Mercs in gremlins

[DanteJH]

A recent post on the gremlin forum about aionus got me thinking about merc use in gremlins. For a merc to be used I feel that they must bring something new that the faction can't provide or do a job we do have but better and for a good ss cost. The mercs I think can be worth it are as follows and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Freikorps trapper: for the same cost as our sniper, rami, I feel he does the job a lot better. First off he has from shadows which already is just much better. He also has a better damage track with decent triggers and let's not forget that 6 wounds and armor +1 are nothing to shake a stick at. The main problem I can see is that he shoots and gremlins already shoot extremely well. Nevertheless, if you want a sniper or reliable long ranged damage I'd be mercing this guy in

Killjoy: the only reason he's on this list is because of pigapult bullshitery. Sling something into enemy lines, get it killed, win the game

Johan: he's great in melee and survivable which gremlins are somewhat lacking. This is all well and good but your main reason to take him is because of his 'rebel cry' action which clears all conditions from a model. As of yet, if you don't count the playtesting gremlins don't have condition removal so johan definitely has a place. Oh yeah, and he's only 7 stones

Greed: a bit more situational but greed can be a pain in the backside for many summoners as most sommoners rely on cards on soulstones, both of which greed attacks. As well as draining stones and cards from your opponent, she can also provide you some on occasion with her ram trigger on her 'the greed spreads' attack which might I mention is a Ca 6 that deals a flat 4 damage. Greed has a bunch of other tricks but she is expensive coming in at 9 stones so the match up matters

Performer: lure, manipulative, blah blah blah... it's a 6 stone expunge for you brewie players out there and BOY is it devastating. But yeah if you're playing brewmaster these guys can expunge chumps and lure them into your drinking contest aura.

Aionus: scene marker manipulation isn't something gremlins has much of that aionus has in bucket loads being able to move ever scheme marker in play for a 0. He's got more scheme marker stuff but he can also make your guys fast for a card and hand out slow like no ones business. Oh yeah, and he's got 3 ap. His main issue is his cost at 13 stones but I can guarantee in the right pool, he'll win you the game

Please share your though as I'm very interested in this subject. 

[Math Mathonwy]

I would add that

• Anna Lovelace can be fun with Brewmaster due to her limiting the enemy's ability to move stuff away from the bubble and thus fixing one of the chief weaknesses of the bubble, IMO, and for being able to target Wp and being generally durable and good.
• Lazarus can be fun with Wong since Ooo Glowy makes autofiring grenades extra funny and Sparks can give Laz Fast.

[Ludvig]

Killjoy is far from an autowin button in my eyes. I've had a lot of success neutering him with conditions and scoring condition schemes off him (never play him myself but face semi-frequently).

[DanteJH]

Yeah I just wanted to make a point that you can do some funny stuff with the pigapult. Aside from that I don't think he's actually that good in gremlins

4 hours ago, Ludvig said:

Killjoy is far from an autowin button in my eyes. I've had a lot of success neutering him with conditions and scoring condition schemes off him (never play him myself but face semi-frequently).

 

[Dogmantra]

I generally don't use too many mercs because of all the Gremlin/Pig synergies you lose out on. I've not done it myself, but in addition to Glowy Lazarus, I've seen Glowy Hannah used to great effect. Really anyone big and glowy can be pretty powerful. Looking over the list of mercenaries, I'd kind of like to try Glowy Bishop too, but I'm not sure how much better it would end up actually being compared to Burt or Lazarus or any of the usual suspects.

There's also Joel with his Ronin which I'm still personally not convinced about but it seems to work pretty damn well for him.

I like the Student of Conflict a lot, and usually bring her with Mah. A Fast master is pretty scary and you can usually get a couple of turns of fast Mah because of all the pushes - she can charge in, then (0) to push out and nudge the student forwards for next turn. You miss out on Old Cranky which is a pretty big shame tbh. I think I would probably still take Old Cranky as the v tryhard option, but then idk if I would play Mah when I'm going tryhard.

Sue is probably another decent choice, particularly if you think you might be facing Lynch to get that sweet sweet autokill trigger on the Hungering Darkness. (I need to pick him up for 10T soon so I can use the autokill with Sun Quiang's Make Everyone A Peon aura)

10 hours ago, DanteJH said:

As of yet, if you don't count the playtesting gremlins don't have condition removal so johan definitely has a place.

Well they do have the Tossed in the Mud upgrade for Mancha Roja or McTavish, but it's a pretty expensive option. I would still probably lean towards that over Johan though because he's very slow and his condition removal eats up those valuable Rams.

[Rosskov]

I think Ronin can have their place depending on schemes/strats and also board layout (when their disguised ability can be useful in blocking charge lanes to more valuable models). I try to view them as 5 stone mercs given their ability to sacrifice and return two stones (particularly when they have disguised, hard to kill and stand ground- so you will more often not get the chance to recover the stones). I found having one really helpful when I was learning Zipp as I burned through stones like nobodies' business.

