Let's get Presidential (Ironsides/M&SU Tactica)

[Douglas Scoundrels]

    Ok. We don't have this. We need this. I've been maining Toni since the closed beta and I have knowledge to share. I've gotten my butt handed to me plenty of times too, so I hope I can learn from all of you. Let's start with the big bad boss herself, Toni Ironsides.

     Nothing exciting for a stat line. Pretty average numbers outside of the max health for a model. If this is your first foray into the Queen of Fists, you first want to know that a lot of her 'oomph' comes from 'Adrenaline' tokens that she builds up on herself and then spends them for varying effects. 'Quell the Riot', her first ability, gives you Adrenaline regardless of what she's doing, so she's going to see at least 5 tokens if she survives a whole game. Any additional models you can clump around her will give you more. She HAS to be engaged by the model, not the other way around (so pull those 0" models into base-to-base if you can).
     'Pumped Up' is one of her two ways of being survivable, allowing you to discard Adrenaline to reduce damage by the same amount. Note that this is when she's damaged, so her Df Trigger we'll get into will not have generated a token yet. This will catch some people off-guard, as Toni not taking ANY damage is a bit unexpected. I would not immediately reduce everything, though. Use your Soulstones for that as she has some decent healing options and her other uses for Adrenaline are SO good.
    'Unionized' is her her Keyword ability. If you're close to a friendly M&SU, you both get positive flips for BOTH Df and Wp duels. Keep in mind it doesn't say anything about 'opposed duels' so things like Terrifying tests or some Shockwaves will still allow you to use these positive flips. HOWEVER, most of her keyword is designed around this as really their only defensive tech, and stuff outside of a Unionized bubble will die pretty fast.
     "The Injured Workers Act' is a part of her other keyword ability. Namely, a lot of M&SU models have Grit (get additional stuff when at half wounds or less). Toni and one of her henchmen let this go off regardless of their health. If they are within 6".
     Now we get to probably the most fun part of her card. She's brought back her 'I hit you back' trigger from M2E, but now it's a ton more reliable and will be the biggest thing your opponent has to try to work around. After resolving an opposed duel targeting her defense, she gains an Adrenaline token. If it was a attack, she automatically deals 2/3/5 back (uncheatable). Let's quickly unpack that. First up, "After Resolving" means it doesn't care whether or not she was successful in the duel. Regardless of getting hit, she's getting an Adrenaline token (which means all shooting will still be giving her resources). THEN if it was a she gets to hit them back (again not caring about success or not). That 2/3/5 is no joke, and since it's a flat flip most of the time you're going to be seeing moderates and severes more often than normal attacks. Mind you, Hard to Wound will put a negative flip on that! It is also not considered part of an attack, so it's a way around things like incorporeal and defensive triggers. Another thing to remember is that range means absolutely nothing here. If Reva stabs at Toni from 10 inches away, Toni is just going to teleport a knuckle sandwich into that smug teenager's face. Void Hunters or Death Marshall Recruiters think they can just safely claw and stab at her while she's tucked away in the aether? THINK AGAIN. Toni's rage transcends space-time to teach those goons a lesson about playing with portals. Lastly, some super secret tech! Currently, the wording on Focus only specifies 'subsequent damage flip'. I've checked with a few other Henchmen and we all agree that, as it stands, if Ironsides spends a focus to give her a positive flip to her defense, she'll also get a positive flip on this damage flip!
     Her last ability does a very good job of keeping your opponent off of your squishier pieces. If she engages something, it HAS to target her if it declares attack actions. It's Ironsides' one weird trick that every Zoraida hates!
     Now to the back and how Toni will specifically be hurting things.
     'Brass Knuckles' are her one attack action, targeting Defense and hitting for 2/3/5 damage. Gone is her uppercut from M2E, but they more or less worked it into this attack instead. Her range got shortened to 1" which is understandable considering that happened to a lot of models, and her acting value got toned down a little too. She has two triggers built-in, which is quite nice of Wyrd. On a Tome, she gets more Adrenaline per suit. No ceiling on this, so you could technically stack up to four suits if you absolutely positively need that much Adrenaline (built-in, card, stone, and Mechanical Rider's Aura, if you were wondering). If you are burning resources, make sure you hit as this one DOES require a success to go off. Her other built-in trigger lets you discard up to two Adrenaline tokens to deal extra damage of the same amount. This effectively makes Toni a 4/5/7 damage track (Hello Uppercut!) which will also blend just about anything if she gets to put all of her actions into attacking it and you have enough Adrenaline. Her last trigger is a bit corner-case, I believe, mostly because Adrenaline is so versatile. She can hand out Injured per Crows in the duel total (max 2). If you need to soften something up for the rest of your crew to take down, it's not a bad choice, though I'd save your Soulstones and just use opportune crows as they come up.
     I skipped over the innate ability of her knuckles besides the damage. She hands out Staggered to anything she punches. This might seem not that useful, as things are already close enough to Toni to hit her, but here's probably the biggest reason why it's there: To stop models from running away. Sadly, in M3E it a whole ton easier for models to run away from fights like the cowards they are. This is doubly bad for Toni because that means they can start targetting her bros. so she slaps some Staggered on them and voila! They can't be moved by friendlies, AND disengaging attacks are now more likely to stop them cold (needing a moderate to completely stop most models from pushing at all). It also has additional benefits for any Shockwaves you bring, as most target movement which is now suddenly two less.
     Next up is possibly Toni's ultra best friend (even moreso than her beloved brass knuckles). Bring It is a taunt that is almost exactly like her old "You Lookin' At Me?" from M2E. Since Charges are no longer a thing, she helpfully adds two to a model's movement instead, which was roughly what charge values were, anyways. An extra nice thing is it is a move instead of a push, so no more worrying about bases, walls, or other terrain stopping Toni's goad. Then they are forced to take a Against her with no triggers, and an extra negative flip to any damage. This. Is. Fantastic, as it really helps Ironsides stay planted where she wants to and still be able to affect the enemy at range. She picks who she wants to fight and pulls apart any bubbles your opponent might have set up. With a stat of 7 she's rarely not going to have at least 1 up on her opponent. The TN is negligible as your opponent isn't going to just allow you to ruin their plans with something as small as a 12 total or less. As a bit of extra goodness, if you hit a ram, you can discard an Adrenaline to heal 2 damage. This is technically more efficient than spending on a 1-for-1 basis with 'Pumped Up' so don't be forgetting it. Now, Most often, models' attacks are going to be targeting her Df, so this 'aggressive lure' will often pop her 'Good Shot' trigger, dealing damage to the model you just lured in. Ok, there are two VERY important things to keep in mind. 1. always check your targets card to be absolutely sure they will be targeting her defense. It feels real bad when you've pulled in something big and scary, only to find you won't be dealing damage to it or getting additional Adrenaline. Plenty of attacks out there target Willpower, and more than a few target Movement which she absolutely does NOT want to deal with. 2. Consider if this a better option than Brass Knuckles. While BK is a good attack with good triggers, you might be up against a model with a good Df trigger, incorporeal, high defense and low willpower, one who you need to be base-to-base to help prevent disengagement, or you just need better odds to hit the moderate of 3 or severe of 5. Bring It is a higher stat and as long as you can weather the return attack, can technically be more reliable damage.
     Toni's Tactical Actions are a mix of teamwork and rage powers. 'Intimidation' pulses out a TN 14 Wp duel to all enemies within 6" that gain Adversary (M&SU) if they fail. 14 is a pretty stinkin' high number, needing a 9 for the average Willpower of 5. This is a decent way to burn your opponents hand and set up some models for some pretty good pain from your friendlies. What's this? Fantastic triggers you say? Yes on a ram she can go right ahead and hit someone too, giving you lovely action efficiency (though you can't declare triggers on a action generated by a trigger!). On a tome that's built in, however, we generate our best friend Adrenaline again! FYI if you need quick fix, just pump this action out a few times. As long as you're hitting the TN, it doesn't matter if any enemy is even in the 6", you'll still get Adrenaline for your troubles. I don't recommend doing this very often, but there are times where you want to keep her still and have already focused (mostly on turn 1).
     El Presidente has two bonus actions (but really, only one most of the time), I've Got Your Back will help you get a friend out of an emergency if they are engaged and within 6. However, Second Wind is what you'll be wanting to use most. Yes for the low cost of two Adrenaline, Toni get's another action OR can end any conditions on her she wants. While I haven't had need to wipe conditions away very often, a 4 action Master is nothing to sneeze at. In magical Christmas land, Toni (with a big fat stack of Adrenaline) can deal 16 damage to any models engaging her through 4 attacks, and that's hitting MINIMUM damage.

     Upgrades? Toni can only take two of the three, and Soulstone Cache only benefits her in that she can pick up Soulstones from killing. Magical Training definitely has its uses. You already want your opponent to be concentrating on Toni, so why not make things even MORE difficult by draining their hands? The Shielded is also a nice little bonus.
 

     Next up is Toni's totem, Mouse. Mouse starts with a pretty weak stat line, Df 5 Wp 4 Mv 4, Sz 1, and 4 health. Now that Defense is going to  be good enough to not have him immediately be taken out the second your opponent targets him, but any effort above attacks of opportunity will end him real quick. The low willpower hurts a little more but both Df and Wp need to take the plus flips from 'Unionized' into consideration before you turn your nose up to this guy. That being said, that low wound pool needs to be taken into consideration, and you should be providing enough of a threat that your opponent isn't going to be getting the easy kill off of him. Speaking of 'Unionized', it the first ability on his card. Exactly the same as everyone else so I won't repeat what I said in Toni's description.

     Accomplice is next, which lets him chain-activate into another friendly model at the cost of a pass token or card. I mostly find myself with a more elite crew, so I often have pass tokens lying around for this. This is one of the few ways you can safely stretch your stuff outside of the Unionized bubble without fear of attacks targeting that unprotected model. Move Mouse up, then accomplice into another model that moves up next to him and redeploys the 'Unionized' protection.

     I'm going to skip the next one real quick in favor of his Grit ability, which works off of his accomplice. If he's at half wounds (or within 6" or Ironsides or Amina Naidu) when he uses Accomplice, the accompliced model gains focus +1. Focus is REALLY good in this game, so use this as much as you possibly can to really beef up your damage output.

     Now back to Expert Shot. This let's him ignore Friendly Fire on his ranged attack. This makes his ranged attack, which is far better than his melee attack, much more usable in a typical Toni bubble. You don't want Mouse to ever have to rely on his Melee for anything.

     WHICH leads to the back of the card and his one melee attack, Rope Lash. It's Frantic Flailing in all but name, 0" range and 1/2/3 damage track. Don't get into melee unless you absolutely have to with this guy.

     His ranged attack Toss the Noose (I'm noticing a 'Rope' theme) is the same stat, but at 10 inches and has a built in Ram. The damage track is a much more satisfying 2/3/4 as well as hands out Staggered and the built in trigger allows Mouse to pull models towards him by 3". It's a neat way to surprise your opponent with nudging their stuff out of position. The Staggered is also a great compliment to Toni is she didn't manage to put it on the target herself. If you manage to hit with a Crow, you're rewarded with slowing your target, which is getting a lot of work out of a 4ss model.

     Mouse's Tactical actions are where I think you'll be spending most of your time. He has a single action 'Emergency Surgery' which heals a nearby Living model for 1/2/3 damage. This is very similar to his M2E action 'Shot of the Good Stuff' (yes he's healing them through the power of alcohol), but now it doesn't need a ram to go off. Nope! Now he only needs a 5 to dole out healing goodness. Happen to have a 5+ Mask in hand or top-deck? You're taking this action again! That's 4 potential healing actions for one 4ss activation (and 4-12 health on anyone in his keyword). He doesn't mind the Living restriction much at all, as all in-keyword models have the Living Characteristic.

     Lastly, he has 'Fight for the Union'. This simply gives Toni Ironsides an Adrenaline token, plus another additional one if she happens to be below half wounds. Remember to take this bonus action as the first thing you do! I've accidentally run Mouse outside of 6" of Toni and regretted not getting the easy adrenaline. It would also kind of suck if you healed her past half health with Mouse before taking the action and miss out on an extra token.

     One thing of note for the few folks working off of muscle memory from M2E. Mouse is no longer insignificant! That's great because it means he can scheme in an emergency. That's also bad new because he is an easy kill and something your opponent could score off easily, so watch out!
  

     Gotta love a man in uniform! The Captain is the arcanists foremost Wind Wizard and Toni's first henchman (the one she was originally packaged with in M2E). Cap here packs a mean punch and brings a lot of tools and tech to help the M&SU out. Looking at the stat line, he sporting above-average Defense and Move along with Health matching his cost. That Mv 6 tied with his abilities makes him one of the more mobile models in the crew and a surprising tool for late-game scheming.

     His first ability is a nifty piece of defensive tech that's been modified from M2E to work the way it should have in the first place. You will notice a trend with Toni's henchmen that they all bring a unique aura to help protect the rest of the crew ('Union Strong'!). Captain's is call 'Middle of the Storm'. This magic cloud lets every friendly within three of him reduce the damage from actions by 2. That's REALLY good. If a crew model is within Unionized with him, they are effectively armor +2 for all  attacks! This guy is a MUST into shooting crew, as the Union's combat prowess lies almost entirely in Melee. Keep an eye on your opponent's attack actions. Things like Shockwaves are usually  actions, and though they don't target a model, MotS doesn't care.

     He also brings back 'Agile' from M2E, which is more crucial in this edition with how disengagement works. Here he can take walk actions while engaged. This means this strapping lad can always pop out of engagement to lay down a scheme marker or charge a better target (or just keep running if you need!). Really the only thing stopping him is impassible terrain or a wall of models he can't squeeze through. If you need to hunt down a specific model in the back or middle of your opponent's crew, Captain can get it done.

