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Mercenaries got the short end of the stick?


Bakunin

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Not so much rules-wise, Battle Tempo seems amazing, but how much variety is a Mercenary crew gonna have?

2 Minions in-keyword, one of which are Desperate Mercenaries

No totem

No out of faction options

 

I love the Viks, and I don't have any complaints about the new rules on any of them, I just wish there were more keyword options

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Viktoria Chambers is her own totem (effectively), because trying to keep Viktoria of Ashes and Viktoria of Blood straight was too confusing.  :) 

And I think, on the contrary, that what the small keyword pool means is that you're more likely to see variety in that crew because it's forced by necessity to hire versatile and out-of-keyword models more often.

 

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I don't really mind the Viks being identical, I think they gained more than was lost. I hadn't considered that one of them is effectively the other's totem.

Interesting idea that lack of keyword models will push Mercs towards ook ones instead. Viktoria might be the best at paying ook tax, 3 Ronin and the Student is only 22 stones, leaving plenty for taxes

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Oh Yes, they're short of options, so they are better... Nope

In every Viks crew you can hire every single model, plus one or two extra ronin. 

It's boring yes, you can hire versatile/out of keyword models, but the rest of the crews also can, and they can play different crews while keepin in keyword, so the are A LOT more variable and fun. 

Unless fun means to you playing once and again the same, of course. 

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I do a great list with Bishop & The Midnight Stalker to get four 3 AP (mostly) models on the table.  With no actions from any other model, who else is getting that that much efficiency out of a crew? 

And with the double free moves Ronin get, the whole crew pretty much gets 3 actions.  Not a short stick to be found!

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While Mercs are certainly minion-lite, they're fairly Enforcer heavy, which is pretty similar to the Family and Kin keywords. 

While not Mercenary keyword, I kind of consider Hans in their theme as well. 

The only kind of issue I have is that the keyword isn't terribly well rounded as they're pretty well all melee based. 

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When I run the Viks, I take practically every model, save the Deperate Merc, plus an extra Ronin. While my crew doesn't change much, I feel they have plenty of options on the table. It isn't a control crew, but here are shooting options. I think the fact that I look at taking all of the options is very good, versus other masters where there are models I just don't hire. I guess I'm saying a small keyword of useful models seems way better than a massive one full of junk.

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On ‎7‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 1:30 AM, Bakunin said:

Not so much rules-wise, Battle Tempo seems amazing, but how much variety is a Mercenary crew gonna have?

2 Minions in-keyword, one of which are Desperate Mercenaries

No totem

No out of faction options

 

I love the Viks, and I don't have any complaints about the new rules on any of them, I just wish there were more keyword options

I guess it depends on how you count "variety". There are 8 models with Mercenary, 9 freikorps, that I can see but since one of those is a totem that you get for free, each keyword are limited to 7 models to hire. Yes some have several models that you are allowed multiple of, which the mercs don't. Oblivion only have 8 keyword models including Master and totem so it stick with 7 keyword choices.  I don't think any of those 3 keywords have out of faction options

 

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5 hours ago, Grim said:

I miss Vanessa and Laz :(

That was such a great pairing... now they don't even talk.  She doesn't even control the same way, it's so heartbreaking. 

Headcanon is they broke up, Vik's kicked his ass for breaking their sister's heart, that's why he has the new body now, so Vanessa will never control another construct again... it's just... too painful of a memory!

.... man, where did my brain go?

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3 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

That was such a great pairing... now they don't even talk.  She doesn't even control the same way, it's so heartbreaking. 

Headcanon is they broke up, Vik's kicked his ass for breaking their sister's heart, that's why he has the new body now, so Vanessa will never control another construct again... it's just... too painful of a memory!

.... man, where did my brain go?

There’s a stub of Command Construct still left on Joss, but yeah, it’s vanished from more than one spot!

...maybe someone overused the turrets last edition.

>_>

<_<

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6 hours ago, Adran said:

I guess it depends on how you count "variety". There are 8 models with Mercenary, 9 freikorps, that I can see but since one of those is a totem that you get for free, each keyword are limited to 7 models to hire. Yes some have several models that you are allowed multiple of, which the mercs don't. Oblivion only have 8 keyword models including Master and totem so it stick with 7 keyword choices.  I don't think any of those 3 keywords have out of faction options

 

Mainly this ☝️

There are other keywords with smaller pools, so I think is a matter of time. M3E just began, so in 1-2 years from now (and I think it will be after Christmas, when things will start going smoothly, we'll see nice adds to many keywords :)

First there are plenty of stuff in Wyrd's To-Do list:

  • Restock of printed materials (cards and books)
  • Send card packs to stores for the boxes they already have of M2E.
  • Gaining Grounds 2019/2020
  • Set up and running the program to get the new models from faction boxes that are not resculpts.

And in the meantime, keep working in future models, books, lore... They're a small company compare to other ones in the wargaming industry, so just give them some time ^^ I'm pretty sure that most of the keywords will receive something new in a year from now.

Going back to the original topic, the Mercenary keyword (which I don't play) lacks a bit of synergies between them (maybe that's their identity sign...) and the Desperate Mercenaries don't keep up with the rest of the crew and playstyle, but all around they're in a good spot.  

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On 7/21/2019 at 9:21 AM, Zebo said:

All Mercenary Keyword goes about being fast and hitting hard. Almost none non-melee or support options

Come now, give them a bit of credit! Big Jake is an almost pure schemer and the Student is a support model. Vanessa is kind of right in between. That isn't a bad percentage of models for a combat based crew! 

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Mercs and Freikorps could be combined under a single keyword. Probably op, but I'd like that. I have no idea about the fluff, but I've always felt viks and schill were in the same theme. They do have big differences, but they also kinda match for some reason.

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On 7/23/2019 at 9:28 AM, marke83 said:

Mercs and Freikorps could be combined under a single keyword. Probably op, but I'd like that. I have no idea about the fluff, but I've always felt viks and schill were in the same theme. They do have big differences, but they also kinda match for some reason.

Well, it's the Freikorps Mercenary Group... 🙄

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If you look back at 1st Ed, the Friekorps were an elite mercenary group that didn't like working with other mercenaries (They even had a rule that if you had a friekorps mercenary in your crew you couldn't have any other mercenaries in the crew unless Von Schill was also there).  I've always view one as a carefully organised team which works together and supports each other and the other as a group of individuals who are all good at what they do, but because they are so used to working either on their own, or wit different people they have learnt to be largely self sufficient

I'm fairly sure that they are different themes for Balance purposes, but there is nothing to stop you hiring across the two themes.

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