Any Luck With Ironsides?

[E.T.A. Hoffman]

Man, it's been a while. But, I'm bored at work. 

 

Ironsides!! I want to like her but idk man. There's such a feast/famine thing with her. Has anyone had any luck with certain combos? 

I feel like, she excels against melee masters but if you run into anything else she's gunna have a hard time. 

Something I wanna try is taking Union Miners and probably Aionus. Drop a bunch of scheme markers and push them into place with Aionus. 

Then take Willie put up his 0 Aura Set Charges. Have Ironsides lure them into the schemes. 

 

Also throw burning bottles at things and give the Gunsmiths positives. 

 

THOUGHTS? 

[spooky_squirrel]

Well, to start, she's a control master.

Dedicated melee masters will kill her, eventually. Masters that are good at melee, but not dedicated, will spend the entire game tied up with her and not doing anything else. Dedicated melee beater henchman and enforcers will kill her. Francisco Ortega with Debt to the Guild can kill her in one activation (effective min damage 5). Henchmen and enforcers who are not melee monsters can end up spending the game tied up with her and not doing anything else. She's Ml 7 and gets a  on disengaging strikes. One of her upgrades gives her a (0) that forces Wp checks to try and not move in on or charge her. The Adrenaline mechanic has served me best by keeping her alive a bit longer than would be expected, and letting me place her as a (0) on the other side of models that she's tarpitting from melee beaters that want to kill her and have a good chance of doing so.

That's how she controls things herself, with regards to the opponent's force.

For your own forces, if your models are M&SU and they get a little dinged up for whatever reason, they get dialed in with  on attack and damage while near her. This makes a large portion of the hiring pool significantly nastier. She can also pull your models up the table out of their activation, by walking forward and challenging them to keep up with You Lookin' at me? You know what's better than an Oxfordian Mage walking up and potentially pushing a model 6" (or 8, with Nemesis Ward) out of position while hurting it? That same Mage furious casting with Focus-like effects on every shot, because they're already in position. Just hold off on the pushing the opposing model away until you've had a chance to set it on fire.

The models that benefit from this aren't just the Mages, Gunsmiths, and Miners, but some other serious hitters like Joss and Howard Langston. The Rail Golem is M&SU, so is The Captain. RG and Hank are seriously frightening beaters. Joss is a counter-attack kind of guy who takes a bit more to kill than others, and The Captain adds another control element to the crew. All of these guys get dialed up a notch when they're slightly banged up and working for Ironsides.

That's how she controls things for her crew, positioning and a passive aura buff.

 

Which brings up what you put her on the table for.

If the Strategy calls for being in table quarters or the center of the table, Ironsides and her crew can push people out of position and deny the Strategy for at least a turn. This can be enough to win the game. If the Strategy calls for killing things and picking up their heads, or just killing things for a bounty? You might want to consider other masters--because she's not helping on those strats directly and you might not have scheme selections that she can help with.

[Jordon]

Ironsides biggest problem is that she suffers from an identity crisis. You look at her card and immediately see "melee master" and that's really not the case. If you look at her more as an "opportunist" instead of brawler, you'll be doing yourself a big favour. 

I've played a lot of Ironsides since she came out and I've had to learn the hard way of how to get the most out of her. After all the those game, I can tell you her strongest trait is her unpredictability and her ability to switch up roles on the fly. She's doesn't have a big damage output, but in the right circumstances she'll absolutely crush. She can be really tanky but also very vulnerable. She can tar pit against the right models, or be incredibly mobile if the situation arrises. The thing about her is that she can do a whole bunch of things, but those things are situational and it takes experience to know when and where to apply her to make use of her abilities. 

I've tried bringing things from outside of her M&SU theme, but honestly there really isn't a need. Sure silent ones bring great attack and healing, mech rider brings scheming and summoning, Cassandra is... well Cassandra. But in most cases I found it better to just double down on M&SU and fix problems by eliminating models. HPM is just amazing and there are too many great M&SU options to take advantage of it. That's not to say that out of theme models are bad, because they aren't. I just find that when I take Ironsides, I try to maximize on what I consider her strongest ability. 