    Next up is his defensive trigger, Quick Getaway. When he flips a Mask, Cap can push up to 5" after the action resolves. Note that it has to be an enemy actions, so no farting him up the board with your own bullets! It's yet another M2E ability that was 'fixed' to be more useful (now you don't have to have him take damage or even get hit). This is a really good ability to mitigate multiple attacks on him. If he's charged, the model can't follow him with another charge. If he's shot, he can tuck out of sight or into cover. My favorite is to push into their face if they're shooters or out an inch so that he's engaging them and they aren't engaging him. This is likely to ruin their second action. It's so reliable that sometimes it's actually a good idea to cheat in the mask EVEN IF that will turn a miss into a hit (watch your opponent's extreme confusion). Obviously you don't want to get hit if you don't have to, so stones are a decent use here if your high card's aren't Masks.

     El Capitan brings a Grit Ability that let's him scoot 2" when he activates. While this might seem like not much, until you remember the shenaniganry of engagement and his already quality threat range. Now he doesn't have to walk out of engagement first when he wants to charge. Speaking of charge, his threat range goes from 8" up to 10"! Nearly the crazy range he had in 2nd edition. Better yet, if he walks first, this boi can hammer time something 16" away (well gosh, it sure would be swell if there was another model in the Keyword that could push him even further and give him fast so he can radiate his mighty metal magnificence on the opponent in their deployment zone).

     Lastly, we see the familiar 'Unionized', so when he isn't skipping across the entire board he can protect his fellows. Df 6 with positive flips is extra silly.

     Going to the back of his card, we see his trusty Relic Hammer. Tasty 2" reach and stat 6 makes this a very reliable weapon. 3/4/6 Damage track is the the best in the keyword too! Cap is a very good target for models to give focus to, because hitting that severe 6 will plow through just about anything in a few swings. The hammer comes with the side benefit of ignoring Shielded. While Shielded would only have prevented one damage anyways, it's not a bad benefit. The Relic Hammer comes with two triggers: On a tome he doles out Burning +2 (yay! MORE damage!), and Mask will allow him to man-handle his target 4" of his choosing. Burning synergizes well with other crews, though extra damage is welcome everywhere. The 'Knock Aside' on the Mask is potentially even better as it allows yet more ways to break up your opponent's setup and push them into danger ("Danger" being Toni) or out of cover/concealing.

     His other attack is Cyclone, the only Shockwave in the crew and another showcase of his wind wizardry. The base stats on this ability are a bit disappointing compared to your average Shockwave. He needs an 8 for it to go off, and the Move TN is a 12. It's a good 2" pulse from the marker, however, and besides the 2 damage all models that fail the Mv check will be pushed 3" away from the marker. His triggers are one of the explanations for the base stats. On a ram, he jacks that TN to 14 (needing a 9 to pass). Anyone passing that has just ditched a high card from their opponents deck or hand. On a Tome he instead hands out Burning +2 if the model is pushed at least 2". Hey that's a lot better, isn't in? Now let's get into the tactics. First up, this is much more of a toolbox piece than a 'spam the boom booms!' kind of attack. It would be difficult anyways as if you did damage models in a cluster, they are now 3" further away and likely more spread out. Like most Shockwaves, you get a lot more work from them the more models you target. Next, you need to take the TN into context with the two models above. Staggered affects Mv, and that means it also affects the TN test for this Shockwave! Now if you hit the ram trigger, an average Mv model will need a face card to not get hit! Lastly note that the Shockwave marker can be placed under models. This means it can occupy the same space as a 30mm model base. In this case, you can push them 3" in any direction you want, potentially isolating the model from it's crew.

     Lastly is his only Tactical Action and only Bonus Action: Wind Barrier. For the low low cost of a 4, The Captain puts out two 50mm markers that must be touching and count as concealing terrain. This has a long distance of 12" that stretches to nearly 14" when you consider the size of a 50mm base. As it is a 'Drop', you may place these under models, too. Concealing works at infinite range as long as one sight line passes through it, but you probably don't need to punt it out that far unless Cap has rushed off to go hunt something down. While the obvious use is to protect your own stuff, you need to be both smart and careful with what seems like a pretty easy-to- grasp ability. First off, it extends his protection outside of Middle of the Storm. While it might seem really good to double up with the pseudo +2 armor AND imposing negative flips, your crew usually isn't so compact as to hide behind the wall AND be within 3" of Cap. This means some Miners will be exposed and thus the obvious choice as a target. It's often better to hide the models that aren't within 3" behind the wall, so your opponent has to decide between dealing reduced damage or having to mitigate a [-] flip. Also you HAVE to remember it goes both ways. While you don't have a lot of shooting in the M&SU, gunsmith still want their 'Easy Target' as often as possible, and will get quite testing if The Captain is obscuring their next victim. Also it affects more than guns, and nothing screws up a turn more that suddenly removing Toni's ability to pull models in effectively. Lastly keep an eye out for enemies that like to use actions on each other. Suddenly obscuring their favorite obey target is a fun way to mess with their game plan!

     Amina Naidu is wonderful representation of one of the greatest things about Malifaux: the fact that the most terrifying model in a crew can be a lawyer with a clipboard. She brings a Df and Wp flipped from the Captain, and a very normal Move of 5. Her health is one less than her cost at 8 (She's a lawyer not a fighter!).

     From here on out, I'm only going to cover abilities not previously mention unless there's something I want to point out. Amina's first ability is Extended Claims which lets her discard a card to gain a Soulstone if she can see an enemy model take an interact action. That's right 'SEE'. There's no range limit on this. If she in the corner of the map and your terrain is poor enough to not block her sight to a Crooligan dropping a scheme marker, in the opposite corner, she can get a Soulstone. It's even  better because it's ANY interact, so while you can get stones back from the typical scheme marker dropping/picking up, every Turf marker flip, every Explosive drop, and every Idol pushed is an opportunity for you to make bank. Stones are pretty important in a M&SU crew because of the top-heavy nature of the in-keyword models (4/9 models can use Soulstones).

     We've already seen The Injured Workers Act on Toni, but I want to point it out real quick that Amina is the way you can effectively bring two independent groups to the table. Ironsides runs one, and Amina does the other. Keep in mind that you NEED to make Amina's group as unpleasant as possible otherwise they will be the obvious target most of the time. No one want's to play with Toni, it seems.

     Reach of the Union is her unique henchman defensive aura. Unlike the other two, this doesn't reduce damage, but makes your opponents action efficiency worse. Within 6" around her, enemy models can't take the attack portion of their Charge action. While Captain makes shooting a pain for the enemy, Amina makes melee combat also distasteful. Now the big scary beaters usually only get one attack on their activation. Note that this doesn't stop the Charge entirely.  Certain jerks (I'm looking at you Von Schill!) will have abilities that let them charged while engaged. Now if they end the charge still within Amina's bubble, they won't get the attack, but they'll probably do something incredibly mean anyways like leave engagement with Toni to go pick on a defenseless lawyer with a clipboard.

     Now to the back of her card and why she's an insufferable heap of utility that you're going to love teaching your opponent to hate. First up is Impassioned Defense. You may be asking why I'm starting with literally the last action on her card. Well, It's because it's the first thing you should do every time you activate her. Yes, you might have to move first and then use it (I didn't mean LITERALLY every time), but I can't tell you how often I forgot this piece of tech and it cost me! What it does is for a five or higher, you put Shielded +2 on a friendly model. It's her only bonus action so you have no reason NOT to use it, or at least try. "But Kaiser Senpai! What's so special about 'Shielded +2?!" you would say. I just told you it's free and I constantly forget about it and I want you to learn from my Mistakes! Also it has another specific use that we'll get into later.
    Amina doesn't really have 'Attacks' per  se, just thinks listed under 'Attack Actions'. First is her Sharp Wit which is her one Melee attack. It hands out slow and on a Tome you give out Adversary (M&SU) You don't really want to be doing this unless you're out of high cards and/or Soulstones. She just has better stuff to be doing than handing out philosophical beat-downs. There is a niche use for this, though, and it's to cut down on an opposing model trying to make a break for it. Last turn Prisoners and having only one action to run away is much more in your favor than having two actions. 

     On to the best/worst part of Amina, depending on your side of the board. Yes she's packing a pretty potent punch in the form of arguably the most hated action in early M3E, Obey. Obey let's you take and control a single action of the target non-leader that doesn't attach upgrades, list specific models (mostly summoning) or are bonus actions. If you haven't been on the receiving end of a Zoraida, you might not yet know how good this is. You know what's a single action? Charge. You know what else? Interacts (being able to force your opponent to score YOU plant Explosives or Cursed Idols) and the mostly free Soulstone you'd get from Extended Claims. Unlike 2E, you can declare TRIGGERS this time around, tacking on additional pain you weren't able to before. You can also gladly use enemy Focus on these attacks to drain their resources too! It's so great. And that's not even considering using your own models. You have Howard and Captain as great targets, even Gunsmiths or Union Miners are sometimes worth it. As a final insult, you can add Adversary (M&SU) if you're willing to part with the stone. This is one of those abilities that gets exponentially better the more clever you are. Now there are some limitations that need to be taken into account. While stat 7 is great, you still need a mask for it to go off. If you don't draw one, you're spending a precious Soulstone to get it off. Targeting your own models is a bit easier as they won't try to stop you, but you still need a 7 or higher which is not nothing. This makes her more reasonable than Zoraida, which can compound the seeming unfairness with extra actions, damage, and a built-in suit. OTHER THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: As of the current rules, if you obey an enemy model to attack another enemy model, they can relent the attack and force a double on your damage. Not very cash money. I don't agree with this rule. I think both models should have to be under control of the same player for you to relent, but that's me, and that's how it works currently. Maybe just don't tell your opponent they can do that 😀. 

     Amina's last action is Walk the Line. It's kind of an obey, pushing your friendlies up to 5" towards a scheme/scrap/corpse marker for only a 5. Not too bad. If they're at half health, you get a card. What you're really looking for is that sweet sweet Crow trigger. The target takes 2 damage and gains Fast. This essentially turns your one action into two (move and Fast). Hey, remember what I said about Impassioned Defense? You slap that on your target before throwing them up the board and now they're taking 1 less damage. Let's be honest here, though, there's ways around this. The last henchmen will knock that single damaged down to 0, armor +1 too.

     So overall, Amina is a hugely useful tech piece. She can't do a whole lot without friends to Obey/push, so make sure she doesn't get caught out or her friends all die around her. She's not going to last too long with Df5, 8 wounds, and no damage mitigation solo.

     Look at this grumpy b*stard! Look at him! If Toni Ironsides is the angriest person in Malifaux (she is), then Joshua Fitzsimmons is by far the grumpiest. Rumor has it that in 1905 a Guild patrol brazenly stood on Josh's lawn without permission and ruined his prize-winning petunias. He's been on a mission of vengeance ever since. The last of Toni's henchman, Josh is the cheapest and comes with the cheapest stat line: a very vanilla 5 Defense, 5 Willpower, 5 Move, and Health matching his cost. As we already know, those middling stats are deceptive in a Toni crew.

     If you have sleeves on your cards, I want you to do something right now. Pull out all the M&SU cards, and put a nice little tic right at the half wounds point. This is because you don't want to forget the benefit from his first ability: 'Solidarity'. This gives all friendly M&SU models within 6 of him Hard to Wound. I should specify TECHNICALLY Hard to Wound, as models that ignore HtW won't ignore this. I've forgotten this ability multiple times, and have resorted to marking my sleeves to help me remember. It's also useful for Grit if you aren't around Toni/Amina and is kind to your opponent who can see it from across the table and doesn't have to give away schemes by asking for wound counts.

     Now we get to the best thing about Fitzsimmons (besides mad scarf game). 'Protected by the Union' is the most versatile defensive henchman aura. It simply reduces all damage by 1 for all M&SU models within an 6 inch aura of Fitz. This. Is. Fantastic. It's even better because it's so simple. Any damage. Any damage at all gets knocked down by 1. Don't care if its shooting or melee, attack or tactical actions, just drop a point of damage (can't go to zero, though). It'll stack with Cap's aura too, so your opponent is looking at losing 3 damage from shooting attacks. Possibly one of the best things is that models that ignore armor/shielded/incorporeal don't ignore this. The only thing that'll get through is irreducible damage.

     Alright! Attacks. Fitz and the Tantrums has one standard attack called 'Picket Line'. Picket Line looks pretty basic, stat 6 and 2/3/4 damage is not the most exciting on an 8 cost henchman. It does gain a positive flip if the target is within 3 inches of a friendly model. Since that's what you want to be doing anyways, you're almost always going to have this. Heck I'd almost say it should just be stapled on the stat. The one unique thing of note, is that this is technically (mathematically) the most reliable way to smack 2 damage on a model in this crew. Gunsmiths are in second place only because Easy Target isn't as reliable. You're not always going to find yourself in that situation, but it's nice to know.  Now as far as triggers go, he has...nothing. In fact, Fitzsimmons doesn't have triggers. Anywhere. My best guess is that triggers are a newfangled invention and he got along just fine without them 'back in the day' and kids nowadays don't know the value of a dollar or how to solve all of their problems by slapping people with a sign and setting them on fire.

     SEGUE! 'Arson' is Fitzsimmons' only other way to deal damage. It's a Shockwave of sorts, but HAS to target a scheme marker (which is why I still count Captain as the only model with a true Shockwave). For the low cost of a 6, Fitz designates a scheme marker and makes it go boom. The result is a 2" pulse of the marker with a TN 12 Move duel that doles out 2 damage and 1 burning. The real kicker is that the marker is then removed. Oh yeah, Arson is going to mine some salt! Heck I consider the damage/burning as a side bonus to this. Every schemer will be quaking in their boots when Old Man Fitzsimmons comes to town. Now this has a little more space for shenanigans than the picket smack. Sometimes, your opponent isn't dropping schemes, or they're disgusting cowards and dropping them out of view. Thank goodness it doesn't specify ownership. We'll get into it later, but you have some very kind minions that can put out scheme markers right in the middle of your opponent's models. Also you can use Amina to force them to put one down.

     Yet another reason for Amina to obey them to drop a scheme, 'Interrogate' is Fitz's last attack. It's not an 'attack' per se, as it is yet another way to annoy your opponent. On a successful stat 5 Willpower duel, you force your opponent to discard a card. Not bad! Anything to get rid of their cards isn't a waste. What makes it a lot better is the additional text. If they're within 3 inches of one of their team's scheme markers, you get to draw a card. I would suggest using this only when you can get the extra card, but there's always those corner cases when they are down to one or two cards. A player without a hand is a very good thing!

