McCabe: Tips for an aspiring Indiana Jones

[SprinkleOfSalt]

I picked up the Wild Ones box and I'm planning on playing him this weekend against a friend. The problem is, I have no clue how to build a list for McCabe.

Every time I look at him I feel like I'm either building the list wrong or I feel like I would just be better off playing him as Guild.

In a week our small group has a local tournament and I'd like to play him but I'm just not sure how. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tadaka]

Few tips others may disagree with me but how I play him.

The generic 10t totem is amazing.

Take promises upgrade on him every time. Amazeballs

10t Get fast from a LOT of models. A nimble reactivating, fast, wastrel doing 3 min damage with a sabre wrecks every ones plans.

Great models for mccabe.

Shadow Emmesary

wastral

torakage

mounted guard

Take at least 8 models. Getting out activated sucks for McCabe.

[Eclipse]

In addition:
- McGabe loves minions (Reactivate). There quite a few quality Minion models in Thunders, and he can bring some over from Guild.
- He is also great at powering up other models by covering their weaknesses or simply by throwing the Saber.
He can do everything well - from scheming to control to killing, but is especially good whenever speed is required.

[OneLittleThunder]

If you're taking Guild Hounds, take Luna; otherwise the Kamaitachi is awesome. McCabe also loves...

Beaty minions that love to reactivate:

Dawn Serpent

Jorogumo

Katanaka Sniper

Mobile minions that become death machines with a Glowing Saber:

Guild Hounds

Oiran (if someone has Hidden Agenda)

Tengu

Ten Thunders Brothers

Torakage

Wandering River Monks

Durable Minions that can take advantage of either or both:

Illuminated

Rail Workers

[Trample]

Since you're using the wild ones set I would absolutely include the mounted guard in your lists. If you're doing that, including several models with charge 7+ is a good idea since they can tag along with the mounted guard on a charge to significantly help apply force to a specific area. The hounds fit this category (and you can take 2 hounds and 2 mounted guard in TT). From TT things like the Lone Swordsman, Orian, Illuminated, Shadow Emissary, and Lust all have that prerequisite. Probably others too. I know the archers have an 8 charge, but you'll certainly want the sword if you're getting them up there. 

[InvokeChaos]

As above... identify if you want to run hound spam or not. Three hounds plus luna is 13 points for four activations and gives you some fantastic scheme control. 

If not running hounds, drop luna for the wonder weasel.

Terracotta Warriors from the new book are fun with him.

As to the rest... well pretty much anything works with him. Your goal should be to find minions and such that accomplish your scheme pool, then let McCabe make them terrifying or shore up their weaknesses.

Torakage are ridiculous with a sabre. Jorogumo are amazing with the strangemetal shirt. That extra Armor 1 is just enough to take them from survivable to seriously hard to shift.

The Emissary is nice because he gives access to a third relic, which is important because as mentioned above, Promises should always be on McCabe. It's so strong.

I happen to be a huge fan of 2x oiran with a terracotta warrior. You can get sabers on them both that way, (turn 1 if you use an emissary and attach the upgrade to the emissary) throw one the badge of speed and the other the strangemetal shirt. Suddenly they can't be charged, have armor 1, an amazing attack and get fast and focused as soon as Hidden Agenda procs. And that's before reactivate shenanigans. Sue is a good model that I like to run a lot these days, and he can wear the hidden agenda.

[InvokeChaos]

Sorry, I neglected to take into account this is a new pilot for you.

Couple of tips:

McCabe seems squishy, but with Promises and engaging someone, he's pretty tough. He does insane damage thanks to his critical strike trigger. Make sure you give him a cache of 5ish for prevention flips and don't be afraid to tango with the enemy! 

Black Flash is the reactivate button for minions on his Badge of Speed upgrade... always use it before passing it out. While there are certain minions that are better than others, giving minion reactivate can be useful.

I would probably play hounds McCabe before going into anything strange. It's fairly straight forward and hounds are insane with a saber and Luna. There's a trick with them were if you give a hound reactivate, he can chain-activate into himself, so toss him a saber, black flash him and then send him in to wreak havoc!

Torakage are very self sufficient and love a saber because they get + flips to attacks when not near allies. So you can reactivate one, send it over to do some damage and make it a serious threat for your opponent.

Don't forget the range on Loan, it's like 10" so make sure you don't go too far away, or when something dies, you don't want to lose the relic.

10T archer is fun cute. Archers ignore engagement and can just get up with the guard. You can give him a saber for a melee attack or use your mounted guard to charge and disengage them from an enemy that gets too close. Lots of fun tricks that.