In defense of the Mechanized Porkchop

[Dogmantra]

Poor Mechy P, always overlooked for other 7 cost models. But I actually really like it, and I've had some pretty good luck with it! Here's why I love my little metal porcine friend. I particularly like it with Ulix for several reasons I'll go into, but obviously he has the pig synergy, so he's going to be one of the most synergistic masters.

Great Stats
It's got a really nice statline. Of course, at 7 stones you'd expect some pretty good stats, but compared with the other big names at that point cost, namely Burt and Francois, it outclasses them in Df and isn't too far behind on Wp (plus it can benefit from Liquid Bravery as a minion if Wp is going to be an issue). Bayou Two card means all of these stats are worth a little bit more due to the ability to reflip a bad card. The only other similarly costed model that really beats it statwise is Sammy, and that's one of the most compelling reasons to take her too in my opinion. 6 wounds is slightly underwhelming when models like Francois get 10, but Armour +1 is a nice bonus and hopefully makes up for that. I particularly like Wk6 for Ulix because most piggies have fairly low Wk, with 4 and 5 being average. Having a slightly faster pig lets Ulix move around a bit quicker and imo is worth it. Ht2 is also a useful stat as opposed to Ht3 for Ulix, as it allows him to maintain LoS to his other big pigs regardless of where they are in relation to the Mech Porkchop (and since I often keep the Porkchop as a taxi/backline support, it is normally right in front of him).

Summoning
Yes, it's only got 6 wounds, but it's the cheapest 50mm based Pig, so I find it to be quite useful to summon off. I tend to use Old Major as a summoning beacon, but it's risky to go too hard on summoning off him because of his low Df and fairly high cost. Having a second big pig to spread it to helps out without having to invest in someone more expensive like Gracie. The Sow is another option of course, but she's generally more of a frontline fighter than the Mech Porkchop, and so can often be out of range. Wk6 is also useful here, with a typical first activation being one walk with Ulix hitching a ride and then dropping a scheme marker for a War Pig. You could obviously do this with any pig, but I like the extra inch or two to allow the pig bubble to get a bit closer to the fight.

It's Card Negative
You only get 6 cards a turn by default. One or two of those are probably going to suck, and you'll have maybe one or two really high cards unless you get quite lucky. So you can often really only count on being able to guarantee a couple of actions per turn and a lot of the rest is up to clever target choice, good resource management and a bit of luck. Which is why I think it's really important to have at least a couple of models in your crew which just don't care about cards at all, what I'm going to call "Card Neutral". These are your scheme runners who don't need to do duels just to interact, or your support pieces that don't rely on duels, like Slop Haulers. Bayou Two Card and good statlines are two great ways of making models card neutral because they put a lot less strain on your hand if they win the duels in the first place. It's one of the big advantages of Sammy, and I think a big advantage of the Porkchop as well. Then there are a few models that not only don't care about cards, but they either actively make your hand better or make the rest of your crew less reliant on cards. Often these models have poor stats to make up for it. Old Major gives out positives and suits but has Df 4. Lenny adds rams and makes losing Df duels less painful but has abysmal stats. Old Cranky makes your entire crew less card dependent but has a tendency to attract bullets with his head. The Porkchop on the other hand has a good statline, and makes its crew less card reliant with:

Walking Rage Machine
Holy moly this ability is fantastic! It reads: "Other friendly models within 3 which declare a Charge Action immediately suffer 1 damage and gain to Attack flips for the duration of the Activation." Yes it's a smaller aura, but this is absolutely comparable to Encouragement which imo is one of the best upgrades in the game. There are a few advantages of the particular wording of this ability that I think can be easy to overlook:

1. It doesn't care whose activation it is. This is in direct comparison to Old Major's aura which is better in that it's larger and provides a to damage as well, but requires it to be that model's activation. Walking Rage Machine doesn't care, and this works well with Ulix's Hunting Bow which obviously causes out-of-activation attacks. Lesser benefit with Brewmaster and Zoraida using Obey to cause (1) charges, but still good. They may have been errataed down a bit, but Roosters with are nothing to sniff at.
2. It doesn't care who it affects. Burt with s. Francois with s. Ml8 Mah with s.
3. It lasts the whole activation. A bit of oddness in the wording means that if you charge and then have extra attacks afterwards, you keep your s. So if Burt were to reckless and charge, he'd still have a to his 3rd AP, even if it's a shot with his gun. If a Pig or Rooster declared a charge from within range and remained in range, then declared a second charge, it would pop the ability again, with its second charge gaining , one from each charge. Again, this is pretty ridiculous with Ulix's Hunting Bow, as a kill turns into another charge, which will keep the .
4. Ain't no rule saying you can't also bring Old Major.