     'I Didn't Start the Fire' is a Billy Joel reference. It's also Fitzsimmons' only tactical and only bonus action. 8" out and NO RESISTANCE (YAY!)! You turn the Burning condition off of the target. If they're an enemy, you place a scheme marker next to them. Keep in mind the first part. You can use this in a pinch if a friendly got Burning on them (bypassing Assist actions). I kind of wish it dropped an enemy scheme marker to synergize with 'Interrogate', but you can instead use it for scheming. So, best possible round with Fitz. Blow up a scheme marker next to some mouthy teen (Dreamer fits the bill). Dreamer gets set on fire. Fitz rips the burning off, places a scheme, and then hits him with the Arson again. Not once did he have to deal with an opposed duel, and he's probably hitting other models. Stick it to those youths!

     It's Hank! Howard Langston is Toni's one and only Enforcer (not counting Mouse) and tied for Captain as the most expensive model in-keyword. When he's not trying to buy a Turbo Man action figure for his son, he's still doing the Union's dirty work and retains his status as a blender on five legs from M2E. While not as overt of a damage dealer, he now requires a little more finesse to get the killing potential out of him, but that's what I'm here for! Another thing of note is he'll have some abilities that don't necessary gel all that well with the M&SU crew, but that's because Toni has joint custody of Hank with the new(ish) master, Charles Hoffman.

     We start off with a very OK stat line: A weak defense of 4, Willpower 5, 5 Walk, Health equal to cost, and the only Size 3 in the keyword. Couple that with a 50mm base, and reach of 2, and he can get his claws on a surprising amount of models a more standard character would have difficulty with. He's more than happy to use Toni or Captain as particularly violent meat shields as they are much more survivable. Keep in mind that Size 3 is going to make him awfully visible to every shooter in your opponents. crew.

     Armor +1 is great. If he's in the same crew as Fitzsimmons, that's basically armor +2, and with Captain that's 3-4 damage reduction from shots!

     We'll skip the Grit ability for now, as I'll get into it when we visit the back of his card.

     Power Converter is an ability Howard gets from his Arcanist dad. Toni can make good use of in her crew, though, if you bring along another minion that's also shared between the two masters. For now, all you need to know is if he gets to activate near scrap, he Hoovers it up to be used as a resource to gain positive flips or a suit to an action (Basically a soulstone). I would primarily use it for suits, as he has GREAT triggers and you can get Focus on him in other ways.

     Hank's other unique defensive ability is Terrifying. It only needs an 11, which is a 6 for most models. So you won't be seeing it protect him TOO much, but playing a hand drain strategy will bump up that usefulness.

     Howard's last ability is Unimpeded.  While you won't be needing him to move too fast in a Toni bubble, if you need to shoot him out to go hunt something down, this will be useful.

     Now to the Meat and (thoroughly mashed) Potatoes of Howard Langston, his attack. The steamborg brings back his trusty Executioner Claws, albeit a bit dulled from M2E. His reach is a very useful 2" and the damage track is now a 3/4/5, which is still pretty good. The additional effect is what really makes you stand up and pay attention. Hank ignores all Defensive Triggers. Against some crews (including this one) that is absolutely killer. Pay good attention to the opponent's declared master, it might be a real big indication you should bring this guy. Howard is sporting some real tasty triggers as well.

     'Heave' might secretly be the best of the bunch. It takes a Ram, and lets you place the target anywhere within 3" of this model. "Why would I want to place the model outside of my reach?" you may ask. Well, you might very well have a whirling hate-tornado of brass knuckles in the crew just itching to punch the crap out of your target, and now she doesn't have to spend Actions on her lure (and some times she just can't use it). It also goes real well with another action he has. Lastly, that is 8 (count 'em) to 9 inches of possible movement! If you attack while they're just in your 2" threat, than that's 2" to Hank, 2" for his base, 3" inches further away from him, and then the length of the target's base (give or take a few millimeters). That's one of the longest ways to move an enemy in the game. I'm surprised they don't take fall damage at that point!

     On a Mask he has 'Like the Wind' which let's him push 5" while ignoring models. It's not as crazy as 'Heave', but if he's already charged and killed the opponent or you want to hurt more models with his tactical, this is a great move. Keep in mind he's a bit of a fatty, so his butt will be taking up 2" of that new move. Since he can't stop while overlapping, you may have to do a bit of pre-measuring with proxy bases first before deciding to spend resources on the trigger.

     The last trigger is an old favorite, 'Execute'. Your opponent is forced to discard a Soulstone or a card, or the model dies immediately. It also ignores Demise abilities or any healing effects that trigger when the model is killed. Due to the cost being a step down from M2E, you shouldn't expect this to actually KILL things very often, but resource drain is always good. Lucking into 1 or 2 cards or stones out of your opponent's hand/cache is going to give them a headache. I would suggest keeping your opponent informed of the downside to letting it go through, though. While in a competitive tournaments anything goes, but usually I wouldn't suggest souring a game by killing Leveticus permanently because your opponent wasn't aware Execute ignores Levi's Demise (actually, if it's Levi, he kind of deserves it). Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the effect of the trigger occurs before the effects of the model being killed goes off. If so, than you can still declare the trigger even if you reduce the model to 0 health (in the case of Demise abilities).

     Moving on! What's an innocent Steamborg Executioner gonna do besides aggressively petting everyone he meets? Why, it's fart a deadly cloud of superhot steam! That's right! Now can you not only mince literally everything into hot dogs, you can cook them too! Howard can take the Vent Steam action to put up an aura of concealment for everyone within 3" of him. It also acts as Hazardous terrain for all enemies that aren't Constructs. Now, I was kind of down on Howard for a while until I realized he should be using this every activation. In my defense, I seemed to luck into a lot of constructs/incorporeal whenever I hired him. STILL it's fantastic just for the defensive aspects. Concealment is going to save your team's behind just as much as the plus flips to your Df and Wp. The best part is it affects all non-claw attack actions (including spell-like attacks). It also gets around the 1" rule for Concealing terrain. The enemy model could be base-to- base with yours and they'd still be on a negative flip. Don't discount the Hazardous, either. This will be a huge pain for most opponents you run into. While one damage might not seem like much, you have to take into context the fact that it trips EVERY action they take while in it, OR when they move in it. Guess what's a move? A walk! Guess what's a move? A charge! Guess what's another move? a push! Gimmie one more? A place! Alright, which of those can you force your opponent to do? ALL OF THEM. Yes, probably the best thing about Hank is that he's a focal point for slowly boiling your opponent's models alive. Amina can force any move, Captain can push, Toni lures, and Hank himself has that glorious Heave trigger to just do it himself. Even Mouse gets in on the party. It goes away at the end of the turn, so activating Hank early will get the most use out of the action. Sadly this is counter-productive to the Execute trigger, but the Steam is more important. If only there was some kind of, I don't know, Lawyer in the crew that could...like...tell him to take the action before he actually activates.

     Ok. Howard's one and only bonus action. I cannot perceive a point where he'd actually want to use Transfer Power. Maybe with Hoffman, but Charles only gets custody every other weekend and this is Toni Time. Trail of Gore is the only bonus action you'll be using in an M&SU crew. It allows him to discard an ENEMY scheme marker to take a walk or melee attack. Nice. Howard is rocking the triple attack with this, or sprinting really far to go stab something important 17" away. While the requirement seems a little strict, we will be getting this for FREE with his Grit ability. And since he's hanging out with Arcanist Mom and the single good lawyer in Malifaux, he's effectively a 3 action model for most of the game. This also means using the Vent Steam on his activation is less painful since he still gets to attack twice. DON'T FORGET THAT REQUIREMENT THOUGH! You could get trapped into always just taking your third action because you can, but there are times where there are actual enemy schemes lying around. Grit doesn't FORCE you to use Trail of Gore for free, you can still 'pay' for it and deny your opponent the marker.

Gunsmith's are the M&SU's most expensive minion and the first that we'll be covering. Same middling stat-line as Fitzsimmons, but sporting one less health than their cost (something I JUST now noticed as a change from the Beta), BUT we already know M&SU stats are going to be blase what with all the plus flips. Let's move to the abilities.

     'Hard to Kill' is an ability that just about every model in Toni's entourage had in M2E, but now the Gunsmith is the only model to retain it. It's a very good thing, as being the only reliable ranged damage dealer in the crew is going to put a target on their back. If you don't remember, it says that, as long as you are above 1 wound, damage can only ever take you down to 1 wound. Forcing your opponent to make one more attack to kill the Gunsmith gives you more of an opportunity to save them with either Mouse or a Medical Automaton.

     'Easy Targets' is their next unique skill, which says if the Gunsmith is unengaged, and the target does not benefit from Cover or Concealment, you gain a  flip to your attack. This has very swingy benefit determined by the terrain density of your board. When you have it, it's great for the added likelihood of hitting. When you DON'T have it, the downside is compounded by the added effects of the Cover/Concealment. Unlike snipers, Gunsmiths still have to play by the rules 😢. So, 'Easy Targets' will be sort of dictating your targets for you. That's not too bad of a problem, as your crew has more than a few ways to put models where they don't want to be. Another benefit you might have realized is 'Easy Targets' also negates Friendly Fire. Yes, technically they could still be in Cover/Concealing (Vent Steam and Sputtering Exhaust affect ALL models), but that's usually your decision and something you can work around. It's nice to know that the Gunsmith can still reliable shoot at things Toni has pulled in without having to get up close and personal.

     'Gunfighter' lets you use your guns in melee. Pretty straightforward. This might be a good time to point out that Wyrd has really streamlined the whole Ca/Sh/Ml and / relationship from M2E into a much more understandable state. 'Gunfighter' simply turns the shoot action into a melee action. SO, it ignores Concealment as well as stuff like Captain's Aura if we're talking about enemies with the ability. Also (to our benefit) 'Gunfighter' models will get hit back from Toni if they charge into her.

     The last ability is one that really starts to show why they cost 8. 'Grit (Resourceful)' lets you tack on a suit of your choice to final duel total of any action it declares. While that only matters for one action, it's a doozy of an ability. If you're in the Toni/Amina bubble, you're getting whatever trigger you want on your attacks at all times. I have been corrected and will specify that you must declare the suit before you flip any cards.

     Let's get to the murder! Gunsmiths bring their Custom Firearms to the beatdown which sport a hefty 2/4/5 damage track. The real kicker, as I mentioned, are the FOUR triggers on the gun. One for every suit. This means that even without the Grit ability, you are technically able to always declare a trigger on a successful attack. The first trigger is Puncture, and is likely the one you'll be declaring the most. You get a to damage per suit in the total (max of 2). A Tome will let you ignore armor, and a Mask will let you shoot someone else. Crows are another stacking trigger, this time doling out Injured +1 per suit.

     Let's talk tactics. The Rams trigger is default due to the damage track and 'more damage' almost always being useful. Some times things don't have armor, some times you don't have another target to shoot (especially when engaged), and some times you don't have anything to take advantage of Injured before the turn ends. Since moderate is twice the amount as minimum, Rams is more ideal into a lot of armored opponents too. Assume a negative flip is usually weak damage, and a straight flip is more likely to be NOT weak, the Ram will likely break even on an Armor +2 model just if you hit moderate, and do better on a Severe as opposed to Weak with a Tome trigger. Now none of this is guaranteed, but I feel much more secure getting a straight flip with no armor reduction, than a negative with it. Now the Puncture stacks, so if you're lucky to win with a Ram, you're looking at a . That's still a straight flip on a tie and that ROCKS. The Mask trigger, I think, is best used when you're finishing off a model, that way you're not wasting high damage on something with 2 wounds anyways, and can start taking down something else. EDIT: Spend that second shot of Toni if there's nothing good to shoot! She'll get an adrenaline and it's pretty easy to force a miss. The second attack can't declare triggers, mind you, so you're not going to have a lot of chutzpah on it. Injured is great in a lot of situations, but it depends a lot on context and the board state. If you don't have anything to take advantage of it, you're better off with another trigger. That being said I would almost always use it if I get the double suit and I have at least one model to threaten the injured model, as I rate Injured +2 to be exponentially better than Injured +1. Also, if you really want Injured, it's better to use these guys than Toni. She wants to always be dealing more damage or picking up Adrenaline if she can. It also means you don't have to activate Ironsides early to get use out of Injured. The ranged Injured really gels well with Toni, as it affects Willpower and makes her 'Bring It' and 'Intimidation' that much more effective.

     To keep from getting into a rut with always declaring Puncture, and this may seem counter-intuitive, but these guys are a pretty decent recipient of Focus. You only need so many positive flips, and if you're already getting those from Focus, you can use the other tech in the Gunsmith arsenal to better and more powerful effect. Likewise, Counterspell and Hard to Wound are going to severely weaken the Gunsmith's effectiveness. I would be very careful of my targets against such crews, and rely more on Concentrating than I normally would. Your Henchmen and Master need to declare triggers more than the 'Smith does, so getting that focus and shooting once means only one card needs to be pitched.

     When the Gunsmith isn't pouring dozens of custom rounds into bad guys, they can also counter-scheme in a pinch. They come with the tactical action of 'Target Practice'. This lets you simply remove an enemy scheme marker off of the board. The target number is the distance between the Gunsmith and the marker. You start with a stat of 2, so anything within 2" is guaranteed. Note that it still has a so you sadly can't do this while engaged. I get a lot of use out of this ability. I don't usually have to even shoot very far, either. I think most of my opponents just don't expect the Gunsmith to do anything besides....gun. Unlike Fitzsimmons, the 'Smith can safely pop schemes next to your friends, and a high card means you can rush out and explode one from 15" away. Well technically 20", because of their bonus action.

     'Creep Along' is their other tactical action and only Bonus action. It makes the Gunsmith incredibly efficient, because it basically gives them a free move and saves all their actions for aerating your opponent's crew. It's arguably better than Nimble, because the push ignores disengaging strikes and so pulls you out of engagement where you don't really want to be. However, it requires a 5 and a friendly to push towards. Don't worry, though, after a bit of practice you'll get used to having a set-up model to push towards every time. 