There are also the WP 4 models that Zorida can hire as if they are mercs. The only one I tend to take is Iggy for firey doll shenanigans.

[Voodoo Specter]

I'm a fan of glowy Taylor especially if you have flipped a scenario where you expect to face a summoner where she becomes a real pain. Even without that the min damage 4, ability to cheat/stone in no soul stone reduction and ignoring armour etc from glowy make her a powerhouse. Also the combination of hard to kill, regeneration and dirty cheater make her hard to shift

[DanteJH]

10 hours ago, Dogmantra said:

I generally don't use too many mercs because of all the Gremlin/Pig synergies you lose out on. I've not done it myself, but in addition to Glowy Lazarus, I've seen Glowy Hannah used to great effect. Really anyone big and glowy can be pretty powerful. Looking over the list of mercenaries, I'd kind of like to try Glowy Bishop too, but I'm not sure how much better it would end up actually being compared to Burt or Lazarus or any of the usual suspects.

There's also Joel with his Ronin which I'm still personally not convinced about but it seems to work pretty damn well for him. 

I'm interested in the ronin you mentioned, what's the deal with them?

Also, is mud toss a 1 or a 0? If it's a 1 I'd still argue for johan

[Nikodemus]

Some of the more recent Ronin chatter can be found in this Outcast thread:

Their perks include: armour ignore, disguised+hard to kill and (0) sacrifice that generates cards or ss. Most stats at 5, 6 wounds. All for 6+1ss. On the Arcanist side I use them as handyman type generalists where they fill in whatever needs doing after my specialists get busy. They're surprisingly good at staying alive and in the way of the enemy.

[Dogmantra]

8 hours ago, DanteJH said:

I'm interested in the ronin you mentioned, what's the deal with them?

I think the main draw is that they're decent generalists who get to ignore a lot of common game mechanics (immunity to charges, ignore armour etc). Personally I'm not that sold when you could pick Burt or Raphael up for the same price, or just get another Lightning Bug or even a Moon Shinobi for cheaper, but there's no denying Joel seems to do well with them.

8 hours ago, DanteJH said:

Also, is mud toss a 1 or a 0? If it's a 1 I'd still argue for johan

It's a (1), which imo is beneficial for Mancha because you can still do one of his (0)s which are key imo. It does also have a tome trigger to keep doing it, but I do see your point. My only issue is the ram requirement from Johan.

[DanteJH]

On 30/06/2017 at 7:26 PM, Dogmantra said:

y issue is the ram requirement from Johan.

This fair

[Gnomezilla]

Does the Malifaux Child ever appear in Gremlins? Given your generic totem is fantastic, I'm guessing not.

[PositronMike]

54 minutes ago, Gnomezilla said:

Does the Malifaux Child ever appear in Gremlins? Given your generic totem is fantastic, I'm guessing not.

I can't think if any master I would take the child with in Gremlins. Most masters would either prefer their specific totem or would take Cranky. 

Somer I always take skeeters with, Ophelia is usually young or cranky, Brewmaster always takes Wesley, Zoraida takes the voodoo doll, Wong is Cranky, Ulix is Penelope for me, Zipp is always Earl and I don't play Mah so can't comment there. 

 

[Dogmantra]

6 hours ago, Gnomezilla said:

Does the Malifaux Child ever appear in Gremlins? Given your generic totem is fantastic, I'm guessing not.

I could see an argument for using him with Mah for extra pushing power but I'd still rather use Old Cranky or the Student.

[Bazlord_Prime]

On 6/30/2017 at 1:47 AM, Dogmantra said:

Looking over the list of mercenaries, I'd kind of like to try Glowy Bishop too, but I'm not sure how much better it would end up actually being compared to Burt or Lazarus or any of the usual suspects.

BISHOP - I've not played enough with Wong yet to settle on favourite Glowy targets, but Bishop is definitely high on the list of contenders.  Although he already has a trigger that does all the same things as "Magical", that kinda frees you up if all goes well to stack one of his other triggers onto his attacks, making the enemy Slow, pushing them, or increasing the Damage by +1. If he's "Ooo Glowy", you might be able to get 3 attacks per turn at 4/5/6, ignoring Armour, Incorp and HtK, dictating that the enemy use their lesser defensive stat. And he'll have Regen.
But I saw another use for him on a blog somewhere - in a Brewmaster crew. If Brewie is doing his Poison/Wp debuff aura, Bishop can choose to target that low Wp stat and have a good time without requiring that the target be Swilled.  Might not be enough of a bonus to go paying that amount of stones for him, but I like trying to find killers that're going to capitalise on Brewie's Wp-debuffing. 

STRONGARM SUIT - also for Wong.  Tough, capable in MI and SH, can leap/charge out of engagement, and his MI damage track could easily be 4/6/8, with a  on .