Sparks, Porkchops, Survivors, Emissary and... Sky Pirates! Opinions needed

[Jivetyrant]

With various pre-releases and the Gencon sale looming on the horizon I'd love to hear people's experiences with the various new releases.  I have not used any of them aside from the Emissary, who I have only used with Mah Tucket.

I will most likely be purchasing all of the new releases for completion's sake, but I'm struggling to figure out how to use most of the new models effectively.  Specifically, when to use them INSTEAD of other, existing models.  

I can see using Sparks with a Pigapult (there's some obvious synergy there) but don't know that giving it fast is worth the 7 stones since he doesn't do whole lot else, especially since he'd have to hang back near it and wouldn't reliably be able to use his other abilities for a good portion of the game.  

Survivors... well, I just can't see a reason to use them over other options.

Porkchops seem like a good way to get an extra 50mm pig into a Ulix crew to summon off of, but other than that I don't see a lot of use for them.  With only 6 wounds even having armor +1 and Df 6 means they are pretty easy to take down.  I can see taking one with Sparks to get the most use out of his abilities and playing aggressively with them, but that's 14 stones....

I like the Emissary and have made him a staple of my Mah Tucket lists as they work incredibly well together.... but I only her to the table rarely.  I can see using him with Som'er, but my primary master is Ophelia and I can't imagine taking the Emissary with her.  I haven't thought much about him with our other masters.

I do own Mei Feng and intend to hire Porkchops and Sparks into her crew as there is some obvious synergy there.

I'm not sure if the NDA for wave 4 pretesters is still in effect, but I'd really appreciate anyone's experience running Zipp and crew.  They look amazing!

[Blacks85]

You can find a very fresh topic about the Emissary in this section.

Regarding Mechanical piggy? I've tried it a couple of times...but ti's definitively too fragile for 7 SS in my opinion. He has a very unusable (0) action and you can't either summon from it because only 6 wounds? It's pretty low...Boosting  charges is nice, but not enough to justify it. I believe is a good option with Mei Feng.

Survivors, tried as well but - yeah - it's a "don't know what sense it could have" model. Not bad, not good...I don't know where I can take him over a cheaper bayou gremlin activation or a 2SS more expensive real strong model. Probably you'll never hire him...

Gluttony is pretty sick...I don't like it at all.

Sparks is interesting, but I didn't try it. It's a little too fragile as well, but the ability to stop enemy models to "interact-targetting friendly model" has a lot of potential in my opinion.

[Dogmantra]

Survivors... yeah I don't think anyone is really sure about them. I've used a couple before on VASSAL just to have tried them and they weren't bad. I think they suffer from the same problem that Gators do - both Slop Haulers and Lightning Bugs, two of the best models in the faction are also both 5 stone minions and they just do everything. I think once the Survivors come out physically we might get some new tech just from more people using them. One fairly niche use is that even when they've used "This Thing Shoots!?" their attack is still Ml, so a little synergy with Mah there as well as possibly boosting their damage with a Nurse, although you have to jump through hoops to actually then make them attack at range because "This Thing Shoots!?" is a Ca. :c

Best case scenario, you could have a Survivor activate, reckless, turn into shoot mode, shoot twice and then focus. Then activate a Nurse to give it Hallucinogens for +2 damage, and then have Zoraida Obey it to focused shoot and deal a potentially 7 max damage, which is pretty dang good for a 5 stone model... just it took a lot of actions to get there.

I've not played with Sparks myself, but I've played against him twice and WOWEE, Hostile Work Environment is frustrating! One of those times was in a Mei Feng crew and I got pretty destroyed by Fast constructs there. Not so sure what you do with him in faction.

[wizuriel]

I tend to like survivors with Mah as she can do a good job buffing their MI and they have a pretty respectable damage track (and their ranged attack is still MI so Mah can really buff their shooting). With a slop hauler supporting them they make pretty decent road blocks for their point cost. 

 

Sparks I find super situational. If you're playing against a master with a lot of support he can be useful, most of the time though I find him beyond horrible. He requires a lot of resources to do his thing (making stuff fast) to the point you would probably be better off with a student of conflict. His damage isn't great considering you can get Francis for a bit more and he isn't very tanky. 

 

Mechanized porkchop I find teams well with Mah and rooster riders. Generally anything with a long charge range that can hopefully get additonal charges off in their activation pairs well with the mechanical porkchop

[Blacks85]

3 hours ago, wizuriel said:

I tend to like survivors with Mah as she can do a good job buffing their MI and they have a pretty respectable damage track (and their ranged attack is still MI so Mah can really buff their shooting). With a slop hauler supporting them they make pretty decent road blocks for their point cost. 

Honestly, looks cool at first sight being Ml also into ranged attacks...but then you realize that with 1SS more a Rooster rider is waiting for you...

and survivors go back to the case 

[Omenbringer]

I am actually most intrigued by the Survivors. I think they will play a lot better than they look, particularly when Sparks gives one Fast. A 4 AP Significant model that is also a Gremlin (so can be Truffle Shuffled around the board to position them in the best launching point) is a dangerous thing Scheme wise (and likely why this was made a 0 action). With some Gremlin Healing they can be an annoying Tar Pit that requires more attention than they should.

I think they will see there biggest utility with Som'er honestly since he can feed their Suit addiction and also buff them with Encouragement. Depending on Zipp's upgrades he may also have some utility with them, if nothing else his Noxious Smoke Tactical Action and a pair of these could block a lot of board space (210 mm or 8 & 1/4"), particularly if tied into terrain. As for their cost, well if they were cheaper than they would replace Bayou Gremlin's in a lot of ways.

I also see some utility in them with a Mechanical Porkchop "Tender". He buffs their Charges (and with Som'er's Encouragement this can get nastier) and his once per turn Scrap Marker drop can also aid in getting the Survivors disengaged from Combats (again aided further by Som'er providing that required suit for the trigger).

They will require a bit of a different play style than our other pieces but as of right now I think they offer a lot of "new" options that the faction didn't really have before, particularly at this lower price point. Additionally, these introduce a lot of design space for future models or upgrades.

[zeeblee]

The NDA is definitely still in effect. But here is some more official Supp info:

http://www.wyrd-games.net/zipp

[Four_N_Six]

I haven't used the survivors yet, but they're the only ones I've considered using.  Sparks I can see maybe using in some situations, maybe a campaign game where I want to theme mechanical for some reason?  I see myself using survivors with our new pal, Zipp.  Obviously we don't know what his crew is capable of, but I'd be pretty shocked if there weren't some other options for constructs or reasons to want more constructs in the crew.