      The Union Steamfitter is the second-to-last model in the keyword, and one of the two dedicated mostly to support and scheming. These gals (and guy) have changed quite a bit from M2E, and anyone looking to do the same kind of tricks is going to be fairly disappointed. Not to say they're bad, but it took me a LONG time to unlearn what  I was used to doing.

     Vanilla stats, move along!

     First ability is 'Grit (Steel Patch)' which lets you give a friendly model within 2" Shielded +1. Hey this is just a good little bundle of utility. You can always just give it to yourself, or prime a model to take no damage from Amina's Burnout (assuming Armor +1 or Fitz's aura). Remember this is upon activation, so don't forget to apply it immediately! Most opponents are kind enough to let you do it retroactively, but try to avoid that.

     The other two abilities we've covered, but keep in mind Steamfitters can generate the scrap needed for power tokens, so you'll more often have access to these benefits. It is quite possible to just feed those to Hank, though. He's a growing boy.

     Now to the back and their only attack, 'Welding Torch'. Boy, that's a lot of words. The first part assumes you actually have power tokens to toss around. That might be true in a Hoffman list (yes, more joint custody children), but here you're not going to be generating a lot, so they're precious. IF you ABSOLUTELY need to hit something without moving, go ahead. It increases your Melee range by 2 for every power token discarded. Just think of it as a 2/3/3 attack with Burning +1. That's...actually a decent damage track for a 6 Cost model. You're usually looking at at least dealing 3 damage overall, more if they don't clear it and survive another turn. The burning also works well with Fitzsimmons who can turn it off to get a free scheme marker. In addition to decent damage, the action can outright heal a friendly construct for 2 instead! Since there's no TN, this is really efficient. While, sadly, the only in-keyword Construct is Hank, you will OFTEN be bringing other constructs to flavor your crew. The Triggers are really nice as well. For a ram, you gain a positive to damage AND generate a blast off of your opponent. While you don't have a big Severe damage to salivate over, a severe card will still blast 3 damage onto any schmuck dumb enough to be close to your target. Even if you get saddled with weak damage you still get the blast, so plink away! There are two different triggers on a Tome. The first is Blaze, which will net you an additional Burning for every Tome. While your crew doesn't have a lot of Burning synergy, if you spend a power token and flip/cheat into putting Burning +3 on an opponent, you're now threatening extra burning damage. The other Tome trigger is probably the one you'll be declaring more often. It generates you another power token. Do this as much as you can because you really want these.

     The Steamfitters' first tactical action is 'Encase in Steel'. Range of 3", needs a 6 and a Tome to go off. This hands out a very weak single point of Shielded. The triggers make this worth the action, though. On a Ram, you can discard a scrap within 3" to instead give out Shielded +3. On a Tome, you can give a friendly M&SU model Focus +1 in addition to the Shielded. The Tome gets built in if you're targeting a construct but SOME game company that won't be named decided the number of Constructs in one of the most construct-sounding keywords should be a big whopping ONE. I would venture to guess the Ram trigger is more for Hoffman as he tends to bring scrap generation AND have a lot of constructs that will get you the first of the two suits needed.

     Before we get into the strategy of 'Encase in Steel' let's cover the Steamfitter's Bonus action, 'Discarded Tool'. This lets you pitch a card or a scrap marker within 2 to place a scrap or scheme marker in base contact with yourself. This has a ton of utility for most of your crew, and is a lot to unpack. First up, is the obvious synergy with yourself. End a turn by placing a scrap, next activation you got a marker to gain a power token from. You can instead feed one to Howard, who will gladly take it for his own fun triggers. The scheme marker has equal use in scoring you schemes that need you to be close to the enemy like Dig Their Graves or Detonate Explosives since it doesn't care about engagement. It's also just generally useful for all scheme marker schemes, as you can take a full two actions of movement before putting one down, giving you a wider range to put them down. I've even used it to cheekily score the second point of Dig Their Graves. I managed to pop one down before being killed, and since I'm the one who places the corpse, I made sure the markers touched. Steamfitter is almost always my first activation. Walk them up, focus, and drop a scrap. That scrap is a target for Walk the Line (Amina), and the Steamfitter is a target for Creep Along (Gunsmiths). Highly efficient double-duty there!

     Ok, back to the Encase in Steel. At first, I thought that I should be focusing on this ability as the primary action of my Steamfitters. That's not going to work in this edition. You need to have those suits to get use out of this, and Howard is your only construct and thus the only one you can reliably get Focus on without lucking into Tomes. Now if you have those mid-level Tomes, go right ahead. Generating Focus using the actions of cheaper models is a very good strategy in M3E. Sadly we can't cheese it out unlike other keywords, but we're the Arcanists and the good guys shouldn't be taking cheap shortcuts to victory. No, you'll probably be using your power tokens for this quite a bit. You won't be generating them right off the bat, so don't think about boosting your friends turn one, as much as setting up to help them in other ways like my first activation I mentioned earlier. Then, as you generate the tokens from scrap or attacks, you can start passing them off as Focus and Shielded to your M&SU buds. Even if you're really lucky and get a lot of Power tokens or mid-range Tomes, the Steamfitter and the Union Miner (which we'll get to) are your main schemers in keyword. Focus on scoring first and foremost, and trust your bigger siblings can still lay out the hurt without the additional focus. 

     Last up in the keyword is the lowly Union Miner. I say 'lowly' but they're 5 stones. No cheap activations here! These guys are your other schemers and bring their own tech to the table that separates themselves from the Steamfitter. As we can see, another 5-5-5-2 stat line. This time they bring an extra wound over their cost (though if you're anything like me these guys are a magnet for getting Red Jokered off the table by a Severe 5 model).

     Their first ability is 'Companion' which operates just like 'Accomplice' except you trigger it after a friendly ends their activation, not forcing another to activate after you. Not a lot of overt use for this initially as their abilities don't really scream "I need to do this before my opponent can react", but hear me out. The first and probably most common use for this is keeping 'Unionized' on all of your models. Unless you want to inch your bubble along at an excruciating pace, you have to run models outside of 3" from a friendly. Instead of leaving that model out to suffer at the hands of Freedom-hating thugs, you can Companion into a Union Miner to also walk up and reestablish 'Unionized'. While they can't lay the hurt on nearly as well as more expensive models in the faction, there are times when you've accidentally left an unactivated enemy alive on a wound or two. Instead of giving them a chance to activate and do something nasty (or run away like a coward) you can Companion into your best buddy Chuck (he looks like a Chuck) and Chuck can give them a good whacking with a pickaxe to put them down for good. My last secret tactic (feel free to mention your own or point out something obvious I missed!) is to Companion from Amina who has pushed and made the Miner Fast. This prevents your opponent from reacting to the sudden movement, and allows your miner to take off quickly and go do what they need to do. Coupled with their Grit and Tactical action, this Lawyer-Client duo can spit out a scheme marker 18 inches from where the miner originally started!

     Demolitionist is a handy ability into a handful of crews. When you activate a Union Miner, they can destroy all destructible terrain within 1". Raspy's gonna hate them. Yet another time to use their Companion ability after being pushed by Amina to deny the use of any destructible terrain against them.

     'Grit (Dash)' is their last ability. Same as the Captains, but unlike him, they can't just walk out of engagement. This is all the more important because engagement turns off their favorite Tactical Action, SO if you want to toss out some schemes, make sure to always remember to use this to guarantee they won't have to disengage. It also bumps up their movement to 7"/12" which is pretty speedy for a bunch of drudges. Lastly, it pairs well with Demolitionist as they occur at the same time, so if you're JUST outside of 1" from destructible terrain, you cab get in there and bring it down.

     Union Miner's come with two attacks. One you'll use. One you'll forget is on the card until you do a write-up about the Keyword on the Wyrd Forums. Mining Tools is their Melee action with a respectable 1" Stat 5 and 2/3/4. Just like big brother Hank, they also ignore defensive triggers. Any opposing crew bringing a heavy investment on defensive triggers is going to have a BAAAD time playing against the Union. On top of this, you got some great triggers to go with your Mining Tools. First up is Critical Strike. This tacks on another point of damage, bringing you to a 3/4/5 damage track (just like Howard!). The other trigger is on a Crow and hands out slow. Both of these aren't necessary but a good surprise when they show up. You're opponent isn't going to expect a solid hit from your schemers so feel free to teach them a lesson if the opportunity arises.

     The other attack they have is a ranged...thing. Modified Welder is a stat 5 against Df and range 10. It hands out a point of Burning. I would only use this if you can't move and can't scheme, as by itself it's not going to do much. However, it's good for topping off any enemy model sitting on 3 Burning so they can start taking 2 damage each turn. It also pairs with Fitzsimmons' Billy Joel reference, so there's some set-up for Mr. Grumpy.

     The (arguably) most used Action you're going to see from these guys is their Tactical Action, "False Claim". For the cost of a 7 and not being engaged, you can place out two scheme markers within 3" of this model. At the end of the turn, you must remove a friendly scheme marker in play. Ok, let's get into this amazing action! First up, you shouldn't be worried too much about engagement due to your Grit, the only thing you need to worry about is the up front cost (7s aren't terrible) and the back end cost (removing a marker at the end of the turn). Markers are removed before scoring happens, so you'll need to plan this out. A relatively simple solution is to dump a few scheme markers in your deployment zone at the start of the turn. You don't have to remove one of the schemes you placed via False Claim, just A friendly scheme marker. Make sure you space them out, as well. If your opponent picks both of them up, you'll be forced to remove a scheme marker anyways. The 3" is a bit misleading too, because they just have to be touching within the 3" so if you include the base size and the distance you can be from whatever you need the schemes next to to score (usually 1-2 inches), you can score from pretty far away. Since they don't have to be near each other, you can safely score things like Detonate Charges, Harness the Leylines, Search the Ruins, or Dig Their Graves with just one of Union Miner. These guys really open up with other models in the faction that use Schemes for resources or other things. Fitz and the Saboteurs can pump out a lot of explosions, Cojo can eat them all for Focus (just one Miner activation will get Donkey Kong 4 Focus!), Willie's Set Charges can blow up as many times as you can pack markers in the same area, it has SO much versatility.

See anything I missed or have input? Let me know! I'm going to cover strats and schemes in more detail, as well as some often takes. I know I'll do Mecharachnids, Emissary, and Soulstone Miners at the bery least, but let me know what else you think needs covered.

     M&SU Strategy and Schemes? While I will go into more detail below, if you need to know RIGHT NOW what they're best at, look at Reckoning and Turf War first. M&SU does not like to spread out too much and is lacking the mobility to chase down Idols, while Plant Explosives is much more doable, but the mobility is still a bit of a problem. As far as Schemes, Toni wants to see Detonate the Charges, Dig Their Graves, and Claim Jump. Detonate and Dig are sort of 'danger close' schemes where some of her minions are very good at dropping scheme markers very close to enemy models. Also if your opponent takes these schemes, they'll be coming into your bubble to do it, which you want. Claim Jump is very good because the M&SU want to own the center of the board in the first place.

     So that's my quick(ish) breakdown of the best girl in the whole game. I'll be filling out models in her crew below using the same format, as well as other models in the faction that she loves to bring. I'll also go over strategies, schemes, and tactics to use in more detail. Please use this thread to discuss the M&SU keyword and get a discussion going about how best to literally punch all of our problems away! If you have something to add to these breakdowns, I'll be happy to add it.

 

     Our first take outside of the M&SU is the Cheese Snake itself, the Soulstone Miner. Anyone playing Arcanists or against Arcanists with any regularity is probably very familiar with this model already, but for those outside the loop, this is one of the best Schemers in the game. The Stat line is a bit on the weak side: 5 Defense, 3 (THREE!) Willpower, 5 Move and Health at one less than their Cost.

     Their first ability is Armor +2. Pretty hefty damage reduction and something they need with middle-to-terrible defenses and no access to the Union's positive flips.

     Busy Drilling is a double-edged sword. It makes you take Interact Actions as Bonus Actions. While they're good for being able to Walk-Walk-Scheme, it's more often than not limiting to you as a way to not make this model COMPLETELY ridiculous.

     Mine Soulstone is one helluva powerful ability. Once the Miner activates, it can give itself 'Stunned' to give you one extra Soulstone. Nice! Stunned, however, is going to make things a little hard for our drill worm. Since bonus actions now count towards your actions, the SS Miner can only take two actions, or an action and a bonus action each turn. That aside, if they live for the whole game they can net you 5 soulstones, effectively making their cost 1.

     Unimpeded helps when you decide to make these guys hoof it, but not that often used considering their movement tricks with tactical actions. It is nice to be able to plant yourself in cover for safety, and then run them out without the negative to your move, though.

     Demolitionist is also seldom-used (destroys all destructible terrain within 1" when you activate), but couple that with your Union Miners and suddenly you have a lot of effective anti-destructible tech.

     Ok back of card and their only attack action, Mining Tools. Well just the one, really. The BIG mining tool. Same stat line and effect as the action on your Union Miners. Keep in mind you now have 3 non-tax models that ignore defensive triggers! The triggers are different, though. Tomes lets you ignore Armor, so they're decent against other constructs. Masks takes a bit of setup, but can be real killer in a Toni crew. It let's you place the target in B2B with a friendly scheme or Pit Trap marker within 6. M&SU like putting scheme markers into the middle of fights, and LOVES having even more things engaging Toni. While you won't be able to teleport schemers on the periphery into Ironside's maw, you can surprise support models and put their squishy bodies right in front of muscle wizard. Lastly, Siphon Essense is a good, though rare trigger that will give you a Soulstone if you kill a model with a Crow. With your very 'OK' damage track and the fact that you don't usually want to get them into prolonged fights, you probably won't be seeing this much. Not to say it's bad, if you have the opportunity, go right ahead. It might actually be worth to not take the Stunned and hit twice if you know you can get it.

