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New Outcast Player - Is Parker competitive?


Sanik

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Parker would become much more viable if they upped the gain of his soulstones through actions and abilities from 1 to 2. and maybe lowered his targetnumbers and suitrequirements. His mechanic in itself isnt broken. Just needs a bit numbertweakinh. This way he could fit his role as a ressource generator-master. Which would be cool. But the way hes now hes shredding your own ressources instead of generating them.

When i played him i felt i gemerated 2-3 stones per round but used just as much or even more to make him work. :(

 being able to generate 4 +soulstones a round wouldnt be this gamebreaking considering he needs to use 1-3 stoned per round for himself just to work smoothly. stoning like hell to stay alive and paying stones to use his actions appropiately. But itcould be enough to give him a role if you end up having 1-2 additional stones per round left to the rest of his crew. THEN you could call him a ressource-master.

And its not like soulstone-pool advantage was ever a gamebreaking thing.

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6 minutes ago, DXXXVIII said:

Parker would become much more viable if they upped the gain of his soulstones through actions and abilities from 1 to 2. and maybe lowered his targetnumbers and suitrequirements. His mechanic in itself isnt broken. Just needs a bit numbertweakinh. This way he could fit his role as a ressource generator-master. Which would be cool. But the way hes now hes shredding your own ressources instead of generating them.

When i played him i felt i gemerated 2-3 stones per round but used just as much or even more to make him work. :(

 being able to generate 4 +soulstones a round wouldnt be this gamebreaking considering he needs to use 1-3 stoned per round for himself just to work smoothly. stoning like hell to stay alive and paying stones to use his actions appropiately. But itcould be enough to give him a role if you end up having 1-2 additional stones per round left to the rest of his crew. THEN you could call him a ressource-master.

And its not like soulstone-pool advantage was ever a gamebreaking thing.

I'm inclined to agree - I think it's easy to see soulstones as OP but generating, say, 2SS from Black Market wouldn't be absurd I don't think. It might be a bit much from limited supplies but at least it would make up for the turns you discard a soulstone to keep an upgrade. Anither fix might be to increase the range of using a marker to attach an upgrade. It's normally having to be so close to the enemy that makes me use so many soulstones to stay alive (and then wonder why I bothered). Two alternatives would be either soften the cost of using his upgrades, or have some kind of buff when he attaches an upgrade as well - that way you wouldn't feel so bad using soulstones rather than enemy markers to cycle back an upgrade you just used and gained a soulstone from (essentially adding another duel to doing something). I think there are a lot of ways to fix Parker to put him somewhere in the middle of the Outcast power level without breaking him, or the game. As it stands he's a great pick if you like to break about even on resources and move soulstone counters around all the time.

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I do agree that some of his TNs could do with a bit a of a reduction. But, when I play Parker I tend to play him very card hungry, where my card hand are for him as a priority to achieve his goals and most of the rest of the crew have ways of accessing positives. However, the resource generation I find to be fairly incidental. If I'm playing Parker right then usually what I'm doing with the upgrade is worth losing a soulstone for.

I'm by no means an "experienced" Parker player. But when I look at Parker, I don't see a resource generation master, I see a master who has this very large toolbox of tricks that he can do to really mess with your opponent. Half the difficulty with him is figuring out what is the best way to mess with the opponent. 

The games where I've played what I consider to be "perfect Parker" games on talking to opponent after, they tell me how frustrating it is trying to playing the way they want to and it not working because of Parker tricks. Forcing them to play in ways they wouldn't normally consider.

Having said that I play Parker badly when I play him in a specific way. Or I decide I really want to do something with him, when on afterthought this doesn't mess with the opponent.

Parker doesn't play the Strategy and/or Scheme, his crew can do that, he plays your opponent.

Course it could be I'm talking utter s**t. But I've been fairly successful with him and can only see myself getting better as I learn how best to screw with different opponents.

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I've had a couple of games with the new Wave 5 upgrades for Parker and the Emissary, and while I don't think it changes Parker a HUGE amount, I was pleasantly surprised with them! I ended up switching into Hidden Steel Plate quite a lot - the ability to put minions on :+fate flips when it is discarded was the main draw for me, especially given that it happens when it is discarded for ANY reason. I had my Wokou Raider charging in with :+fate:+fate (one built in) a few times that game, and putting Dead Outlaws on :+fate to their gun was really nice as well - it took pressure off my hand which I needed for other things. I never used the damage reduction ability, but purely for dishing out Inspired I think this goes along with Stick Up as one of the most used Parker upgrades for me.

In one game I didn't use High Noon at all except once to remove paralyse from a Wokou Raider, since there didn't ever seem to be a chance to get much mileage out of the condition, but in the second game I took McTavish and got some pretty reasonable work out of it. Since McTavish ignores cover and doesn't randomise (AND has a 14" range) he's a perfect pairing with High Noon. He got a couple of free shots out, but mostly it just stopped the models I tagged with the condition from ever finishing an activation in LoS of McTavish unless they gave me a soulstone. Once they are out of soulstones they can't end the condition, which along with Stick Up led to me getting it on an Illuminated that couldn't do anything without getting shot at. It wasn't great, but it also wasn't terrible. Along with McTavish and Stick Up (to drain soulstones) it definitely adds to Parker's "be annoying" game.