The most successful way I play her is to play her supportive on turn 1 -2. Use her "You looking at me" to pull my own models forward, or drag enemies into the open. It might even be worth causing some minor wounds on those turns to start benefiting from HPM. From there, I assess what my opponent is doing and what I can and cannot take on. If a big threat needs to be taken care of, don't use Ironsides, use her M&SU. Drag scheme runners into her engagement, build up adrenaline, go on a turn 4 - 5 rampage.

Don't be afraid to get her killed, just make sure your doing it for your own benefit. I probably have her live to see the end of the game only about 1/3 of the time, but her sacrifice is rarely ever in vain. 

[hydranixx]

3 hours ago, E.T.A. Hoffman said:

Also throw burning bottles at things and give the Gunsmiths positives. 

I always wanted to try this. It's probably one of the exceedingly few ways Gunsmiths can become potent (usually they're just trash, but when enemies are Burning, or Ironsides is around, they are a little better. Both at the same time? They actually have some appeal now. Triple positives on the attack are all kinds of fun). 

But I don't think many players find space for the Molotov upgrade on Ironsides. There's usually a lot of love for her other personal upgrades and sometimes she wants some combination of Seize the Day, Reservoir, Warding Runes etc. 

I'm not 100% sure if the same rules apply for Ironsides, but whenever new players get into Lilith and ask for advice, experienced players often tell them to play Lilith like she doesn't have a sword attack for the first 10 games. The idea is to exclusively learn how to use her utility; use her pulls, and pushes, and snares, learn how to position your own models and your forests well.

I believe Ironsides could be similar. If you pretend she literally doesn't have Melee attacks until turn 3/4 you will learn to get the most of her pulls, where to place her, how to efficiently buff your M&SU friends. When things start getting congested and points are scoring, that's when she starts tying up more models and killing things. That's really the heart and soul of Ironsides; support early, brawl late.

In addition to the models and crew choice advice that squirrel offered, I recommend Johan! While he'always popular, with Ironsides, he turns it up to 11. They complement each other perfectly, and his massive 3/4/6 damage spread absolutely adores the free focus and Solidarity buff. This is one of the few crews where his heal actually has some application too. I don't think any Ironsides list is complete without him

[KoboldThief]

I have limited experience but have found my main issue to be the tome requirement on the defence trigger. She really draws on the crews resource pool to operate and the adrenaline mechanic is somewhat underwhelming in its use. 

I will however say she puts out a respectable amount of damage, with challenge the crowd she's rather survivable so long as she gets in. Hand picked men is fantastic, i just think of it as free focus for theme crew. 

Also don't understand the love for gunsmiths, an upgrade for situational sh attacks on a melee master just doesn't tickle me right.

[hydranixx]

Oh, there's no love for Gunsmiths, don't worry. They're awful. They just happen to become less awful when Burning and Ironsides are in the equation.

I don't think she ever has upgrade space to buy Message from the Union, even if it was a decent pick.

[spooky_squirrel]

The suit requirement on the trigger is a little limiting, but with Challenge the Crowd giving you positives as long as you're engaged by enough people, it's easier to get the suit. The tricky part is to fail by enough to take some damage, but not by so much that you take serious damage.

Adrenaline is interesting, and I find that bringing the Emissary really helps out, as at the very least burning a point of Adrenaline to place in base contact can help tie up things that aren't where they want to be (or to get out of combat with something that will eat her alive).

 

I've tried the Message From the Union and Gunsmiths combination. When everything goes off, it's amazing to watch, but getting it off in the first place is not reliable. There ends up being a lot of moving pieces to get a 7 stone minion into a position where it's fast, shooting with all three AP, and at on every attack, with a baked in on the damage. I've used it to shoot down a burning Mah Tucket with a whole lot of non-preventable triggers, but it took about half of my activations to get the models lined up. This isn't something I would do in competitive play, so I would not recommend it for people looking for something reliable out of Ironsides' crew. You get to see a huge portion of your deck (for better or worse), but there's too much set up required, and at the end of the chain you need your opponent to have left your target burning and near at hand--which is terribly unreliable. I've done similar with Kaeris, but with her it literally only needs Kaeris activating, setting some things on fire, then the Gunsmith activating and shooting. Ironsides ends up needing Toni burning stuff, Mouse dragging the Gunsmith up, Gunsmith activating (at a minimum to get everything).

