Viks as a Side Project

[Ammanas]

Hey All 

I'm a dedicated Arcanist player, but when I first started looking into Malifaux Viktoria caught my eye but at the time she sounded too complicated and like her required too much knowledge of the game, schemes and tactics for a newbie. So I shied away.

Now with 4 Arcanist masters in hand, I feel myself drawn to the Viks once again (I blame a recent watching of sin city and Sucker Punch) but don't want to go to deep into Outcasts, just enough to get a decent Viks game in every now and then for something different. 

So apart from Hired Swords, should I look at Vanessa and maybe the Wokou Raiders?

Thoughts and suggestions? I'm thinking crew + 2 small boxes.

P.s Johan doesn't count as I will be getting him for my M&SU shennanigans

P.p.s I also have Performers (who are Mercs) if you feel they work within this crew play style

[Freman]

Viks are basically glass cannons that kill pretty much whatever you aim them at, but in turn go down if your opponent has a chance to focus on them.

Because they're pretty much independent of their crew, they don't support non-sisters and they don't gain much from non-sisters (although librarians are very helpful) you just build your crew to do the strats and schemes, and let the sisters run around killing, or even using their mobility to accomplish schemes and strats.

Most people recommend the Hired Guns box, as it gives you a librarian and trapper (ranged shooting is always nice), and Von Schill is a good solid master.

Vanessa is good, but she works very well with Lazarus, who is another small box. Wokou Raiders don't seem like they add much to the sisters that you don't get with Ronin anyway, but I'd have to play them to be sure, of course.

I'd go with Hired Swords, Lazarus, and Vanessa as your three purchases myself.

[Ammanas]

 

2 hours ago, Freman said:

Vanessa is good, but she works very well with Lazarus.

I'd go with Hired Swords, Lazarus, and Vanessa as your three purchases myself.

If Vanessa wasnt a factoring partof the decision?

[Freman]

The box gives you the Viks, Taelor, the Student, and three Ronin. By my reckoning that's 32 stones plus upgrades. The Viks and Taelor are good beaters, and the Ronin can work as schemers. Ranged damage is a concern, there's nothing much there, which is why I have the Trappers and Librarian. Vanessa has reasonable ranged damage, with Ca 9 when she's on the centreline, and Lazarus does well there too (which is why I suggested them). Vanessa can also spend 2AP to heal all sisters on the table, which is nice.

Convict Gunslingers are good ranged units, although Sue outclasses them for one stone more. Hans is a fair substitute Trapper, although he's not quite as good for his cost. There's Hannah of course, but she works best with a decent range of Ca attacks to borrow. I suppose grabbing Anna Lovelace along with Hannah would provide an amusing combination of two sisters who in fluff can't really stand each other, but do combine nicely on the table. They also allow you to draw eight cards and discard one, which is like spending a stone each turn for free.

Bishop and Killjoy are good melee fighters, although of course being Viks, they're not short of that themselves. Dead Outlaws are shooty, and can be picked up at the Black Friday sale, although actually picking up the Parker gang would give you Mad Dog and the Bandidos, who are reasonable ranged units too. Our best pure scheme runner is the Winged Plague, but they don't really fit the Viks' aesthetic. Since you're getting Johan (maybe Johanna will be for sale on Black Friday) anyway you'll have him/her.

Although it's a bit spendy, the Crossroads Seven provide some interesting models that can also be hired as mercenaries.

I'm terrible at giving advice like this, because eventually I'll just say, "Buy all the toys".

[Franchute]

The malifaux child could be good as well.

[admiralvorkraft]

Yeah, Malifaux Child is probably the first buy. After that I would get Vanessa and Sue, maybe Bandidos if you're worried about matching aesthetic with your scheme runners.

[Chou]

Sorry, but I don't see why the Malifaux Child seems to be so important with the Viks. If it's because of its healing action, the Librarian and Vanessa seem better choice to me. Could you please tell me why would it be important in the band? 

[Cedar]

Probably because Child can cast Sisters in battle/fury instead of Victoria.

[Ammanas]

Building from this, is Parker and gang a crew that would synergise with the Viks?

I like the sounds of Parkers Scheme marker shennanigans  and the cowboy thing. 

So as a 2 part question. 

