Bought Wild Ones, now what? 10T Version

[Kirby]

Hello!  I picked up the Wild Ones set and it is gorgeous.  I'm a bit lost as to where to go from here.  I'm also still torn on 10T vs Guild, but we'll see how that goes later.

I know he likes his Hounds, and Austringers are always good.  Queeg is cheaper than Sidir as far as a Promises battery, but does he do anything else?  Is Sidir good?  How does it all that fit into McCabe gameplay?  Are there any other models I should be looking out for specifically on the 10T side of things?  Ten Thunder Brothers and Illuminated seem like strong options.  The Wandering River Monks seem more solid after their 0ss upgrade.  Any others?  Any particular models you would drag around with a Mounted Guard (non-leader Cg7+ models)?

[Dogmantra]

I only fairly recently started playing 10T with McCabe mainly. I love the Dawn Serpent. Drop reactivate on it every turn and you've got an extra 10 stones worth of activations for a 2 stone upgrade you were going to take anyway and a 6per turn.

I'm not sure how much is my limited pool & experience, but I like Sidir for what he does. I've not used Queeg, so maybe he'd hold Promises instead, but I like to bring three other upgrades on McCabe, so Sidir sometimes finds his way in. I like him for his Sh 7 but mainly Empty the Magazine, which forces a somewhat low TN wk duel, but 2 damage and slow is a pretty big penalty for failing. Perhaps when I get hold of the Emissary so I can outsource a third upgrade to that I will take him less, but eh he's decent.

Izamu is good too. Give him Badge of Speed and that helps make up for his terrible lack of slowness. Plus Elixir of Life can make him even more unkillable.

Although you forgo Luna (a most terrible crime, particularly when she's Iggy Pup), Kamaitachi is also an amazing totem choice for McCabe. It's basically a free card each turn and probably an extra heal + push on whoever you want it to. Plus DEATHSQUIRREL is almost as cool as sword doggo.

Not sure about Mounted Guard because I have the regular box and not the wild ones, and I'm not looking to buy too much into the guild side of things.

[Skitt_Happens]

Second on Dawn Serpent. You know that game when Hunting Party is in the pool and your opponent thinks they're clever because they've got one minion/Peon  (usually the totem) hiding at the back of the board? Reactive, and then give badge of speed to Dawn Serpent. Effective threat range of 42" on an sh7 attack - hide from that!

Basically, whatever you take with McCabe gets better, and high cost minions get ridiculous. You like Oiran? cg8 and disguised with Glowing Sabre will ruin anyone's day. Monks of High? 3 attacks on the charge, added survivability... all good. Whatever you like the look of will be good with McCabe.

[EnternalVoid]

Illuminated and 10T brothers are good but in different ways.  The Saber is less necessary on the Illuminated as their damage spread is the same as the Saber's default critical strike and has the same Ml.  So it is really the things the saber ignore that would be a bonus for them.  Instead Illuminated like the Elixir of Life, Strangemetal Shirt, and Badge of Speed more *to be fair everyone who does not have Nimble loves the Badge*.  With the Elixir of Life your opponent really will have to kill them in a single turn or else they will recover 4+ wounds easily.

10T brothers in turn can already heal or get armor from their (0) action but if you get a 4" melee they can amusing things with the Saber.

Oiran can be interesting with the Mounted Guard as they have a Charge high enough to to saddled with them and their Disguise can protect them from counter charges.  There is also the 0ss upgrade that one of your guys can carry so if the model carrying it does damage to an enemy all Oiran in LOS get both Fast and Focus +1.

Thunder Archers also have a charge stat but no melee weapon, so if push comes to shove you can arm them to fight.  But generally McCabe can just push them out of combat with the push from throwing an upgrade.  Or push them around into position or give them Nimble so they have their AP for attacking.  With Reactivation, Rapid Fire, and discarding two of any cards you can have an Archer launch 6 attacks in a turn that do not randomize into combat.

A Torakage can be interesting with the Saber as well, I remember a game where I threw one to it and let it attack some minions.  With its Df6 it stayed alive and with the positive to hit and damage from their Works Best Alone ability it was doing a pretty good chopping them up *the positive to damage was making it easier to get Moderate for 4 damage*.  Rail workers can sort of do the same with their (0) as it gives them Positive to Hit and Damage till end of turn.  Though they have decent damage themselves so often they will like Elixir of Life more.  Badge of Speed can also be nice on a Torakage with their ability to walk out of combat and a Walk of 6.

Really as stated, McCabe just makes other models better.  Often it is just being able to see what each upgrade can do for a model, deciding on models for a strat and scheme, and being able to decide on what you need to do every turn.

[qoob]

And the Oscar for best McCabe minion model goes to...Dawn Serpent. Sometimes people forget that Dawn Serpent has reactivate...gnihihi...

You can try Warden too. Pretty resilient and good with the saber.