[retnab]

I really adore Ironsides.  I've been trying to do the whole "play 10 games with each master to get a feel for them" thing and so far this year Ironsides actually has the best win rate for me (WLD 7/2/1).  What I bring has wildly swung through the year but I haven't done much of a HPM build with her (when we get Amina I'm sure that will change), usually using her as a durable distraction and abusing her You Lookin' At Me to both move my models around and get my opponent out of position.  Usually I'll bring either Arcane Reservoir or Seize the Day, and 100% always Challenge the Crowd and Warding Runes.

Models I especially like with her are: The Captain (with Patron's Blessing) for the late game hammertime and early-mid game pushes; Cassandra for her usual shenanigans and Practiced Productions if it's relevant; Howard Langston if I want someone to deal with the enemy beaters personally; Lust for Now, Kiss! messing with my opponent's placement (moving a heavy hitter away from Ironsides and moving squishies into her melee mostly) and Proper Positions for another friendly push; Oxfordian Mages for some ranged beating and of course the Warding Rune buffs (if I have to pick one it's Nemesis for the built in , if just two Blood and Nemesis for condition immunity especially if the pool has Marked or Exhaust); Arcane Effigy for condition removal and the extra Burning/discard threat; and Willie to trigger HPM on the Mages and be another ranged threat (and  threat if he can get close to my opponent in the mid game).

I haven't tried Gunsmiths with her much, just because like others mentioned above it's hard to find the space to bring Message to the Union and I never find myself lacking an AP which could have been a thrown bottle.  Triple positive shooting does sound awful nice though!

[Jordon]

9 hours ago, hydranixx said:

I believe Ironsides could be similar. If you pretend she literally doesn't have Melee attacks until turn 3/4 you will learn to get the most of her pulls, where to place her, how to efficiently buff your M&SU friends. When things start getting congested and points are scoring, that's when she starts tying up more models and killing things. That's really the heart and soul of Ironsides; support early, brawl late.

I would actually say adrenaline is more of a trap than her melee action. So many people get lost in the potential of a high adrenaline Ironsides that they often make poor decisions and just toss her into the biggest group of models in hope of farming some adrenaline. My advice would be to simply ignore adrenaline until you reach the 5-6 mark (but don't focus on it). That's really the sweet spot for that one turn explosion. 

I don't know why everyone hates on the gunsmiths so much though. I get that they naturally get compared to Acolytes, but to be fair the Acolytes are 8ss models disguised as 7ss models. Gunsmiths are great and are nearly essential with Ironsides in my opinion. They have such an array of tools that fill in so many holes with Tony herself. Having access to blasts and the 2/4/6 damage track combo's exceptionally well with HPM and they have in my opinion one of the best Df triggers of any minion in the game. 

The only model I absolutely hate (and I don't use that lightly) is mouse. I think he's a complete waste of stones. I bring him out about once every 4 games and each time I swear to myself its the last time. Not only is he really expensive (tied with Ramos' as the most expensive, not counting Banasuva) but he just doesn't pull his weight at all.

His rope toss is cool, until you actual use it which then completely shuts him down as he has no means of attacking while in melee. His heal is also cool - until you realize the suit requirement, making it highly unreliable for what amounts to a low level heal. Not a minion, not significant, and has no real synergy outside of being M&SU. If "arrest him" was a discard to take ANY action not just walk/charge then he'd be more interesting. If he was a significant minion, he'd be worth considering. If he somehow tied into Ironsides adrenaline mechanic, he might work on certain builds of her. Just as he is now, I see no value in what he brings. Points are tight when you have access to so many good M&SU options that I don't ever bring him anymore and I have never regretted it. I think the model is cool and I want to like him, but he's just too awful and easily our worst totem IMO.

 

[Poreo]

My common stratedgy with Ironsides is using her to pull my models, along with the enemy models, all around the place and set it up in such a way that my opponent is stuck in an engagement with Toni while the rest of my team is off doing important stuff. Ironsides is a tough master, and when you take Iron Determination and Challenge the Crowd, she becomes extraordinarily hard to take down, however, this requires Adrenaline. Lots of people who tried to teach me how to use Ironsides taught me not to rely on her adrenaline as it is a trap, but i couldn't disagree more.

 

Take 3 Oxfordian mages with their various wards and their new upgrades, bringing it to 15ss for some solid enforcers. Now, use those mages to shoot at Ironsides.