     The Soulstone Miner has a plethora of Tactical Actions to make up for the single Attack. Thriller Driller lets you whip your drill back and forth to destroy all destructible terrain within 3" of it. It requires a six, but if you're using the action you're going to make sure it goes off. 3" from a 40mm model is a pretty significant space.

     The next two actions are bonus actions and go hand in hand. Let's cover Drill Into the Earth first. For a 5, you can bury this model. Easy Peasy. If you have a Crow, you can place a Pit Trap marker, but I don't think I've ever found myself in a place to want this. Please let me know if you have some secret Pit Trap tech in Arcanists! The other bonus action is The Earth Beneath Your Feet. This doesn't require any cards, and will unbury the model ANYWHERE on the board that isn't within 6" of the Enemy Deployment Zone. Wow. This is why these guys are so good. You don't even have to care about proximity to enemy models. You can pop up next to any schemer to your hearts content and immediately deny them the ability to scheme. OR if your opponent has key squishy models, unbury next to them, bypassing just about any blocking attempts and get 2 free whacks at the victim (I'm looking at you, Waifs!). Now since these are bonus actions, you cannot bury, unbury, or interact in the same turn. That's fair as otherwise they would be Ten Thunders-levels of  broken. This means you have to plan ahead and make sure you bury, Stun, Scheme, and Unbury in the right place and the right time. On multiple occasions I've Stunned them for the Soulstone, only to realize I REALLY needed the armor ignoring trigger.

     So why Toni? Outside of the ability to feed her models, occasionally. Well first, Toni doesn't really "do" spreading out, so she's in need of models that are mobile and can handle themselves. They open up schemes like Outflank, Power Ritual, Search the Ruins, Breakthrough, and Hold Up Their Forces. Since you can wait to unbury them till the end of a turn, you can make it nearly impossible for your opponent to react to them and deny Schemes. My personal favorite is Claim Jump, where M&SU want to be owning the center of the board 90% of the time. If you control activation, you can pop them up as the very last activation for BOTH points. As long as your opponent doesn't bring things to attack buried models, they're VERY safe. They're good bomb carriers for Plant Explosives, and can react to Idols that spawn far away from the action. Their inherent safely also means they're great recipients for Magical Training. Unless you botch their placement, they're likely to survive all game, netting you that sweet 7 card hand. The Counterspell and Shielded are also nice for keeping them alive when you're doing location-specific schemes or Idols. I love these things but think they might be due for a nerf.

     Mecharachnid is our next versatile model that has unique skills useful in a Toni crew. Cost 6 is pretty cheap, sitting at the same cost as Steamfitters or the Soulstone Miner above. This big bug has the extremely average stats of 5 Df, 5 Wp, 5 Mv, 5 Health, and is as big as your normal human. Though his Defense is average, he brings a juicy Armor +2, same as the Soulstone Miner (they're made of metal, afterall). Unimpeded is the other ability they share with the Cheese Snake, which will probably be more useful to them as they have to leg it everywhere instead of drilling.

     Creative Salvage is a special little ability that lets you drop an additional scrap marker on top of any markers placed when you kill something. This guy will want to be killing things, so this should come up relatively often. Scrap markers are both useful to you, and to Howard and the Steamfitters who like them for power tokens.

     Precise is our first 'Wow' moment on this card. This special ability only exists on these guys and a frikken Master (McMourning). They get to ignore Armor, Hard to Wound, Hard to Kill, and Shielded. Basically, you ignore all standard defensive tech outside of Incorporeal. Heck yes, while Toni's crew has minimal defense-bypassing capabilities, you throw this guy into the mix and suddenly their Armor +2, Shielded +3 beater is sweating bullets!

     The back of their card is pretty sparse. One Attack, and one Tactical as a Bonus Action. The attack is Circular Sawblade, a pretty basic stat 5 reach 1 2/3/5 damage track. Can't have anything too big for a 6 stone model with that gorgeous ability to ignore defenses. He brings two very useful triggers. You get Onslaught on a Mask, letting the Mecharachnid take another attack for free against the same model. Stellar! Extra attacks are never a bad thing. On a Crow they force a discard from your opponent. You're mileage may vary on this, only because several crews have a lot of card draw nonsense. However with Howard and Fitz, you can still threaten to completely kill their hand with enough luck.

     The second amazing thing on their card is Temporary Limb. Here they eat a scheme or scrap marker within 4" (pretty darn far) to get to all of their duels. ALL. DUELS. Attack Actions? Yup! Defense flips? Yeah! Willpower flips? Yes! Move flips? You betcha! Every 'Duel' means every time you flip a card against your opponent, or flip against a target number. Terrifying just got a lot easier, as well as shockwaves or just your normal Df/Wp flips from opponents attacks. It's awesome! You also have the side benefit of getting to eat an enemy marker if you're in the right spot. No worries, though, you have Steamfitters and Union Miners to feed you if you need it. You should be looking to get this flip off every turn, as it makes them a ton more reliable and survivable than they already are. Remember this does not apply to damage flips like it used to in M2E! 

     So damage is the name of the game, and you're kind of forgoing raw numbers for ignoring so much defensive tech. If you luck into Masks, however, you can eat a lot of big scary stuff in one activation. My personal high score is taking down an Arcane Emissary from full wounds. Now those Masks might be more important to Amina, BUT Amina can stone if she needs to.

     So why M&SU? Well besides having buddies to give him tasty snacks, he's also a platform for probably the best Upgrade in the faction. No NOT Magical Training, it's Diesel Engine (fite me). Diesel Engine gives Concealing to ALL models within 2" of this guy. Since Toni loooooves to bubble up, you're protecting a LOT more models that in most crews (especially since he's a big beefy 50mm). Unlike Howard, this ability is ALWAYS ON. No worrying about having to activate Hank early or get Amina to force the big lug to do it, you can just bring one of these. On top of the concealing, you get to damage flips when you make a charge. Sweet! Lastly, minions (which the Mecharachnid is) may make a 3 inch move on their activation, ignoring models. Suddenly that 11" threat range becomes a 14" threat range. Suddenly that model engaging your Mecharachnid when it activates is no longer engaging it. Why pop out of engagement? So you can CHARGE and get that juicy to your damage value. While he's not exactly a full replacement for Howard, it is an option at 8 stones over Hank's 10 (though Hank can also benefit from Diesel Engine if you want to give it a try).

     Steam Arachnids are adorable. These cheap little leggy balls are a versatile option and something that's a decent take to fill out a list instead of a massive soulstone pool. They come with 5 Defense, 4 Willpower, 5 move, and 3 health on a size 1 model at a cost of 3. Not terrible. Armor +1 keeps them standing for just a bit longer. Latch On is a lovely ability that's these guys' primary form of support to the team. They reduce the defense of enemy models they're touching by 1. This stacks as it isn't an aura, so bringing multiples of these iconic steam bots will quickly make things dire for any enemy model within their threat range. I assume that they're too busy cuddling the Arachnids to dodge effectively. Unimpeded (ignoring severe terrain) makes them just a bit more mobile. Evasive is their last ability and it lets you reduce all damage from Shockwaves, pulses, and blasts to 0. While this makes them more capable of weathering indirect attacks, keep in mind you will still gain any tokens or conditions from them, so plan accordingly.

     Like any good robit, Steam Arachnids come with one Attack and one Tactical. Tiny Metal Claws are a range 0 Stat 4 melee attack against defense that does 1/2/3 damage. While that's....not a good attack, if you include Latch On (which HAS to happen if you're making an attack), your batting average against the majority of Malifaux models. Taking multiple Arachnids and suddenly your tied for stat with heavy hitters or getting to +1 or +2 on average models.

     On a Tome the Arachnid's Tiny Metal Claws make them blow up. GREAT. This can actually be a good thing. They deal 2 damage to anything within 2" before kicking the bucket. Catching a few models in this pulse is well worth the sacrifice as likely the Arachnid is gonna die if they're near multiple enemy models anyways. This also gets you a scrap if you need it, which in some corner cases is worth sacrificing the spider. While fellow Arachnids don't care about that pulse, your other friends WILL, so make sure you measure well before popping them.

     Their one Tactical Action is 'Swarm Together' which lets you replace the Arachnid and two other Arachnids within 2" into a Steam Arachnid Swarm (see below). These guys are a LOT more survivable and hit like adorable trucks. They cost one less than three Arachnids, so you're not likely to bring three just to change them into a Swarm. This is more an opportunity play with Ramos summoning, or stave off death of Arachnids to deny points.

     Ok so 'Why Steam Arachnids in an M&SU crew'? Simply put, they're cheap. Toni's cheapest in-keyword model is at cost 5 and that means your often hiring stuff and getting to that weird spot with 7/8/9 remaining stones. Instead of going it with too few activations or an underwhelming cache, you can hire one of these Steambois to solve both issues. With all these versatile models, Toni loves the fact that they don't need to bubble to live. Ironsides has difficulty with projecting influence across a wide enough portion of the board, and these are just about the cheapest SIGNIFICANT models to run the schemes not normally associated with Toni. If they run models along the flanks, use spiders to slow them down. If they don't feel free to scheme or crash them into the bubble and start lowering Dfs. The Latch On ability STACKS too, so a couple spiders will start making models incredibly vulnerable. Their last role I use them for is as goal keepers. My opponent likes to run stuff past the bubble and into my backfield to start their own schemes. Spiders will harry them until you can dedicate meatier stuff to kill the runner, or you can use them to pick up scheme and strategy markers abandoned by your opponent. 

     Steam Arachnids are adorable and Wyrd lets you take them in a trio. Truly this is the greatest faction in Malifaux. The Steam Arachnid Swarm is a powerful versatile hitter and something Toni likes to bring when you just gotta pump out an absurd amount of attacks. Their stat line is a little off from average, 5 Df 4 Wp 5 Mv Sz1 and 9 wounds for a cost of eight. Some days that extra wound will be worth the drop in Willpower, some days it won't. It greatly benefits you to have a decent idea of what kind of offense your opponent is bringing.

     These boys bring Armor +1 to shore up their defense. Not quite the +2 from the previous models, but your also getting more wounds per cost and a way to heal yourself.

     Latch On is a fun little boost to your offense that these guys share with their singular Arachnid counterparts. If you are base-to-base with an enemy model, they're at -1 Df. Guess what you're going to be doing all the ding dong day? That's right! invading the personal space of every dang enemy you can get your little metal claws on (all 12).

     Evasive is another benefit of being little tiny spiders. You don't care about damage from shockwaves, pulses, or blasts. Heck yes. This also means your own stuff, so start tossing out blasts and shockwaves around this guy, he doesn't care!

     Unimpeded is good. We've covered it already.

     Strength is Numbers is the first hint that your little spider squad is going to be exceptionally good at the old ultraviolence. If the Swarm is at half or more wounds (5+) it gains an innate to its damage flips. I probably don't need to explain why this is really good. You're fully capable of threatening moderate and severe damage with every hit, or at least negating Hard to Wound.

     The last ability is Nimble, which lets you burn your bonus action to take a Walk. Suddenly the swarm is really mobile, threatening models up to 16 inches away. More importantly it lets you spend fewer actions walking, when you really, REALLY want to be attacking or charging as much as possible.

     Back of the card is also really sparse, but that's OK. You brought these guys to bring the pain and they're going to be pretty great at that. Their one attack is called Metal Claws. Reach 1 (but you'll be wanting to get into base contact as much as possible) Stat 6 with an innate Mask. This is obviously resisted by Df, which should almost always be one less because of Latch On. For average models, you're suddenly at +2 above their Df, which is pretty tough to beat without good cheating. Their damage track is pretty small with a 2/3/5. Don't worry, your positive flips to damage, high stat, and wonderful triggers kind of dictate this damage can't be too spectacular.

     Let's get into the triggers. Hooboy! We start with Devastating Strike. On a Ram you can add a positive to your damage (heck yes damage flips) and you get a blast too! Suddenly with decent positioning you're getting off 8-11 damage with just one attack.

     Next up is a Mask trigger Onslaught. As mentioned before, you get to take another attack. This is probably your most declared trigger. Not only because extra attacks are really good, but because the trigger is built into Stat. So you can rely on the swarm to threaten 4 attacks a turn, each with a positive to damage if they remain relatively health. These guys are getting real scary.

     The last trigger is also on a Mask, called You're Comin' with Me. Here you get to push the target 3" and then place into base contact with them. This may make you question the point, as you're sacrificing an extra attack, but think about it a little harder. There are plenty of situations where your crew wants to screw with your opponents positioning. Bring that coward into Toni's sphere of influence, boil them with Howard's Steam, knock it out of Claim Jump or Outflank or away from it's Breakthrough marker. Plenty of possibilities. Hey, what if you got that high Ram in hand but no enemy models near your target to blast onto? Just push them close to a buddy and blast off with your next attack. Just out of reach of getting into base contact with your opponent? push them 0 inches and scooch up all snug next to them for that -1 defense. It's also not a tiny distance either. You can place yourself on the other side of the model, netting about 5 inches of total movement at times. It also doesn't specify enemy models, so feel free to yank your friends out of danger at the cost of a wound or two (or none if they have armor and shielded). There's a lot of jank here for you clever types and it's built in, making it quite reliable.

     The other action is a bonus, which lets you kill any friendly Steam Arachnids within 4" and then eat all scrap (dead arachnids place scrap) for 2 wounds a pop. It's a good way to keep them topped off. While you won't necessarily be bringing single Arachnids, you have access to some scrap generation and can feed off of fortuitous drops from your opponent. Just keep in mind you CAN'T use your Nimble Walk AND do this at the same time! 

     Just like the Mecharachnid, the Swarms love Diesel Engine. Really keeps them a lot safer while they close the gap between them and their soft meaty targets. On a 40mm base they're also providing a decent sized bubble of concealing for their friends, and the charges you're likely to be making will get you EVEN MORE TO DAMAGE (disgusting). The additional 3 movement will grant you the space needed to almost always get a charge, or get you to safety (or let you fly around the board, scuttling 18 inches in a single activation).

