The revenge of sam hopkins

[4thstringer]

Ok, I have been looking at wave four and am ready to unleash a new terror onto the world of alpha strikes.   Which probably means I have a rule wrong or have completely overestimated the power of this move.   Heres the list

50 SS Guild Crew
Nellie Cochrane + 7 Pool
 - Delegation (1)
 - Misleading Headlines (1)
 - Embedded (1)
The Printing Press (3)
Samael Hopkins (9)
 - Vengeance Bullet (1)
 - A Debt To The Guild (1)
Witchling Handler (8)
Papa Loco (7)
 - Expert Sleuth (1)
Guild Austringer (6)
Field Reporter (4)
Field Reporter (4)

 (exported from CrewFaux)

The idea is that a  field reporter will double move up,  then the austringer will have her drop a scheme marker.   Loco will give Sam plus flips to damage,  then relax for future suicide bombing runs.   The handler will move up and put out her aura. Nellie will push activations with misleading headlines to try to get last or close to last activation.   She will then give sam fast and tport him to the scheme marker.   If he isnt in range she can further propaganda him forward.  Sam can then pick out a master or hench, drop vengence bullet and debt to the guild and rapid fire on that major model.  That model will get min damage 6 and burning on the first shot with a plus to thr flip, with a ricochet doing min 4 and a burning. to a nearby model.  After that it is only min damage 5 and additional burning.  And get gets 4 shots total.  

 

Assuming he doesnt die before next turn, blow those two expert slueths to either let him rapid fire again or to use nellie to get him out of harms way and healed up.

Its crew intensive, and the handler in particular doesnt do more than bodyguard for Sam.   But I feel like there is a lot of potential to remove a large chunk of crew between the shots and ricochets with plus bonus damage before they can respond.   And if nellie can keep people off Sam he could survive a lot longer than normal.

[trikk]

First problem with this list is:

I see only one Expert Sleuth

 

Maybe swap one Reporter for a Watcher? He has 6" move and can ignore cover.

Maybe instead of taking Embedded you can just hit Samael with Propaganda once or twice (hoping for the 1) and then heal him with evidence bonus from Guild Funds or with giving fast and triggering Sabbatical?

I think Sam`s damage spread is not worth Papa Loco. I would probably get an extra beater - Phiona maybe? Less risk of him blowing up in your face.

Also the target has to be within 18" of your deployment and in LoS for the initial attack or you`ll have to walk. (8" of the presses and 10" for the Handler aura to work)

 

All in all I think there`s too much invested in the Sam alpha strike. He could do well without Papa and Handler and the watcher swapped for one reporter would be great. (Fly + remove cover after enemy activated a bunch of models so while Sam doesn`t do the burning, he still ignores cover)

[Myyrä]

If I were to play a list that incorporates Samael alpha strike with Nellie I would go with:

50 SS Guild Crew
Nellie Cochrane + 7 Pool
- Misleading Headlines (1)
- Delegation (1)
- Expert Sleuth (1)
The Printing Press (3)
Samael Hopkins (9)
- A Debt To The Guild (1)
- Vengeance Bullet (1)
Brutal Emissary (10)
- A Debt To The Guild (1)
Witchling Handler (8)
- Expert Sleuth (1)
Guild Austringer (6)
Field Reporter (4)

(exported from CrewFaux)

Nellie can give Fast to the Emissary and Samael. She can then use Propaganda to have the Emissary bury Sam. When Emissary activates he can walk up to 18" and drop Sam into base contact with himself. Nellie can use Misleading Headlines to make sure that most of your opponent's models have activated before that. Another alternative would be to use Curfew on Samael to slow everyone who hasn't activated yet. (Or maybe it could even go to the Emissary. I'm not 100% if it would work, because I don't have the card with me so I can't check the wording.) There's also two expert sleuths to help you win initiative on the next turn.

[4thstringer]

I thought I had a second sleuth on the handler.  

I think you are right about papa being too expensive for too little gain.   I might flip it out with both and see how that would play out. 

I like the emissary idea and the curfew thing is interesting, but I hate to lose either of those damage buffs.

 

[Myyrä]

Apparently Curfew does work on Emissary. You can put it on him and pop it before Samael unburies. Because Sam isn't on the table you don't have any models available to activate. Too bad you can't use that trick with any master specific upgrades.

[4thstringer]

Gave it a go tonight.  Sam killed Barbaros, teddy took off 4 stones and put somewhere between 5-7 wounds on lilith by the top of two.    Pretty nice.  And that's with barbaros making me not shoot for ricochet on my first turn. 

[trikk]

Teddy took off 4 stones? You stoned 4 times to survive? Maybe add Frank to the List because with 7Df and 8 Wp you`re pretty set safe if overextended.

[Myyrä]

7 hours ago, 4thstringer said:

Gave it a go tonight.  Sam killed Barbaros, teddy took off 4 stones and put somewhere between 5-7 wounds on lilith by the top of two.    Pretty nice.  And that's with barbaros making me not shoot for ricochet on my first turn. 

Which list did you end up playing?

[4thstringer]

4 hours ago, trikk said:

Teddy took off 4 stones? You stoned 4 times to survive? Maybe add Frank to the List because with 7Df and 8 Wp you`re pretty set safe if overextended.

I took off their 4 stones between trying to keep Barbados alive and doing damage to lilith.  Sam only got hit by the story encounter prison wagon the whole time. 

 

3 hours ago, Myyrä said:

Which list did you end up playing?

I took the one above but changed out papa loco and a field reporter for emissary with curfew, and dropped embedded.  Even with slow, teddy almost wrecked the whole thing with gobble you up to engage.    I had to burn a high card to avoid that. 

[Surrealistik]

Nonsense, Sam, like Lucius, isn't allowed to be good.

[Endalaus]

Emissary could deliver Loco to an enemy scheme marker if they happen to place one on the other side of the field.

[4thstringer]

I've done that kind of thing with the emissary and papa.  Emissary also likes papa box for both his damage and for papas attack with blasts.