Would Hired Swords, Fist full of Scrip, Vaness and potential some Convict Gunslingers work well as a hire pool, and would that be all a casual gamer need for Outcasts to cover most strat/schemes and have a little variation from Arcanist style of play?

 

[daniello_s]

As I'm planning to go back to my old love (aka Katana-Twins ;)) based on my previous (and long) experience with them I can say that what you definitely need is: Johana (for additional punch and condition removal), Malifaux Child (for freeing up Ash from casting Sisters in Fury) and some cheap scheme runners (not only for scheme running but also for building up number of activations as Viks love to wait till there is good time for assault). 

I also think that Vanessa is kind of trap (as she is Sister so she is must have by many opinions) and can take better options than her. 

I like Emissary with Viks Conflux - he looks good pushing Johana, Ash/Pokey or Sue into position. Also you can stick Regeneration on Sue which makes Hurt almost a free card each turn. 

At the moment I have 9 models strong Viks crew which should perform well in almost all strategies/schemes so we will see

[keget]

daniello_s, that's not fair to say you have a great idea for 9 model Vik crew and not post it.  Please fix that asap.  ?

Thanks,

Steven

[daniello_s]

I didn't say I have great idea

Anyway I'm planning to use this for the start:

50 SS Outcasts Crew

Viktoria of Ashes + 5 Pool

 - Sisters in Fury (2)

 - Sisters in Spirit (1)

 - Oath Keeper (1)

Malifaux Child (2)

Viktoria of Blood (0)

 - Oath Keeper (1)

 - Mark of Shez'uul (2)

Hodgepodge Emissary (10)

 - Conflux of Avarice (0)

Sue (8)

Johan (6)

 - Oath Keeper (1)

The Winged Plague (4)

The Winged Plague (4)

Hodgepodge Effigy (4)

 

 (exported from CrewFaux)

There is enough SS in the pool for  if Pokey/Ash wants to use Whirlwind, to get more cards at the start of the turn or for damage prevention. Also Effigy should allow to generate 1 or 2 stones in the game as well.

On turn 1 Emissary gives Companion trinket to Pokey and Regeneration one to Sue. He will also push Johan/Sue which would help with their slow Wk.

Plagues would run the schemes with support from Effigy and Emissary if needed. 

 

[Akodo Harid]

23 hours ago, daniello_s said:

 

I also think that Vanessa is kind of trap (as she is Sister so she is must have by many opinions) and can take better options than her.

Get out of my head Daniello!

 

Seriously, I'm finding that the more I play Viks and do well, the less often I use her. When I do, I'm using her to shove Lazarus around. I realize that the Sister heal is great! But I'm relying more on Blood to get that done. In fact, I'm thinking that she fits better with Iron Levi (but I don't play Levi so this is purely speculation. Parker/Viks are my otp apparently). I've had 9 model crews with Viks that did well at my local meta, but I'm finding I usually end up playing the all star team. Malifaux Child though is stapled to that crew.

Gotta say though, nothing says love like  the Malifaux Child securing me points after casting Sisters in Fury. "Just like you" indeed.

[CapnBloodbeard]

On ‎11‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 8:01 PM, Chou said:

Sorry, but I don't see why the Malifaux Child seems to be so important with the Viks. If it's because of its healing action, the Librarian and Vanessa seem better choice to me. Could you please tell me why would it be important in the band? 

His heal is only 1AP, compared to Vanessa's 2AP heal.  I've never seen the point in running the Librarian and vanessa myself.

I like to run MC along with Vanessa, and keep them out of sight a bit, maybe hunting down scheme runners (because Vanessa dies so easily).  The MC will heal Vanessa so all the sisters heal off that.  MC can use his other AP to cast one of the master's actions - which given the buffing of the Viks is of massive value.  doing it this way with Vanessa also keeps MC out of harm's way, whereas otherwise he wouldn't be able to keep up with the Viks so his heal is useless.

SoC is 4AP so more expensive....can cast fast, and can move the sisters around.  So if you like to use the movement tricks of the sisters then that's when you use SoC.  I'd rather use the healing and buffing from MC.  Personal choice.  SoC can be good to pull Viks out of trouble, but I'd rather the buffing, healing and extra 2 SS

I'm liking the look of the Wokou raiders myself, I'm thinking of getting a box.

