Use of Willie?

[surly]

Since Miss Fire is about to see release at GenCon and I don't own Willie yet, I'm curious what the best use for them would be.

 

Tbh I never really considered buying Willie since I considered him rather underwhelming, but I read the card again recently and have to admit he's probably better than I initially thought.

However I still don't really see in which schemes and strategies he can really shine, so I thought I'll ask here where you field him.

 

Thanks a lot, cheers!

[katadder]

I tend to use him in my kaeris and mei feng crews.

he's good at going through armour, he can add to the fire, he can get your guys out of melee

general useful for guard the stash or turf war type scenarios where you get crowds.

[retnab]

I find my enemies have a way higher fear of Willie than I'd normally expect, and he usually gets focus fired pretty quick in my games.  But I've liked him as a bit of ranged in a Mei Feng crew, and Ironsides giving him Hand Picked Men is fantastic (plus he can drop effectively a 1 damage blast on a walk onto your Oxfordians, giving them HPM too).  I haven't tried it yet, but I figure pairing his Set Charge with a Union Miner's False Claim and/or Gluttony's Rhythm To Those Who Hunger sounds like a pretty nice deal too.

As for schemes and strats, he wants something that makes your opponent clump up like Guard The Stash or Extraction.  His range isn't amazing so if he can't catch up to the enemy he's not going to do much.  However the fact that he drops blasts on Wk actions and on his death means if he gets there he'll always get the chance to at least do *something* to the enemy.

[Jordon]

Willie is quite awesome. He has a decent ranged attack (that is just as effective in melee) which ignores armour which is pretty unique. He's also all but immune to charges with his (0) unless the opponent REALLY wants him to die (or gets a lucky initiative flip). Even his ability to ignore LOS can really mess up an enemy crew and put pressure where the opponent thought he may have been safe. 

 

With Ironsides, he goes from great to amazing as he can reliably drop those blast markers. 

 

 

[bertmac]

Good for getting fast on gunsmiths if you have rams in hand when he walks.

Also good for killing sorrows with the walk ability as sorrows have low defence and it ignores incorporeal.

Good for campaigns give him +1sh and his indirect fire is still awesome.

If you think your opponent is bringing armour too.

As above also hands out burning so good for kaeris and mei feng.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

As I guy who plays a lot of Ironsides, I get a lot of use out of Willie. He does great outside of Toni's bubble, so I run him on a flank for most games. He either takes out scheme runners, ties up important models, or comes crashing into the party where he'll do the most damage. Heck, sometimes I have him as a scheme runner if I really need it.

[DrEvilmonki]

I am not an experienced player, I only have my ironsides crew + willie + gunsmiths and a fire gamin at the moment. But Willie has played a staring role in a number of the battles I have had so far. As someone else mentioned some opponents fear him a bit more than they need to and so you can use him to disrupt their plans somewhat or to make them focus somewhere else. I used his wheelbarrow of doom first round in my last game to wound both gunsmiths and an oxfordian mage for Toni's hand picked men (and was able to cheat one gunsmith to fast as well). Willie was then free to act as scheme runner down my flank while Toni and the rest of the crew destroyed the Ortega's (my opponent did make some mistakes and is as inexperienced as I am though).

He's pretty quick, can utilise scheme markers, has decent defense and ok damage and possibly burning. Immune to blasts is useful against the likes of papa loco and Rasputina. 

[DrEvilmonki]

I couldn't find an answer with a search so sorry if this appears somewhere else. Can Willie damage himself with his wheelbarrow of doom? He ignores damage caused by effects but the wheelbarrow of doom, while it uses a blast marker the damage isn't listed as . I imagine he is going to ignore it, but would be nice to be able to include himself for hand picked men damage.

Actually also if he is targeted by an attack with blast say 2/3/4 does he ignore any damage from that attack (including weak - which doesn't have the icon) or is he only ignoring the actual blast markers - so would take the damage if he is the original target?

[bertmac]

He just ignores damage from blast markers so if he is the original target of the attack he will take that much damage. He can't be damaged by his own blast from wheelbarrow of doom. 

Remember that your own models hit by the wheelbarrows blasts have to flip for defense as it isn't an opposed dual.