Alternative ways to play masters?

[Anung Un Rama]

So we all see that masters are built to play a certain way which becomes the accepted norm across metas. 

Have you come up with alt ways t play certain masters that is if not as competitive as the accepted at least competitive.

Mine is Nicodem. I have played him for the past few years not primarily as a summoner but as a buffer who can summon as well. I take the one with undead crowning and give all att and cast actions in his bubble postiive flips. I take belles to lure a model per turn over to me and then hit it with a big hitter like RN or Izamu. I also take Bete to be a nuisance. I dont bother with Mortimer or getting a summoning engine on line as usually im more concerned with getting the kill off first. It works well. I take a mix of necropunks and belles depending on the schemes and strats.

As a result the Nico nerf hasnt effected me too much, for sure its a pain but when i bring a crew to do the job I can concentrate on getting quality summons in where needed. 

Anyone else have ways of playing masters out of the normal?

 

 

[nomoredroids]

I use Seamus as a tank/debuffer. It works pretty well if you can keep focused on him staying alive.   

Molly. Asura + Carrion with her Tears of the Gorgon, Forgotten Life, and Maniacal Laughter upgrades. I take Little Gassers and sometimes Sebastion. Otherwise, Kentauroi. The Carrion Emissary makes every undead thing within 10" a Horror. So Molly gives everything around her Black Blood, making a field full of irritating zombies that deal damage every time they take damage. It's really obnoxious, and actually kind of hard to deal with. 

 

[Jesy Blue]

I've used Von Schill as a scheme runner; worked rather well.

I've used Hamelin as a beat stick; did not work well.

I've used The Brewmaster as a beat stick.... once; it was bloody awful!

[Gnomezilla]

Ask our local competitive player about ‘nerd rage Hoffman’ as the Guild beatstick with survivability. He has enjoyed the place effect of Improved Harness far too much.

[Boomstick]

Melee Colette handing out Slow left and right. Really took my opponent by surprise.

[Anung Un Rama]

@Boomstick tell me more, I like the sound of that!

[Boomstick]

Sure @Old Major, always happy to talk about my girl, Colette!

To try out a Melee Colette build, I tried this list

Declared Faction: Arcanists 

Crew Name: Melee Colette test 1 50ss 
Leader: Colette Du Bois - Cache: 6
   Cabaret Choreography 2ss 
   The Dancing Blade 1ss 
   A Ladys Secret 2ss 
Mechanical Dove 2ss 
Cassandra 8ss 
   Practiced Production 1ss 
   Imbued Protection 2ss 
Arcane Effigy 4ss 
Ferdinand Vogel 8ss 
Performer 5ss 
December Acolyte 7ss 
Mannequin 4ss 

I played this into flank Ply against a pretty killy Lady J list with an Executioner, Franc, Brutal Effigy, Death Marshall Recruiter, Thalarian Queller, and Investigator. Between the Executioner ignoring Df triggers and the Queller handing out "Cannot Be Reduced" damage, this was trial by fire to see if Colette could hang out front a bit more than usual.

I screwed up by about a half inch when moving Colette forward turn one (by having Cassandra attack her as usual), just barely leaving her in the Executioner's range. Using SS for +Df and a - on his damage she was able to weather the storm. When Colette went I had about 4 scheme markers nearby, ended up slowing the Executioner and Franc for next turn with her Saber trick as a (1) and it's trigger to swing again at 8". Did a little more damage actually using it as a (0), then Disappearing Act'd away and summoned a Dove. I should have used my original dove to give her a + to damage, but did it for +Ca instead as my hand wasn't phenomenal after blocking the Executioner, but ended up not needing it.

Turn 2 Cassandra kills the Executioner after he walks, one threat down. But then the Queller lays down a suppression marker near Colette  so she has to spend an AP to walk away like a savage.

Long story short, I only used Prompt 3-4 times the entire game, and didn't feel particularly weakened because of it, since most of the time I was slowing one of their models and softening them up for the rest of my crew (Mannequin was doing great helping Slow things as well). Ended up losing because Cassandra was my Take One target and Lady J put her in a box instead of in the ground.

My takeaway was that it's a different playstyle that will take a bit to wrap your head around, but can be fun! That said, still wouldn't recommend taking Colette into Gremlins or Guild if you can help it, because of Zipp and Quellers, and in general, the amount of "Damage that may not be reduced" in general is her biggest threat in the game at this moment.