I'll have to call curtains on spamming in Malifaux; it seems like all the fun options to spam are excluded from doing just that.

[SinJ]

Ten Thunders are pretty spoiled with the Katanaka Snipers. The Trapper is still a solid piece but in Thunders I would definitely reach for the Katanaka first but rarely more than one.

[InvokeChaos]

Off-topic: Hai everyone! Had to take a break from the forums due to work >_<

On-topic: One of my favorite "bunch-up" lists is Shenlong, Yu, two snipers and the emissary + whatever I have points left for (sometimes I run two archers instead with blot the sky cuz reasons) and the LRM for combo.

Basically, the goal is to use shenlong to do things... I really only need three AP with him usually. He pitches wandering and emissary gains fast. LRM goes and gets focus 3 then Emissary activates, fasts yu, draws me cards and moves into some nice position for later. Yu steps up now, pulls the snipers with him and fasts them, pushing them into LoS postions.

First sniper: 0 action to focus, 1ap shoot with focus. 2ap focus. Fast ap shoow with focus. Second sniper: repeat.

What I like about this is that I don't stop moving. All of my pieces are still advancing, just kind of staying in this 6" bubble of each other for the perks. It's cute, not necessarily effective everywhere, but I have fun playing it and that's the more important thing for me