 

On ‎23‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 9:21 AM, Akodo Harid said:

I've had 9 model crews with Viks that did well at my local meta, but I'm finding I usually end up playing the all star team. Malifaux Child though is stapled to that crew.

Gotta say though, nothing says love like  the Malifaux Child securing me points after casting Sisters in Fury. "Just like you" indeed.

9 model team?  All star list?  What are those crew lists out of interest?

[Akodo Harid]

20 hours ago, CapnBloodbeard said:

9 model team?  All star list?  What are those crew lists out of interest?

Sure thing. Here's what I have.

50 SS Outcasts "All-Star" Crew
Viktoria of Ashes + 6 Pool
- Sisters in Fury (2)
- Survivalist (1)
- Synchronized Slaying (2)
Malifaux Child (2)
Taelor (10)
- Oath Keeper (1)
Viktoria of Blood (0)
- Mark of Shez'uul (2)
- Tally Sheet (1)
Sue (8)
- Return Fire (1)
Freikorps Librarian (7)
- Oath Keeper (1)
Johan (6)
- The Bigger They Are (1)

For this one, I play it if I see center of the table schemes/strats hunting party or killy schemes. The way I figure it, it isn't really going to be able to hunt scheme runners, but if the strat requires being in the middle then I have enough of a threat bubble that anything that comes near is insta-gibbed. And since Malifaux Child hangs WAY in a lonely corner doing sick tricks, I never have to worry about Hunting Party.

This list is assuming Arcanists, but I'd be switching the 10 spot for Hodgepodge if I sniffed out that I was facing a fellow beater crew (cause Hodgepodge Emissary can scheme run on his own and pull people out of danger), or Strongarm Suit if Quick Murder is in the pool, where he will NEVER go into melee and charge my own guys to get out of engagement (and will have scout the field as an emergency NOPE button).

50 SS "Experimental 9 Models" Outcasts Crew
Viktoria of Ashes + 5 Pool
- Survivalist (1)
- Sisters in Fury (2)
- Synchronized Slaying (2)
Malifaux Child (2)
Viktoria of Blood (0)
- Mark of Shez'uul (2)
- Oath Keeper (1)
Sue (8)
- Return Fire (1)
Johan (6)
- The Bigger They Are (1)
Freikorps Trapper (6)
Freikorps Trapper (6)
The Winged Plague (4)
The Winged Plague (4)

The two 6 slots are completely dependent on the pool. If I see things that require pinging enemies to half and then cutting their heads off or if I feel like doing Inspection and the center line is a firing lane, then I do this. Otherwise I put Ronin in their place OR I might feel cheeky and try out 1 Wokou raider + Desperate Merc or Hodgepodge Effigy depending on need. The winged plagues are my minions of choice for any "interact with enemy" schemes since they get that end of turn push. PLUS, they are good for pinging damage and burning cards because I'm never going to give a model blight outside of a Hamelin crew, so that's free positive flips, almost as if I smacked a Desperate Merc around.

Usually though, assuming I don't need trappers or plagues, I've experimented with 1 Desperate Merc + 1 Hodgepodge effigy. Two Freikorpsmenn, and Big jake, as my usual sweet spot for Stones in a Viks crew is 3.

Now, I know the question is "why not use void wretches" (My local meta asks me that all the time...all. the. time.) In truth, I don't like them and I enjoy playing with the hand aspect for the positive flips for the twins, so I'm already playing juggle the cards and don't want to burn stuff just to make them tougher targets. Plus, the local meta doesn't use enough Bury that I ever missed being able to chomp on Papa's underpants. (Edit: Plus, why slow or fast when I can give out the best condition in the game. DEAD...the blood lust in Viks play is very real).

In short, my Viks crews are all centered on threat projection and bubbles of not-so-unsafe. They can't scheme run for crap unless it's interacting with opponent (Plagues are AMAZING as a first wave when Marked for Death is in the pool). But that's what Parker is for.

Edited December 22, 2016 by Akodo Harid

[Freman]

People won't be burying Papa any more, because Papa in a box is no longer a thing. However it will be fun for Tara as she can just rush over and bury Papa, or Francisco, and their buff will instantly disappear.