 

This was borne out in a recent game in which both me and my opponent were fairly low on cards, and I sent a Shot in the Rear War Pig careening into his crew. Usually I would be at the mercy of a single card flip, but in this case the attacks just kept letting me get the hits in, killing a couple of models, and the choice of triggers meant the 1 damage was a total nonissue due to healing flips, and I got a stampede off too because I could pick the Ram. In addition, double positive attacks from Piglets who charged from within both Old Major's aura and the Mech Porkchop's were terrifying, letting me hit Tomes often enough that some of his models were basically permaslowed.

 

 

In Conclusion

I love my little metal friend, particularly with Ulix. I think holding it back is a little less justifiable with other masters because they can't make use of it to summon/push up to, but the aura is just big enough that I think it's possible to make use of it as more of a midline model. Definitely one I'm going to be experimenting more with (I'm interested to see how it works with Mah and Encouragement Som'er for doubling up) and one that I think you should give another try to if you wrote it off.

[DanteJH]

Yeah, he's fantastic with Mei Feng!

[Dogmantra]

I don't play Mei Feng but I imagine it'd be pretty nice given that she doesn't have access to a lot of similar stuff that Gremlins do (e.g. Bayou Two Card, silly good buff auras), and then the addition of scrap markers at will is just a bonus.

 

Actually, the Mech Porkchop was also ridiculous in that one Divergent Paths scenario that required you to drop scrap markers off at the Child. It made possibly the hardest strategy to score that I've ever seen so much easier and less AP intensive.

[spooky_squirrel]

Positives off the charge with her 10" threat (and ability to place in base contact with Mech. Porkchop) in exchange for a wound? Absolutely. Coupled with some of the other things she has access to (Price of Progress upgrade healing her 1 Wd on kills, Rail Workers' implacable assault ability, faction-specific minions between Arcanist and 10T), everything that gives positives is absolutely nuts. His burning aura is also great with her claw attack (she gets positives on damage against things that are burning).

But that's a conversation for the other two boards

In gremlins it gives you a utility piece that can get interesting fast, especially with how many things you have that are quick and enjoy being in fights. Roosters, War Pigs, and other things that can threat pretty far and hard getting positives? That seems really really nice. Sure, 6 wounds isn't going to stand up to a dedicated assault, but that scheme runner it's goring isn't going to get rid of it without some serious luck.

[Nosilloc]

I like to use him with Sparks. My last Wong game I decided for giggles to use Sparks, Porkchop and a Glowy Mctavish. 4 actions a turn out of glowy mctavish is just brutal.

[dannydb]

Isn't the porkchop great with Mei feng for railwalking? 

[Clement]

55 minutes ago, dannydb said:

Isn't the porkchop great with Mei feng for railwalking? 

He's amazing with Mei Feng, but Mei Feng is not a gremlin, so she doesn't count

[spooky_squirrel]

27 minutes ago, Clement said:

He's amazing with Mei Feng, but Mei Feng is not a gremlin, so she doesn't count

Hence this comment from me:

On 6/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, spooky_squirrel said:

But that's a conversation for the other two boards

We're here in the Bayou, so we probably shouldn't be worrying too much about what the Foundry is doing.

Expanding on the other bit I said:

On 6/10/2017 at 10:39 PM, spooky_squirrel said:

In gremlins it gives you a utility piece that can get interesting fast, especially with how many things you have that are quick and enjoy being in fights. Roosters, War Pigs, and other things that can threat pretty far and hard getting positives? That seems really really nice. Sure, 6 wounds isn't going to stand up to a dedicated assault, but that scheme runner it's goring isn't going to get rid of it without some serious luck.

If you're launching a summoned Warpig or hired Rooster Rider up the table, it's probably being sent up to do as much damage as possible and die spectacularly. So taking 1 wound to attack with positives is no bigger a deal to your post-activation concerns than taking 1 wound to have an additional AP. The walk and drop scrap is very useful for the things that Sparks wants to do, but might not come up much outside of that. For things that you care about keeping alive, well, that's where a saddle-riding slop hauler might come in handy.

The benefit of multiple positives on the attack is that you have a better chance of flipping the trigger you want/need (if you're not using proximity to a specific model to do this already). You have an increased chance of fishing jokers out, but that's true of anyone who can put themselves on positives. The difference between Gremlins and 10T doing it, however, is Gremlins tend to have a high enough body county where fishing the Black Joker out isn't as traumatic as it is for 10T, while fishing the Red Joker out still gets you some results (unlike when I accidentally fish the Red Joker out on a Steam Arachnid in Arcanists).