     Now, why Toni? Like the Mecharachnid, these guys are an excellent secondary attacker, with a bit more damage threat and survivability through healing, Evasive, and the extra wounds. Really you decide on one or the other depending on what you think you might face. Swarm does more damage against vanilla targets, but has a bit harder of a time against Armor 2 or stacking defensive tech. It's something you need to really decide on. The Sz difference can also really matter. The Mecharachnid can block LOS better, which may be a benefit or a curse.

     Toni's support can help these guys just as much, if not more than the Mechaspider. Steamfitters can hit them twice and drop a scrap for (eventually) 6 wounds of health. They can also heal the MA but it's very important to keep these guys at 5+ wounds for those damage flips. Also, every additional action you can grant them from Amina is compounded by the fact that they have innate Onslaught. Every Obey threatens 2 attacks, and every Fast nets 2 attacks as well. If Amina spends her activation on them, you're looking at 25" inches or movement or a max of 8 attacks (Obey + Walk the Line + Fast). The Latch On also benefits the rest of the team, letting the M&SU finish off anything the swarm can't just that much easier! 

     Let's get up to no good! The Saboteur is our next stop on this Versatile train. Costing between small spiders and big spiders/many small spiders at 5, we see 5s across their entire stat line (except Sz 2, sadly). First ability is a doozy! 'Set Up for Success' lets you draw a card after resolving an attack against an enemy model when they're within 2" of a Scheme Marker. Hey, that would be really cool if you could, I don't know, easily toss out and drop schemes next to models in an Ironsides crew. It's also 'After Resolving' so you can even whiff the attack and still get a card.
     'Disguised' prevents models from attacking them on a charge. This is their one piece of defensive tech, so don't you dare forget it!
     'Don't Mind Me' lets you place scheme markers while engaged, as well as place them even if you took the Disengage action. So, if you got no Miners or Steamfitters to prime the 'Set Up for Success' Ability, you can do it yourself!
     Back of the card! Unlike metal spiders, Saboteurs are smart enough to learn TWO attacks. First up is their Melee attacks which is a Knife (just a knife)! Just like the Steam Arachnids, you're going to need to get uncomfortably, ABSURDLY close to your victim to shank them. What I mean is, they have a 0" reach. Stat 5 with a built in crow (ooh!). The knife has a 1/3/4 damage track, which isn't the most impressive. But it gets a lot better.
     The pointy metal stick has a pair of tasty triggers to spice up this dish (of pain). First is 'Catch a Glimpse' on a Tome. You get to peek at the top two cards of your deck. This is pretty sweet, as seeing those cards gives exact knowledge of your next few flips. In a crew with a lot of TNs, this is actually quite useful as you know you're guaranteed to get that mid-level card for a simple duel, or that big face card for an accurate attack. Keep in mind you can Companion from these guys if they're close to a Union Miner, so you can use this knowledge for the Miner's activation unsullied by your opponent.
     The other trigger that's built in is 'No Witnesses' on a Crow. This deals an extra damage and ignores armor if no enemy model (besides your victim) is both within 12" and can see the Saboteur. The very important thing to remember is that it's Line of Sight to YOUR model, not the opponent. While that distance restriction seems like you should run these guys as scheme runners, they're just as good in a Toni crew as a follow up model to your front line bubble. Target 50mm bases or use your other big models to block that LOS. This is crucial to getting use out of these guys as surprise hitters. A 2/4/5 damage track ignoring armor is a really good threat for just a 5 cost model.
     Their other attack is Arson, something we are already familiar with on Fitzsimmons. You use a scheme marker within 10" as a shockwave maker for 2 damage and 1 burning on a TN 12 move duel (only these guys need a 7 for it to go off why Fitz only needs a 6). I would almost say the damage is incidental to popping an enemy scheme marker 10" away, but don't discount the chance and 2+ damage if you catch more than one model in the blast. As with Old Man Fitzsimmons, you can use Union Miners to set up a double explosion for you, which gives you a lot more opportunities to use this offensively.
     The single Tactical Action on the Saboteur's card is their only bonus action, 'Sabotage Their Plans'. For a 6+ and a Mask you can target an enemy scheme marker within 6 inches, and basically convert it into YOUR scheme marker. This serves double-duty of counter-scheming and setting up your own schemes. If your opponent managed to take the same schemes as you, you're all set to abuse this! Don't forget this synergises as well with Set Up for Success and Arson. While you won't always have a mid mask in hand, that friendly scheme is dropped into base contact with the target marker. This means you get slightly over an inch of movement so that suddenly it's within 2" of you to draw a card off of, or within 2" of more enemy models to get caught in the blast.
     While Saboteur's aren't as overt in their use for an Ironsides crew, they make decent scheme runners and counter-schemers (what I believe to be their intention). However they are pretty darn frail. If your opponent dedicates more than a scheme runner to hunt these guys down, they're pretty screwed (especially against shooters that ignore their singular piece of defensive tech). With Toni, however, they're nice little hitters that draw you cards. They aren't stapled to the top of any of my lists, but having some reliable card draw is useful in a crew lacking in the ability and hungry for cards, and can blend a lot of constructs with a little positioning. It's important to remember that you don't have to charge straight on to the model. Hug one side so that you can use it to block LOS with the targets base and get that much needed +1 damage. That Arson is especially good in making up for your crews lack of mobility. While Fitz is packing the same explosives, he likes to be smack dab in the middle of Toni's bubble. These guys are more free to reach out and ruin your opponent Breakthrough, Power Ritual, Search the Ruins, or Harness the Leylines (especially on corner or flank deployment).

     Nerdy Puppet Boi is our lovely little Effigy and a nice package of support and annoyance for your opponent. Costing a nice cheap 4 stones you get 5 Df, 4 Wp, 5 Mv, a small Sz 1 and health equal to its cost. It has both Armor +1 and Hard to Kill to keep it ticking for at least a few hits. Accomplice allows you to get your support off and then activate a friendly to take advantage of it without giving your opponent a chance to react.
     'Before and After' and 'Helping Hand' are simply hiring specifications, and don't really need to be covered.
     Now, the back of our floaty bookworm has two attacks and a bonus Tactical Action. Arcane Fury is their one true 'Attack', being a range 8 projectile at stat 4 dealing 1/2/3 damage. Do this only if you have nothing else to do (you probably already knew these guys weren't for fighting, anyways).
     Their second Attack is a blast from the past, 'Dispel Magic'. You simply remove a condition from the target. Simple and VERY useful. It costs a seven to go off, though, but you can use it to target enemies for even more usefulness. There's plenty of utility here. Remove a large stack of burning/distracted/poison in one go, take that Slow off of Toni or your beater, Removed Stunned from anything (Stunned is probably priority #1 as a Toni crew really suffers if it can't declare triggers). Alternatively, remove a stack of focus or shielded on an opponent. Take Fast off of that crucial beater, plenty of things to do. With a stat 5, you're usually even with most targets, so it's possible with just about any model. This feeds into the Accomplice ability, as you can, then immediately activate a hitter to use their newfound lack of slow/distracted or have it beat on a wizard who just lost his shielding.
     The Tactical Bonus Action is amazing and the key thing that makes it extra effective in an Ironside's crew. Negation Aura costs a 5 and for that, every enemy model within 3 of the puppet has to discard a card to cheat fate. Boy oh boy does this drain hands. Since Toni is wanting to bring multiple enemy models into her...'fun zone' you're affecting more models than what the puppet normally would be getting, and being that close to that much pain means they go relatively unnoticed until you've emptied their hand.
     So, tactically you want to run this guy behind Toni and any other beaters, making sure they aren't blocking your line of sight to any enemies for your negation aura (Howard's not the best option in this instance, not the Mecharachnid). Make. Sure. You. Cast. Negation. Aura. First. I've forgotten this a stupid amount of times on this guy and the next one we'll talk about it. Just...Highlight the action or something on the card. It's also hilarious when you plink something 3" away with your Arcane Fury and they begrudgingly let it go through because throwing two cards away isn't worth it. Don't expect these guys to live for too long, however. For one, they're a relatively safe kill for Turf War or Reckoning, they have no melee attack to defend themselves with, so something can happily chip away at it's health without much repercussion (especially if it accidentally gets isolated). Shooting is another weakness. Like so much defensive tech, Negation Aura only works up close, and any shooters will just not care. While they might go unnoticed, the second Negation Aura drains their hand and/or loses them a key model, they'll quickly focus on the puppet to bring it down.
     [opinion] I think the upgrade to change into the Emissary on turn 3+ is a trap. Not only are you tacking on half of his cost for something that does nothing beneficial for two turns, you have to babysit him for those two turns, as well. An Effigy by itself isn't going to get much attention, but an Effigy with their upgrade is a huge target to deny the Emissary from coming out. Even if it does you've got yourself an Emissary with, at most, 6 wounds. this puts you in a weird position where the Effigy could be MORE defensive than the Emissary due to Hard to Kill getting dropped for Regeneration. I'd be more than happy to hear differing thoughts, however. Tell me your success stories if you have them.[/opinion]

Next up is my personal favorite in the Versatile category, the big beefy burny bull himself, the Arcane Emissary.  For 10 stones you get a pretty average state line: 5 Df, 5 Wp, 5 Mv, Sz 3 and wounds to match his cost. His abilities make up for the vanilla stats. Regeneration +1 gives him a bit of health back every activation, While Armor +1 mitigates the incoming damage.
     The next two abilities make him a ton more mobile. 'Frenzied Charge' lets you charge as much as you want in your activation, and 'Rush' adds +2 to his movement when he DOES charge. So he effectively has a permanent 7 move as long as you can go in a straight line (and aren't engaged, of course).
     So what does he do? Well I'm glad you asked! He's going to be murderizing the crap out of your enemies. While the nerdy puppet was a support model, the Flame-o-taur is your sledgehammer. 'Raging Gore' is his main attack, Range of 2" (9" threat on a charge!) and Stat 6 against defense. He's hitting for a hefty 3/4/6 damage track. The triggers (oh my the triggers!) turn this guy up to 11.
     On a Tome you get 'Thunderous Blow' which pulses out 2" a TN13 Move duel or the model gains Slow. You want to be plowing this guy into as many models as he can to maximize this. He has another pulse as well and a snazzy aura that get exponentially better the more models he can get into.
     On a Mask you get 'Shove Aside'. This lets you push the enemy model directly away 4", then push this guy 4" in ANY direction AND take another attack targeting another model. That's so much utility it should be illegal. You don't even have to use all of it for it to be good. Just the re-position of the enemy OR the re-position of yourself OR the extra attack would be awesome by itself. You get all 3 in one trigger. The only limitation is that you can only declare it once per activation (hmm...I wonder if there's a way to get him to take more actions outside of his activation?).
     His last trigger is 'Rampage' on a Crow. You get to push the Emissary 5 inches ignoring other models and then every model you moved through takes a TN13 Move Duel or takes a damage. Nifty! The damage is ancillary to the fact that you basically get a free walk and get to ignore models while you do it. Couple that with the fact that you can take this one twice and suddenly you're rocketing across the entire board. So, with just 2 AP you can Charge, Rampage, Charge, Rampage for 24" of movement (Or Shove Aside for 1 less inch but a free attack).
     The Emissary brings two useful Tactical Actions to the table as well. Arcane Burst goes off on a 5 and pulses out a TN13 Df duel. Upon failing, the model takes 2/3/4 damage and is pushed 2" away. Hey look, another disruption piece. On a tome you ALSO get to remove all corpse and scrap markers within the 3" pulse. Keep in mind the bull is on a 50mm base so those three inches cover a lot of territory. So why this over the Raging Gore? Well some times you're stuck in with a bunch of models, and this lets you 'hit' all of them instead of 2 or 3 an activation. You also may not want to make a signed attack or one that targets the model. The damage track on a TN duel is also gravy because, I believe, it ignores negatives from opposed duels (straight flips for days).
     Ok. Here's the cherry. The Arcane Emissary retains 'Negation Aura' from the puppet. As a bonus action, all enemy models must discard a card to cheat until the end of the turn. since you're on a 50mm, you're affecting more models than before. This also affects all cheating, so go ahead and swing/shoot away with your other models on enemies trapped near the bull. ALSO also, it means all of those TNs he's pumping out are a lot more likely to go off. If not, either your opponent just lost a bunch of decent cards out of their deck, or out of their hand. This guy is a nightmare to deal with!
     Ok lets get into strategy. First up I always staple Diesel Engine to his card. While he's an Enforcer and doesn't get that nice beginning push, the other two benefits work SO so well on him. Concealment shores up his one obvious weakness, and that is ranged attacks. Now shots and spells are at a negative, and enemies will have to burn AP to focus to get a chance to shoot him. This means the opponent has to deal with negative flips at range, or a card tax to cheat in melee, it's a lose-lose situation. Hey look! Positives on melee damage from charge attacks. Guess who can charge twice? This guy! Guess who has a melee range of 2? This guy! Guess who can charge for 0" guaranteeing that he gets that positive for both attacks against anyone not a 2" melee? THIS GUY!
     So why M&SU? Well, multiple reasons:
          1. Amina - Everyone's favorite Lawyer is great with ANYONE but she can generate even more high damage attacks with this guy than anyone. She gets around the activation limit of Shove Aside, and Walk The Line + Burnout means the Emissary is in your opponents deployment zone turn 1.
          2. He fills a needed role - The Emissary doesn't really need a babysitter, he can go off and cause carnage just about anywhere without much assistance. This means he can operate away from Toni's bubble, covering a large portion of the board that she can't reach without endangering her comrades. I love offsetting her crew so that the bubble covers 2/3 of the board while the bull patrols the other 1/3.
          3. He synergizes well with the bubble too - if you bring the bull within the rest of the crew, you're projecting that cheat tax aura for your friends to take advantage of. Diesel Engine, gives your buddies concealing, and he has two different Mv TNs to take advantage of the Staggered Toni is putting out.
     In short, I love this guy to bits. What a wonderful model for the faction.
          4. Steamfitters - One of the few models that can charge health into things, these guys can top off your bull and keep him running longer than he should. Combine that with Shielded +3 on a 7 and a ram and you bulked up his survivability considerably. Because of what he does, he tends to be a big target to bring down early. Making him just that much more obnoxious is really going to help you win.