The Emissary upgrade is fantastic, but with one drawback. First the good - it helps more cards to flow through your hand, lets Parker use an enemy marker for his upgrade cycling on turn 1, lets you move trinkets around if you end up with them on the wrong models (for example, you want to move Vitality Potion from Sue to a Wokou Raider, or take Pretty Floral Bonnet off a Wokou Raider and pop it onto Johan), and gives you a way to make Parker discard an upgrade out of activation. This last point is situational, but when it's good it's great (e.g. pulse out Inspired after Parker has activated and attached Hidden Steel Plate, or get a soulstone back before Parker's activation in a pinch). The drawback is that I don't really see a good way to take Emissary AND another 10SS+ model that you might want in the crew. For example, Emissary and McTavish (my current love with Parker) don't fit nicely into the same crew without sacrificing activations.

In short, whilst not totally game changing the new options these upgrades provide are a definite boon to Parker! Especially the Inspired :pulse from Hidden Steel Plate and the Emissary upgrade (if you take the Emissary tax).

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11 minutes ago, beevison said:

@apes-ma Thanks for the info! 

It's definitely something I would like to try out. Although I agree with your point about 10SS being a lot in his crew.

What kind of lists are you making with him?

 

The first of those two games was:

50 SS Outcasts Crew
Parker Barrows + 4 Pool
 - Highwayman (1)
 - Oath Keeper (1)
 - Hail of Bullets (1)
Doc Mitchell (3)
Hodgepodge Emissary (10)
 - Conflux of Stolen Goods (0)
Sue (8)
Freikorps Librarian (7)
Wokou Raider (8)
Dead Outlaw (6)
Bandido (5)
 
 (exported from CrewFaux)
 
And the second was...
50 SS Outcasts Crew
Parker Barrows + 4 Pool
 - Highwayman (1)
 - Oath Keeper (1)
 - Hail of Bullets (1)
Doc Mitchell (3)
McTavish (11)
 - I Pay Better (1)
Sue (8)
 - Return Fire (1)
Johan (6)
Dead Outlaw (6)
Dead Outlaw (6)
Bandido (5)
 
 (exported from CrewFaux)
 
I normally err towards 9 models if I can, but in both these cases I was just trying out some different lists and so on. The first list ended up in a 7-7 draw vs outcast Tara (I took the librarian just as a second source of healing, then saw a million incorporeal models that target willpower and felt like I got pretty lucky!), and the second a 6-4 win vs Lilith.
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5 minutes ago, beevison said:

I like them. May try out that first one. Although, for some reason the lack of Mad Dog makes me die a little inside. Every game I've played with him that shotgun push back has saved my bacon. 

I don't have McTavish so can't really try that out.

I am not sold on Mad Dog - I WANT to like him, but every time I have taken him one of two things happens. Either he dies really early, taking out a model or two on his way out (with his hard to kill Foaming At The Mouth activation), or I play way too cagily with him (to avoid scenario one) and he doesn't really do anything. I want to play him more to get used to the right way to play him, but for the time being I find myself preferring other models in the 10SS range (like McTavish!) It makes me die a little inside as well...

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Mad Dog has a problem that he competes for the same spot (ranged damage dealer) with Rusty Alyce and McTavish and both of these models better than him - they have greater range, are more mobile and survivable. Plus, when you lock Alyce or Tavish in melee, they can deliver solid punch, while Mad Dog relies on his triggers, none of which are built-in. 

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9 minutes ago, Cedar said:

Mad Dog has a problem that he competes for the same spot (ranged damage dealer) with Rusty Alyce and McTavish and both of these models better than him - they have greater range, are more mobile and survivable. Plus, when you lock Alyce or Tavish in melee, they can deliver solid punch, while Mad Dog relies on his triggers, none of which are built-in. 

BUT neither McTavish nor Rusty Alyce have a lucky poncho, or a cigar to stub out in peoples eyes, OR a stylish moustache. Other than that, I totally agree. And considering all of those things have basically no bearing on the actual gameplay... well, poor old Mad Dog.

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Just now, apes-ma said:

BUT neither McTavish nor Rusty Alyce have a lucky poncho, or a cigar to stub out in peoples eyes, OR a stylish moustache. Other than that, I totally agree. And considering all of those things have basically no bearing on the actual gameplay... well, poor old Mad Dog.

This!

Also, I've gotten a lot of work out of Mad Dogs utility (ie push back and blowing up cover). I'm not saying he's better or even equal to Alyce or McTavish. 

Because he isn't, however I would never discount him and not taking him makes me nervous not having those utility options.

Plus he can take crate of dynamite. And the one game I managed to blow up 2 scheme markers in the middle of a Somer crew in a turn was just so satisfying.

Or the time I rapidfired on an engaged Nekima (engaged with Parker) and pushed her out of combat on first shot and took her down.

I have fond memories of using him...

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50 minutes ago, beevison said:

I would personally love it if instead of rapid fire he got something more akin to Laz's auto fire ability. 3 shots but can be fired at different targets. Being able to blow back 3 models would be great.

That would be extremely good, and also might differentiate him from other 10ss models (he's basically a 10ss model) sufficiently.

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