 

Yes, you heard me right. Shoot. Ironsides.

 

Using the trigger on their attack that lets you push a model you attack 2" for every  you have in the fianl duel total, while standing next to the other two mages, with one attack from a mage with the upgrade that lets you add an additional  to your duel total, Ironsides can be pushed forwards up to 8" from a single blast if everything goes according to plan. For only 2 dmg, I'd say thats worth it. For 4 dmg, if your feeling a little risky, push her a total 16" with the Mage's second attack. Don't flurry though, cause thats pushing it (Ba-dum-tsss). 

 

The idea here is your trying to slingshot Ironsides into a scheme runner or mob of enemies, generating adrenaline and remaining a almost unkillable murder machine. Put her in a vital position that denies your enemies the chance to target your other models. While Ironsides is on the watch, no one will be hurting anyone but her. 

 

Of course, before the Mages activate, and i cannot stress this enough, take Willie, and get him to walk in the group of mages. He will put the blast marker down, hit all three of them, do 2 dmg (which gets negated by 1 cause they haven't activated yet!) and boom, the mages now have  to hit and to dmg.

 

Never take the Captain. For 10-12ss, your getting a Henchmen that does a mediocre job compared to the mages and will spend two turns trying to catch up after pushing everyone. He is great in combat, but he never turns up in time.

 

Willie, as i hinted at earlier, does a good job at setting your own team up with his buff. Pair him up with 1-2 Union Miners, and you turn a really solid unit into a very reliable partnership. Miners put down 4 scheme markers in a cluster, Willie does his (0) and presto, you created a minefield for your mages to push enemies into.

 

Take a beater with you. Ironsides can one shot something with her Uppercut, but just to add some crazy mayhem to the field, take a Howard or Rail Golem with you. I haven't used Howard (haven't bought the Ramos box) but I have only heard good things, and since he is M&SU, that can only make him better. Rail Golem is unreliable, don't get me wrong, but he puts in work. Min dmg 3 (possibly 5 if you did a locomotion) is nothing to ignore. Combine that with a built in to hit, possible buff from Ironsides and presto: You have a killing machine.

 

One thing you should know: Ironsides will die, accept that. With the way that I have decibed playing her, She will probably either die late turn 3 or survive till the end of the game. As long as she has been able to halt enemy movement and stop any chances of VP being scored, she's done her job (bonus points if she uppercutted a model to death). In turn 1-2, you want to activate her last and try to slingshot her into the enemy so she can start generating that adrenaline. Turn 3 and after, activate her and go to town on the enemies.

 

I'd write more, but my fingers are starting to hurt. Of course, this is all my opinion, you don't have to agree with how I play Ironsides or what I think about some models, just offering my 2 cents on the topic

Edited December 9, 2016 by Poreo
Wanted to add emojis

[retnab]

7 hours ago, Jordon said:

I would actually say adrenaline is more of a trap than her melee action. So many people get lost in the potential of a high adrenaline Ironsides that they often make poor decisions and just toss her into the biggest group of models in hope of farming some adrenaline. My advice would be to simply ignore adrenaline until you reach the 5-6 mark (but don't focus on it). That's really the sweet spot for that one turn explosion. [...] The only model I absolutely hate (and I don't use that lightly) is mouse.

100% agree there.  I don't take Frontline Leadership so I see Adrenaline as the thing that heals her for 1 at the end of each turn, and the thing she needs to spend for Rush 'Em.  One thing I like to do is have her charge into something my opponent throws forward, get an Adrenaline or two off triggers, then using Rush 'Em to engage at least 2 models in the mid-backline.  Then the rest of your army can handle the frontline while she messes up their positioning for the rest of the game.

As far as Mouse goes, yeah he's pretty bad.  Tried using him a couple times but the heals are unreliable, I dislike bringing Peons to begin with (unless they do stupidly amazing things like the Brass Arachnid), and the short range on the rope means he's rarely doing it more than once a turn to even move your friendly models.