      Can't talk about versatile models without bringing up the Apocalyptic horsefolk. The Arcanists get saddled with the substitute for Pestilence, the Mechanical Rider. Mechy doesn't come cheap at 11 stones. For 22% of your crew, you get a fantastic 6 Df, 7 Wp, 7 Mv, and a 3 Sz (Horse!). Her wounds come in at 2 less than her cost, but she's still quite survivable.
     Unimpeded keeps her super mobile, while Ruthless is one of the few that exist in the faction (ignoring Manipulative and Terrifying). Gunfighter gives her a melee option, and Hard to Wound will make it hard to deal heavy damage to her, and pairs well with her last bit of defensive tech. Chasing Fate is the ability reserved for Horsemen models, and the Mechanical Rider represents the Tomes suit. She gains tokens at the start of the turn equal to the turn number (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15). When you declare a trigger you can discard however many tokens you want to add that many tomes to your duel total. This pairs with a few of her triggers, but the last ability on her card is a Defensive trigger that lets her reduce damage by the number of Tomes. This isn't armor so it avoids a lot of 'ignoring' abilities, as well as able to reduce damage to 0. It pairs well with the Hard To Wound that makes it pretty darn difficult to bring her down. Of course, she's more resilient the longer the game goes, so most people will try to make a move on her early. Keep that in mind.
     Moving to the back of her card, Automaton Horsewoman has a single attack, Chain Spear. Curse you Constructs and your single attack actions! Chain Spear is an 8" range shot (or 1" melee) with a stat of 6 targeting Defense. It simply deals a 2/4/5 damage track (focus!), but has a tome Trigger. Obviously. The tome trigger lets you draw cards depending on the number of Tomes. This is incredibly useful. Mechanical Rider makes herself stand out from the other Neighsayers by being all about support over obscene murder. She's refined like that.
     As well as potentially getting a 15 card draw (no seriously. I'll send you $1 if you ever pull off the 15 card turn 5 draw), she has 2 tactical action that mark her as a proper Rider: 'Rider with Me' and 'Revel in xxxx'. Rider With Me is an easy way to push a Sz 1-2 model up the board quickly while also making Mechy crazy fast. She pushes 5" and then a targeted model within 2" when she declared the bonus action gets placed into base contact with her. All for only a 6! This can be around 8" in a straight line for the carried model.
     Revel in Creation doesn't summon anymore. I am sad. However it brings several other support abilities. The base ability lets her drop a scheme, corpse, or scrap marker within 6" at the cost of a Tomes and a 6. Hell. Yes. While the other riders are farting around maybe healing/dealing small damage/looking at the opponents hand, Metal Maiden and her Marvelous MechaMustang is getting sh*t done and scoring. If she doesn't need to drop those schemes, she can pop down scrap for Power Tokens or for the second point on Dig. Keep in mind that you can't blow Fate tokens to get the required suit UNLESS you declare a trigger.
     Her Triggers, however, are really ramping up her ability to be a force multiplier. The first trigger (and arguably the best) is Innovation which costs 3 Tomes. She discards a card, and every friendly in range (Six. INCHES. FROM A 50mm BASE) get the suit of the discarded card on all of their duels till the end of their turn. All. Duels. This really opens up your tactics to just crush your opponent under the oppressive weight of debilitating triggers. Now because the range is marked as a pulse, the rider will not be able to give themselves tomes for card draw and damage reduction. It's an instantaneous effect so every model in 6 keeps the suit even if they move out, and models that move into 6" of the rider after the fact don't get the suit.
     Insight is the next trigger, and will set you back 4 Tomes. This lets you extricate any cards you want from your discard pile and shuffle them back into your deck. If you're near the end of your deck, you can basically give yourself a deck of 12 severes and a red joker. Noice.
     Revelation is the last trigger and costs a whopping 5 Tomes. This isn't as flashy as the other Riders, but as I noted before, Mechastasia is all about getting the job done instead of hogging the spotlight. Revelation lets her immediately activate another friendly non-master model, even if they've already activated. What's so great about that? Well, I bet just about any of you have been caught in a situation where reactivating a model would win you the game. This isn't for spectacularly slicing up your opponents crew, it's for ekeing out that last one or two Scheme/Strategy points for the win. It's for specific situations, that means you can often save your tokens for the extra suits and keeping her alive. Also, it says Friendly Model, not 'Other Friendly Model'. Nor does it require range. ANY model can reactivate. This includes Ms. Rider herself. If you manage to pocket all of her tokens till turn 5 (I don't know why you would), you can activate the Rider 4 times. FOUR. Activate -> Revelation -> Activate -> Revelation -> Activate -> Revelation -> Activate. Nonsense.
     So. Why Toni? Well. Mech Rider has a few benefits that works especially well with her. First up, Diesel Engine (Again!). Hooray Construct! Size 3 and a shoot means she can sit in the center of the bubble and take pot shots without having to get into the thick of it. Next, Innovation gets more work since most of your party is going to be pretty close to her. Toni's M&SU has a use for every suit too, so if you don't luck into all four suits in your hand, you can get work out of any card you have available to discard. My favorite is Auto Injured +2 on Gunsmiths (and Injured with Toni, Execute with Howard, Slow with Miners, and Discarding with Mecharachnid). Lastly, Insight. Toni has a lot of plus flips in her her crew. You ARE going to be going through your deck and usually pretty quickly. You will get more activations/actions post-reshuffle that's a little harder to do with other Masters.

     I never miss an opportunity to be lazy, so instead of breaking down Mr. Green here, I'll point you towards the Schemes and Stones breakdown written by a good friend of mine: Sinister Organ Music
     But hey! He doesn't say anything about Ironsides. Well I'm guessing he left that up to me (and also means I can actually write something). Just like the other 50mm constructs, he's an excellent platform for Diesel Engine. Even better than Mech Rider, he's got a 12" reach with his guns that threatens more damage (and he's a whole lot cheaper). Adding another shooter really helps you surprise your opponent with multiple ranged options. As always, Toni wants as many bodies in her mosh pit as possible, so you're putting out more sin tokens than a spread-out crew. Lastly, Toni's crew puts out Injured, Staggered, and Burning pretty reliably. With a little setup you're swinging a 4/5/6 damage track in melee if you have the needed Rams.

     Look at how cute it is. LOOK. AT. IT. LOOKATIT.
     *cough*
     The Medical Automaton got lost during freshman orientation and accidentally got signed up for an Augmented degree instead of enrolling in Union courses like it was obviously intended. Heh. I'm sure Wyrd will see this error in no time and release an emergency errata. Any. Day. Now.
     Jokes aside, the Medical Automaton works so. SOOOO much better in about every crew that's not Hoffman's. Hoffman has...uh...three whole living models in his keyword despite the Automaton's main healing action only working on Living models. Despite this, these little adorable trash cans are well worth the tax. Costing Hoffman 4 stones and Toni 5, they bring 4 Df, 5 Wp, 4 Mv, 4 Wounds and a widdle Size 1.
     Armor +1 helps them with the shallow wound pool, but you still shouldn't be running them into battles. Bedside Manner lets you get a friendly out of dodge. This powerful ability carries over from M2E. When a friendly within 3 takes damage, you can ditch a card to place then into base contact with the Medibot. This has so much gosh darn utility I can't fit it all in here. Just keep in mind how few restrictions there are. An action resolves where another friendly model takes damage. This can be their own actions (attacks that hurt you back, walking through hazardous, pushing Idols, the sky is the limit). Heck you can just smack your own stuff just to get this off. The obvious use is to pull a friendly out of the threat range of enemy models.
     Healing Draughts let friendlies within 3" heal when they activate. This has saved my bacon numerous times. You can't discount free healing, and a Toni bubble means plenty of hard working union men and women will benefit from this ability. As an aura, the bot also heals themselves (DON'T forget that!).
     Emergency Mode is how the Medibot gains power tokens. No need for scrap, you just need a friendly within 3" that's at half health or less. One per qualifying model. It's an aura, so the bot counts too (Physician, Heal Thyself).
     Last Ability is Quick Cure. Simply put, if you use Assist (reduce Burning, Distracted, or Injured), you get an additional action. Give's you even more chance to heal/assist.
     OK. Back of Card. One attack (CONSTRUCT) in Surgical Instruments. 0" range, Stat 4 with a built-in Tome against Defense. It deals a respectable 2/2/3 damage and has a Tome trigger that removes a condition from the target. Be real careful about running into the enemy, as the Medibot isn't going to stay up for very long in combat. However you'll catch plenty of folks off-guard or put the fear of losing their juice and thus draining cards from them. Of course, you can use it on friendlies. With the existences of multiples sources of Shielded, Armor, and Fitzsimmons in the M&SU, you can very often reliably relent to the attack and take no damage while cleansing yourself of a bad condition. This will save you the game if  say, Toni gets slapped with Stunned.
     Tactical Actions give you even more support. Emergency Surgery is your basic 1/2/3 healing flip on a 5 for Living targets only. Keep in mind this range is 2" as opposed to all of your auras extending to 3". On a Ram, you can ditch up to 2 Power Tokens to buff the healing amount by the same number. Watch the color drain out of your opponents face when you heal Howard 5 wounds with one action. ALSO! this flip is cheatable. Make sure you get exactly as much healing as you need.
     The last is their bonus action and is sort of a reverse of Bedside Manner. Code Red has a range of 6 an no target number (Yusss!). The Medibot can only target an friendly model with 2 or fewer wounds. Basically someone on death's door. The bot teleports to them and heals them for 1 wound. This is REALLY efficient because you don't have to waste actions rolling up to your friend who's bleeding out. Just teleport. Bloop one health, and then spend your other actions healing them further. Best models for this are of the Hard to Kill variety (Gunsmiths) as they have the best chance of being on those last wounds, and even if you only do the teleport, you've reset the Hard to Kill and they now require two attacks to be brought down. Mind you you can use this for emergency scheming if you really need, as you can just use it for a 6" move and then trundle along to lay down your scheme markers or whatever.
     Ok. I basically laid out why these guys are so much more useful to Toni than Charles, but let's review: All of Toni's keyword can be healed through the Emergency Surgery action, and thus also get use out of any Power Tokens on the Automaton. The Toni bubble needs to be even tighter than Hoffman, and thus you're passively healing more models with Healing Draughts. Also more models will be nearby for use with Bedside Manner. Lastly, Beside Manner, lets you dictate who is in the thick of combat, and it helps you force your opponent to deal with Toni and any other hitters instead of any nearby assist models.

    Willie here will be on loan from the Foundry. Not sure why the railroad needs a demolitions expert and NOT the keyword associated with DIGGING HOLES INTO THE EARTH, but I digress. He'll be costing Toni 8 and for that you have a relatively average stat line of 5 Df, 5 Wp, 5 Mv, and 7 Wounds. With those, he brings a nice set of abilities for you to make use of. Demise (Explosive +3) means you probably don't want to be running him in the middle of your crew. When he dies he blows up dealing 3 damage to every model within 2". Agile was seen on the Captain's card and lets Willie leave engagement with a Walk. Evasive will protect him from his own bombs as well as a good amount of indirect damage. Ride the Rail won't see a ton of use. If you're putting down scrap you usually have a purpose for it and that purpose usually doesn't involve keeping it down for long. However you can get away with being cheeky mid-game when your opponent has forgotten he has Ride the Rails and a few constructs have died. Last ability is Demolitionist which he shares with the Union Miner. When he activates he can remove all destructible terrain within 1". Given his bigger base this covers considerably more area than the Miner, and give you a decent replacement for miners against opponents with destructible terrain.
     Back of card! WIllie comes packed with some really sharp wit, something you wouldn't expect from a shirtless chain smoker pushing a wheelbarrow. That's definitely his wit and not...y'know...the scary amount of explosives he's carting around. This is a stat 5 at 1" range and targets Wp. For your efforts, you'll put Slow on your target. Not that great of a result but there's more! His wit comes with a slightly more volatile version on a Ram trigger. "Here Hold This!" has Willie handing a big bundle of freshly lit "Sharp Wit" off to his target. Them, and every model within 2" takes a TN 13 Mv duel or suffers 3 damage. The target suffers a to that flip as well (after all, they're the ones holding the Sharp Wit). This has a lot more disruptive potential that just Slow, and gives you a decent reason to Charge Willie into battle if you have a high Ram or two. Keep in mind that Willie still has to perform the duel, he just ignores the damage if he fails.
     Willie's other attack is arguably the one action you will most be using. Throw Dynamite Sharp Wit is a 2" shockwave at 8" range. Stat 5 TN 12 means you need a 7 to go off. It forces a TN 13 Mv dual and deals 3 damage to those who fail. Blaze trigger on a tome deals burning to those who fail, while his mask trigger is a lot stranger. "Fire in the Hole!" will immediately push all friendlies away from the shockwave marker 3 inches if they were within 3" of the marker to begin with. This has a surprising amount of utility alongside keeping you buddies from possibly suffering damage at the hand of Willie's Wit.
     Willie has two tactical actions that are both bonus actions. Blow It to Hell is the first and requires a 6 to go off. You place a Blown Apart marker within 8 inches. It destroys destructible terrain within 2" of it, and denies enemy models the benefit of cover within the same bubble.
      Willie also has the 'Set Charge' action that goes off without needing anything. It renders all scrap and scheme markers within 6 as potential damage dealers. Any time an enemy model ends a movement in base contact with one of those markers, the marker explodes dealing 2 damage to all enemy models within 3". Huzzah! This has a plethora of uses, not the least being scheme and scrap denial for your opponent (enemy Foundry crews HATE this). A couple things to keep in mind: 1. you don't have a choice whether or not it goes off. It just does. A clever opponent might use this to deny you use of your own scheme markers for scoring. 2. If they move into base contact with multiple markers, ALL markers blow up (you might see where I'm going with this).
     So, why bring this shirtless wonder into an M&SU crew? Two things, specifically. Well three. The third isn't too specific to Toni, though, and that the ranged use of terrain destruction. Yes you have Union Miners but it can be disadvantageous to launch them out of the bubble to go knock over an Ice Pillar. Willie can do that from a much safer position.
     Ok! So synergy. First is that lovely shockwave. We talked about this with the Captain, but the fact that you have Toni handing out Staggered like candy (and Mouse at range) means your average Mv 5 will now suddenly need a 10 to avoid his dynamite. Second is that Set Charge Action. Union Miners can dump a lot of scheme markers on top of each other. If you Set Charge, then that entire stack will go boom the second an enemy model sets foot on it. To make sure that definitely happens, you DO have a "Few" ways to move your opponent in the Keyword. Ask anyone who's played against Ramos how much fun multiple instances of 2 irresistible damage is.

