Outcasts and Headhunter

[Oz - Rampage Games]

Hi all,

Struggling with scoring headhunter as i can kill the models but struggle to claim them due to engagement ranges and opponent activation.

I know the emissary can give out chatty And the rat catcher. 

 

Does anyone have any solutions/good strats? 

I have tried Hamelin - rat swarm mainly just due to rat catcher and Jack Daw with Emissary giving out chatty to someone like bishop but is very ss intensive

[Virtus]

I like Hamelin for Headhunter. Use Pipes to bring an opponent's non-Peon over to your side, kill it, then send a Rat Catcher to go pick up the head. Give Rat Catcher Infectious Melodies if you think your opponent might claim his head.

[PositronMike]

My preference for head hunter is either Jack or Parker. Jacks crews gets lots of movement and as you say the emissary who is really good with jack can give a model don't mind me. I would usually put this on a cheap scheme runner which you have tormented. This means they get a 3" push and then can walk and interact. 

Parker can do it quite nicely as well as he can push models for 1 AP so they are next to a scheme marker and can then order them to interact with a (0). 

[Seadhna]

There's also Big Jake if you want a cheaper Don't Mind me option.

Otherwise, Jack Daw and Hamelin are prime candidates.

[SurreyLee]

I've run Levi twice recently in headhunter with the following crew; 2 Waifs, Bete, Killjoy, Ashes and Dust, Doxy and Necropunk. Very little here is dropping heads with all the buries. I've movement from the Doxy (mainly to get killjoy into 1AP charge lanes) and the necropunk and a fast mobile hard hitting crew. Played twice with it. Once against Lilith and once against Guild McMourning and I got all 10 points twice. 

[Ludvig]

Performers are mercs and have dpn't mind me if nothing else suits your fancy. 

Chatty prevents enemy pickups but doesn't really let you pick up the heads easier.

[Adran]

Try and pick your kill targets carefully. Don't just kill them as soon as possible. Look for a time when you can kill the target, place the head somewhere outside of enemy engagements and also where they can't easily move a model to be able to protect it. Then  next activation you can walk a second model along and grab it.. 

Pushes are good. both offensively to move away protecting models, and defensively to move you out of their engagement to allow you to interact. 

Or just use models with Don't mind me. 

 

[Davos]

Levi with a belle or 2 can pull a single target close and then you beatstick onto it.  Levi also provides natural activation control, and actually has almost all his models can interact with markers, whereas Hamlins's peons can't. Having pushes is always nice, as well as large engagement areas to deny your opponent picking up heads. Also, as much as killing models early is really good for activation control, you need to wait until you can either pick up heads or deny them.  Or gun down the far off scheme runners, not stuff thats clustered in the center

[CapnBloodbeard]

Bishop is good at headhunter.  Problem is you don't want to stand back and shoot - but if you can get them to come to you, then that's a positive.  

At a recent tournament I played Tara, there was headhunter, and my opponent was McMourning.  My entire approach was just to stay as far away from his crew as I possibly could.  If neither of us scored on Headhunter, that would have been fine by me - because with the Resser Hard to Wound and their general resilience, I could never have outkilled them - and with all the dishing out of poison I didn't even want to get in the middle of them.  Fortunately, my other schemes were a marker based one, and frame for murder.  So keeping my models well away did not hurt me at all.  In fact, it's amazing how little Tara and my Nothing Beast did.  And tactically, that was a sound choice.  Don't engage opposing models if it won't help you.  

Instead I tried to stand back and set up a trap.  

 

The other thing I did was find an isolated model I could outnumber and kill.

 

Burying can help - bury an opposing model then make them appear where you want them - away from the rest of their crew.  

Big engagement ranges can hep stop those interactions.  Being out activated can sting here - because you don't just need to kill, but you need to have enough AP left to take advantage of it.  

Long range shooting may not help.  Being able to shoot into engagement is great.  Because that increases your chance of having a head marker near your model.  I ditch the trapper on this strat (because for once, I don't want to kill a model that's still in its own deployment zone), but I might be Hans instead - or anybody who has casting so they can help my engaged models.  

Oh also, don't forget - it may not be a bad thing if your models die

If something is about to get killed and the next AP is yours and you have a nearby model who can pick up the head marker, let it die!  Even cheat down to lose if you have to, if the opponent has already cheated (or not), and especially if weak damage would kill the model.  

It's like having frame for murder on everything.  

[Davos]

1 minute ago, CapnBloodbeard said:

It's like having frame for murder on everything.  

This phrase makes me happy.