@Poreo, I rather disagree about the Captain but I suppose that comes down to playstyle.  I've played someone who used Oxfordian pushes on Ironsides before and it did get good distance, but I saw it as my opponent tenderizing her for me  

[angyi]

Many good advice here, only 90% of that isn't exactly Ironsides-specific. The Captain is good if you need pushes, Howard is a melee beatstick, Cassandra+PP is a scheming machine etc. But the same applies if you field the said models with any Arcanist master. Basically Ironsides can draw enemies in her 5' diameter tarpit, with the occasional benefits of HPM, then I'm really struggling to see what else she can do. I'm sure she's perfectly legit because many of you say so. I just can't get past the feeling that any given crew I field with Ironsides would run better with Kaeris, Mei, Ramos, Colette and now Sandeep.

[Frollo the Wordbearer]

Hi there.

I'm not an expert of the game (playing it only since 6 months) neither of Ironsides (less than 10 games).

My 2 noob cents:

After some games I've come to the conclusion she's good to buff her crew in a way more powerful and reliable than every other master i've seen in play.

She gives basically free focus just standing there.

With this in mind I found a list of models that combines very well with this.

The list is the one i've already posted in the Ironsides' topic.

Herself

Firestarter

2 gunsmiths

3 ox. Mages

Johan

 

Every model in the crew can easily make 3 attack actions given right circumstances (virtually 6 ap each turn).

This punches A LOT.

The drawback is that all of them are very card hungry (discarding for suits- gunsmiths-, flurry, furious casting) but that's usually balanced with all the positives.

 

Of course the great limit of the crew is the "bubble" style. Every one likes (maybe needs) to stay near Ironsides, but the firestarter (who is a great scheme runner and provides the HPM buff for quite all the crew in the first turn).

Ironsides' s work is to move gunsmiths and/or mages around, abusing if possible the mask triggeri in You lookin..

The rest of the crew will annihilate every thing.

 

The gunsmiths. I find them quite good, honestly. They have 4 good triggers, can do a lot of damage, have + vs burning (with 3 mages and Firestarter it's not too difficult to set things on fire), can do blasts.. They are even quite resilient (with ++ vs burning can be quite tanky, and HtK is good). And, more importantly, they can Charge enemies, a thing that only one mage can do. Used as gunliner AND counter-charge pieces they do their job quite good. And with 3 AP can be a discrete Scheme runner..

 

Well.. Now I have to go. For today that's it.

Hope to not being useless and sorry for the grammar mistakes, english is not my language.

Bye

[hydranixx]

5 hours ago, retnab said:

As far as Mouse goes, yeah he's pretty bad.  Tried using him a couple times but the heals are unreliable, I dislike bringing Peons to begin with (unless they do stupidly amazing things like the Brass Arachnid), and the short range on the rope means he's rarely doing it more than once a turn to even move your friendly models.

I can't speak for Mouse, but I agree he does seem underwhelming. The general consensus is just save your 4 points? I used to look at the Eternal Flame and think "wow this thing is terrible" but comparing to Mouse it's half the cost, has a heal that's generally more reliable, and has 3 times the durability. Now I don't feel quite as bad playing with the Eternal Flame haha. 

I'm curious why you dislike bringing Peons though - I think our generic faction Peons (non Totems) are each fantastic support pieces in the right crew - mannequins, toolkits, creations and raptors. Peons are in a good spot for the current set of strategies and schemes, since they rarely directly award points to the enemy but are capable of denying them points in many instances. They're only really a liability in Hunting Party; with any other set of schemes they're free to harass your opponent. 

You're not really an Arcanist until you drop 3 Raptors into a game of Interference and never lose a single strategy point to your opponent. Also, Practised Production and Raptors is disgusting for Leave Your Mark, Breakthrough. Arcanists have the best non totem peon in the game!

Back on track though, does anyone play hyper aggressive, melee focused Ironside builds? I've played an extremely aggressive, top-heavy Mei build recently, and I wondered how capable Toni is at the same thing?

[spooky_squirrel]

Ironsides' specific is the HPM and control element that she brings herself. Against less experienced players I've used Ironsides and Mouse to pull something that moved too early into the threat range of my beaters to immediately try and make up for activation deficit. Ironsides would pull them from 14" away, Then Mouse would pull them back where they had no other supporters around, pull the beater towards him, and chain activate the beater. The rope lash does a small amount of damage, and if you're using M&SU beaters, it will enable the HPM passive boost.

 

Against more experienced players, you cannot count on this working. They'll know their own vulnerabilities and they will attempt to mitigate them. Activation control comes into play as well (not as severe with the discount on Oxfordian Trio, but it depends on what direction you feel like going with your hiring) as Ironsides typically leans more towards an elite crew.

If you're leaning towards Oxfordian Mages, they have benefits in a Sandeep list that they don't have access to in Ironsides (like not randomizing when they furious cast into combat, being supported by a Commands Gamin boosting their attacks), but you're now hiring a pool that functions better under another master.

For example, if I were to run Ironsides into {Extraction, Convict Labor, Hunting Party, Exhaust Their Forces, Set-up, A Quick Murder} with
Ironsides (Warding Runes, Iron Determination, Challenge the Crowd)
Oxfordian Trio with the works
Mouse
Johan
Amina/Captain/Joss (upgrades depending, Warding Runes most likely)
M&SU beater (upgrades/choice of depending)
Malifaux Raptor

I'm playing a list that is only "a few" tweaks away from being substantially better for this strat and these schemes under another master, such as Sandeep (I'll limit the permutations to switching to Sandeep, since the core of this is the Oxfordian trio). Dropping Johan and bringing in Angelica, bringing a beater that's not necessarily M&SU, Mouse drops as soon as Ironsides is not the master. If you decide to lean towards Cassandra or Kudra as the Henchman, now half the list has changed, but the Oxfordian trio in the core is the same choice, but potentially better (depending on how you kit Sandeep). 

If I cut the Oxfordian Mage count down, then the crew looks less like something that will work better under Sandeep, but potentially better under Kaeris (especially if I add in Kaeris' totem and a lean towards Rail Golem as the beater). That's where I have to think more about who I'm hiring and why, and if the crew would work better under another master. Knowing the opposing faction might also be something to hold out final decision on.

Ideally, I'll hire a crew that looks at 3-4 of the schemes as doable, and worry less about fielding the crew box.
Hunting Party calls for killy Enforcer+ models and having at least one peon or minion on the table. Typically Arcanists can defend against this one with Malifaux Raptor spending the turn off the table and popping up in a corner where nothing can get to and a largely elite crew. If I run Ramos or Sandeep, I can expect that my opponent will get 3VP off of this scheme from killing the things I summon in (unless I'm being especially creative with using their abilities to detonate their own stuff).
Exhaust Their Forces calls for interacting with opposing models to give them a condition. I like to use Blood Ward to give my front line workers immunity to this scheme for as long as that Mage is alive and the Warding Rune bearers are alive. If I'm running Ironsides and creating the vacuum effect somewhere away from the Strategy objective (or using Amina to turn the suckers into Peons so that they cannot score), Warding Runes protects her from Exhaust, and her victims are having a hard time getting away from her to try and Exhaust other models. Colette's crew can do this like no one else (the base interact can become a (0) against models that haven't activated yet, giving a serious activation edge), while Visions Sandeep can summon a Gamin in that will create a bubble of 'discard to interact' that burns my opponent's resources.
Set-up creates an interesting problem when I run an elite crew, because I won't know who is being targeted as the stooge until the markers start dropping. Grab and Drop Kaeris would have an easier time planting Scheme Markers everywhere and leaving my opponent guessing, and Colette (again) would get set up off of one Performer with a Mannequin and nothing else (any other master would get 2 markers, Colette can get all 3 from the performer).
A Quick Murder calls for having either an obvious patsy that will be really hard/annoying to kill, or that will otherwise draw my opponent's beaters away from the scheme objective. This is a scheme that Ironsides readily enables, however.

The strategy itself calls for bunching near the center, so anything that likes to group for bubbles will likely hit the table. Blasters and controllers are also likely to hit the table, because if there's a single objective that relies on having a high bodycount on it, pushing people away from it or blowing them up for being too close together works wonders for maintaining control of the objective by reducing the overall effectiveness of your opponent's AP (pushing away) and improving the efficiency of your own (blasting).

Ironsides' contribution is that she likes bubbles and is a controller. She and the henchman with Warding Runes can be in the center claiming those strategy points while pulling things in and having the Henchman kill them--but only if the Henchman is a beater element. Otherwise the approach to scoring the strategy will need to be different, such as sitting away from the center objective and pulling things off of it and keeping them tied up away from it. She also contributes to AQM by being able to rope in the target and pull them well ahead of the rest of the opponent's crew in order to focus fire and kill it with the rest of her crew. This roping people in and holding them out of place is something that she does that no one else in our Master pool can do. We have Henchmen who can do similar work (The Captain, Amina Naidu), but not with the same efficiency as Ironsides herself.
So if I select her as the Master for this strat/scheme pool, her guaranteed work will be threatening AQM, denying Strategy, denying Exhaust and targets of opportunity work.

To deny Exhaust, she'll need at least the Oxfordian Mage with Blood Ward [Blood Mage], so that she herself cannot become a target of it until the Blood Mage is killed. If you're counting on using another Henchman as a beater in the center, it's a good idea to put the Warding Runes on that Henchman as well, for the same reason. As long as they can draw LOS and are within 10" of the Blood Mage, they are completely immune to enemy conditions (such as Exhaust). This sets up your beater Henchman for potentially scoring off of Hunting Party as well, especially if your opponent is relying on low cost minions to give them activation control enough to not leave the obvious AQM victim out in front. That Blood Mage can also work towards Hunting Party itself, as you don't need to worry about pulling its punches to ensure that the kill credit goes to an enforcer+. That all being said, it's also nice to be able to guarantee that you're killing at least one enemy peon a turn, and that may cause me to change my henchman's role in the crew from beater to controller.

So with Ironsides in mind, I've talked myself into denying exhaust and playing control around the center while threatening AQM and Hunting Party, and I see a potential core forming that involves:
Ironsides, Blood Mage (~10 stones with upgrades on Toni)
Amina Naidu (Warding Runes puts her at 10 stones)

They won't form a front line (not even Toni in this case), because their job is to control things and set things up without being distracted with Exhaust conditions. For max cache in stones, I still have 28 stones available for hiring. For three stones, Malifaux Raptor* as an insurance policy against automatically granting my opponent full points for Hunting Party looks like a great deal. So I'm now at four models with 25 stones remaining, with focus on denying a scheme, threatening two schemes, and potentially denying the strategy. Bringing in the Emissary and a Shastar Vidiya Guard will put me at 6 models with 7 stones remaining for hiring and still having a full cache, but it leaves the Emissary as the only AQM option for my opponent (like they need more excuses to kill it). Adding in Recharge Soulstone on Amina and giving Well Rehearsed to the SVG, while hiring in Johan will leave me at 50 stones hired and a 5 stone pool, with a total of 7 bodies to activate, 5 of whom can score off of hunting party. I would have more than one way to get stones back in my pool, I'm not counting on dropping scheme markers (but I can if needed), and I have the tools to score off of all of the schemes. Set Up and Exhaust might require more work, but I've used Ironsides to facilitate a Set Up scheme by suckering the target into a collection of dropped scheme markers, and the Ironclad Emissary's (0) challenge can push people into Ironsides so that she spends her AP exhausting them and leaving them with bad choices.

This puts me in a position where I'm potentially using Ironsides to score a scheme (if I pick one interact based and one killing based) while using supporting control elements to set up for the other scheme and deny strategy. A trio of beaters would be hanging out in threatening range of the Extraction objective for as long as they can stay alive, with one of them not caring at all about synergy bubbles (though potentially helping walk Johan into position or getting an extra hammer swing in, or a few other useful things at the cost of a card for Flesh and Metal) and if they find no other work to do, they can be interacting.

*Malifaux Raptor can also be used to scratch at the SVG and Blood Mage (after it activates) to leave either slightly banged up for HPM bonuses early on and potentially manipulate my deck and control hand.

 

Is this the only (or best) crew for this strat/schemes? No. I've got similar design notes for how I would run Sandeep or Ramos into this pool. I lean away from using Colette simply because she doesn't do as well into holding ground strategies for me as other options I might field. Mei Feng could also potentially lock down the center, but her hiring would go the direction of holding ground better. Kaeris plays a different role altogether, and now that I have Carlos assembled is one I would need to revisit the potential of. I don't have Marcus or Rasputina, so they're not models I plan around potentially fielding; they also tend to hire from a completely different pool. For tournament play, I would likely end up scrapping this kind of list for something that's a lot simpler to run altogether, just to ensure that I get all five turns out of the crew.