 

     Cassandra comes borrowed from the Star Theater. While her pretty dress and heels stand out in the rough and simple look of the union miners, she's brings a particular set of skills that makes her fit in surprisingly well. Colette may pay 8 stones for this blonde bombshell, but Toni will be forking over 9. For that, you get 6 Defense, 5 Willpower, 5 Move, Size 2 with health equal to her original cost. As for abilities, Cass first has Don't Mind Me. We talked about this with the Saboteurs, but it's a great utility for scoring, and even better with Cassandra who can survive longer and move deeper into enemy lines without getting beaten up. Changing Plans adds to her scoring utility, letting her move a friendly scheme maker that's within 3" of her up to 3". This lets her zero-in markers to score Detonate, get those last few inches for Power Ritual/Search the Ruins, or tuck it under a friendly to keep the enemy from eating it. Nimble lets her take a walk as a bonus action. While that's super useful, it's competing with another super-useful bonus action on the back of her card. Regardless, she can be really fast when she wants (more on that later). Lastly she comes with Celebrity: an ability that lets her hand out Distracted +1 to an enemy model within 6" when she performs an Interact action. Note that it's not just specific to schemes. Planting Explosives, pushing Idols, or flipping turf markers all count. Heck, if you desperately need that unavoidable Distracted you can just interact to pick up schemes, even if none are in base contact with you (the "Nellie Move" as I'm now calling it).

     Moving to her card's back, we see that big honking sword is not just for show. Her Balanced Sword (sure Wyrd) has a 1" Reach, stat 6 with a built-in mask that targets Defense. For hitting your opponent, you get a respectable 2/4/5 damage track. Built in is the Reposition trigger that lets you move 3" this bumps her mobility into 'C'mon really?' range if you manage to hit two attacks (Walk+Charge+Reposition+Nimble for 18"). If you manage to flip a tome, you can instead to dazzle them with your beautiful clothes (or strategic lack of clothing) and hand your target Distracted+1. "But Kaiser Senpai" you ask, "What if I want to stab them at range? Say, 6" inches away?" I'm glad you asked that oddly-specific question! You'll have to settle for stabbing them...with FIRE. Cassandra's been playing with fire and has learned to hork it at her enemies like a waifish co-ed on Dollar Margarita Night. 6" of range (unsigned!) at stat 6 targeting Defense. You wanna bring Focus if you can as the damage track is 2/3(B)/4(B)(B) and all damaged gain Burning +1. For each tome you happen to flip/cheat/stone, you give another Burning, and a mask will let you reposition once again (Cass has been drinking that Gremlin Coffee, it seems).

     Her Tactical Actions are where she really shines, though. Lets hop down to the bottom were we see what's competing for her Nimble. Finesse gives Ms. Felton a boost to her defense, putting the enemy on negatives for hitting her with Melee attacks until the end of the turn. The real doozy, though, is Upstage. OH. BOY. UPSTAGE. Upstage lets you copy ANY. TACTICAL. ACTION. on a friendly's card that's within 8" in LOS. While it clarifies it can't attach upgrades or list model's by names, it doesn't deny Bonus actions that most other action copies. This gives Cass a massive toolbox with which to get really...weird. while there's the usual leaps and pyre making, she can grow extra limbs, eat corpses, and...'mark territory'. This DOES eat up an action, so a lot of the 'do extra actions' bonus actions are kind of pointless.

     SO. Why Toni? Well for starters she does quite well operating on her own. Toni loves a model or two that can survive un-unionized. Cassandra's Distracted and Finesse she hands out gels well with the Concealment I keep harping on. Heck, with Concealment all attacks targeting her will be on negatives. One of the best ways to bring down M&SU is with focused attacks. Utilizing smart Distracted, you can negate the benefit of focused attacks or attacks with built-in positives if they're ranged shots. Changing Plans means you can DMM a scheme next to your Detonate target, push it 3" and have Amina make Cassandra place another behind her base to juuust make the required 4" distance between scheme markers (also you get to hand out Distracted twice). As for attacks, the Breath of Fire works great as she's not worried about Friendly Fire, and Fitz can make use of the burning she gives. Lastly, and most obviously, Upstage is crazy good. The big ones are Negation Aura (Effigy/Emissary), Extra Limb (Mecharachnid), Vent Steam (Howard), and Intimidation (Toni). Intimidation is the super big important one. Suddenly, you don't have to worry about activating Toni early to get it off and get the most use out of it. Now, you can just have Cassandra activate first and hand out that glorious Adversary. It works even better because Cassandra wants to put up Finesse early. Heck, you can make Amina obey Cassandra to do it again if you really want.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

So! Now that I've got that list all done only took 7 months Let's talk about Deployment, Strategies, and Schemes:

DEPLOYMENT

Standard - It's ok. Plenty doable. The ability to spread out somewhat hinders you in that your opponent has more room to shotgun models to get past you. For Turf you'll be fine sending a runner or two to flip before returning to the bubble. Reckoning is still great since they have to come to you. Idols do well if you 'Own' two thirds of the centerline and direct idol placement. Plant...well...punch through, deny, and win on schemes.

Corner - Not if you can help it. Corner is 'OK' in Reckoning and possibly Turf War, but overall you're bubble is moving too slow to start threatening scoring at a reasonable time. The nice thing is you don't have to worry about is any real splitting or positioning, but any bottlenecks in your deployment are going to make things exponentially worse. Idols and Plant are terrible with your mobility.

Outflank - Good? while the larger centerline is not ideal, you're surprisingly close to your opponent at the outset. Don't be afraid to ball up on one end as long as you don't have to guard the other side (Reckoning or Idols). Here a big fast meanie works really well as a decent threat on the other side. For turf, flip the closest with chaff like mouse, pick a side and guard the marker on the centerline. try to bring the fight to the center. Plant is a bit easier since you don't have to run as far to cross the center.

Wedge - Hell yes. this lets you ball up and forces your opponent to do the same if they want to cross as efficiently as possible. It also puts you pretty darn close. Cross with Toni on turn 1 if you can. Turf still needs a goalie and cheaper stuff to flip marker on your side (Mouse, Miner, Other Miner, Steam Arachnids). Plant should shoot for placing on turn one in the middle (fite me!!). Idols are the same as standard, but definitely go for owning the very center (everything but Crows placement should be under your watch). Reckoning is still your bread and butter.

STRATEGIES

Reckoning - This is arguably the best strategy for Ironsides. She doesn't have to worry about running somewhere to score for once, and can take her time shifting the bubble. Your opponent more or less has to come to you, so immediately bite on any positioning mistake. You want your opponent to have to come to you one or two at a time. Care more about killing key models as opposed to spacing out kills. Shoot for 3 points as you're likely to deny your opponent points with that many kills.

Turf War - Definitely go for scoring your back two and the middle if you can pull it on your opponent. Unless you have an independent model don't worry about scoring your opponents markers and just work on denial through killing. Crossing the centerline is key, otherwise their dead aren't going to work for you in neutralizing markers.

Plant Explosives - I'm not a fan with Toni, as your bubble is too compact to plant more than one or two in the space you'll own with it. The winningest strategy for me is to ignore scoring on turn 2 or 3 to punch a big hole in your opponents crew. When they're low on stuff to deny you, break the bubble and rush in the rest of your markers.

Idols - Pretty good, actually, unless terrain forces you to move a whole ton or blocks a lot of LOS on the centerline. Toni can perch in the middle and threaten a good amount of the centerline with lures. Don't ever be afraid to cheat initiative for an advantageous Idol placement. While it does now hurt Amina, definitely use Obeys to force your opponent to move Idols. You have enough healing that it shouldn't be a bother, forces that model to have to walk and interact to push it back, and you can get a stone or two because she sees the interact action.

SCHEMES

Detonate Charges - Very good pick. For one, you're one of the few crews that can do it reliably. Use Union Miners and Steamfitters plus Toni's lure to get a relatively easy first point. Keep in mind your opponent can just kill their own stuff to deny you (like this hard scheme needed to be harder, right?).

Breakthrough - This works great with Captain, Cassandra, or Soulstone Miners. Miners aren't as good just because you have to wait a turn to place your markers. Honestly they might be too slow for that. Best strategy I've found is the same as Plant Explosives: Fight hard in the center and then breakaway for late game points. You're opponent won't likely expect it.

Harness the Ley Lines - This is pretty doable with Union Miners and Steamfitters. The needed 3 is a bit tight otherwise as you might have to stretch out of the bubble to fit the required 4" between markers (guard your scoring minions well!).

Search the Ruins - Not too hot about this. Not only does it need mobility but it requires spreading out. Rely on OOK mostly for this.

Dig Their Graves - Pretty darn easy to score. The first point was seemingly made for Toni's lure. For the second point, abuse your scoring minions again. Get real cheeky and place schemes with steamfitters when they're about to die (you place the corpse, so they'll at least get you 1/3 of the way to your second point).

Hold Up Their Forces - I wouldn't, but is possible with Out of Keyword stuff or being really ballsy with your Miners and Steamfitters. I'd rather protect them and go with a different scheme but I'm not saying it's impossible. If you go OOK I think you're tipping your hand too much.

Take Prisoner - Quite doable! Pick on a weak minion or, even better, a totem. A lot of totems are significant now and good pickings for Take Prisoner. Lure, surround, stall.

Power Ritual - Nope

Outflank - No. Unless you abuse Soulstone Miners. You see this, your opponent is likely to take it because they'll want to avoid your bubble. Consider shifting the bubble to one side or the other so you can deny this for your opponent.

Assassinate - You'll often be gunning for your opponent's master anyways, so this is a good consider. Just reconsider if it's a master that likes to hang waaay back. Be ok with scoring only one point if you have a guaranteed kill.

Deliver a Message - Hate it. Everyone takes it against Toni. Keep her real close to Captain or Howard so their engagement protects her. Using it against your opponent is ok but keeping them alive can often not be worth it for the second point.

Claim Jump - Pretty easy since you love to own the center of the board anyways. Also good because if your opponent takes it they're going to have to meet you in the middle. Soulstone Miners are unfairly easy to score both points.

Vendetta - This is a pretty good scheme. Gunsmiths have a lot of damage output and are juuuuuust cheap enough to have several targets on your opponents crew. Again, don't be afraid to score only once if it's safer to off them right away.

[retnab]

Good stuff! Just wanted to correct something, Mouse can no longer pull friendlies with his Toss the Noose, since they gain the Staggered before the pull goes off.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

7 minutes ago, retnab said:

Good stuff! Just wanted to correct something, Mouse can no longer pull friendlies with his Toss the Noose, since they gain the Staggered before the pull goes off.

Completely missed Staggered, thanks for the catch! I'll need to rewrite that paragraph as it changes him.

[frumpypigskin]

13 hours ago, retnab said:

Good stuff! Just wanted to correct something, Mouse can no longer pull friendlies with his Toss the Noose, since they gain the Staggered before the pull goes off.

Yeah, I realised that AFTER I'd decided to count on him to pull a model out of line of sight... Bummer.... I believe Amina could still obey a staggered model to walk? Or am I wrong?

[Barmution]

1 hour ago, frumpypigskin said:

 I believe Amina could still obey a staggered model to walk? Or am I wrong?

That would work as the movement comes from an action the model itself is taking.

[Specky]

I found one of the most interesting points about this was the discussion around relenting during an obey if a friendly is being obeyed to attack another friendly. Definitely FAQ worthy.

[frumpypigskin]

I had completely missed that Amina can spend a stone to help get obey off on an enemy, make them interact then pitch a low card to get your stone back. Neat!

[Adran]

18 minutes ago, frumpypigskin said:

I had completely missed that Amina can spend a stone to help get obey off on an enemy, make them interact then pitch a low card to get your stone back. Neat!

You can, but why are you spending cards and stones to gain a stone?

If you're playing corrupted idols, then yes its good, but otherwise you're not gaining anything really because the scheme marker is still an enemy scheme marker to you.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

2 hours ago, Adran said:

You can, but why are you spending cards and stones to gain a stone?

If you're playing corrupted idols, then yes its good, but otherwise you're not gaining anything really because the scheme marker is still an enemy scheme marker to you.

Plant Explosives. Also enemy scheme markers are useful for Walk the Line, Fitzsimmons, and Saboteurs.

Edit: Corner case scheme denial. If you know what they're trying to score, forcing them to spend time picking up the marker (another soulstone for you), or having to run to as spot 4 inches away to put another one down is not a bad tactic.

[CD1248]

Played my first Ironsides match of M3E proper today, crushing victory vs Wong.

Turf War on Standard, with Dig Graves, Detonate Charges, Outflank, Claim Jump, Assassinate.

Final score 4-0 at end of turn 3, game called because Wong's crew was down to two models with a healthy Toni engaging him. Scored 2 Strat, 1 Outflank, 1 Detonate Charge points.

Big takeaways:

"Bring It" may be the best thing on Toni's card (dragged a Swine Cursed and Alphonse way out of position to their deaths, preventing a Claim Jump).

I like Outflank on Standard, we've got great Versatiles that can run flanks (SS Miner and Arcachnid Swarm this game) while the M&SU blob takes the middle.

I thought M&SU would have suffered more against a blaster-Master like Wong, but the Captain's aura kept the damage low long enough for Toni and the Gunsmith's impressive offense to kill his critical models.

[bertmac]

Can bring it work against models already base to base with toni?

[Nikodemus]

4 minutes ago, bertmac said:

Can bring it work against models already base to base with toni?

"Target moves its Mv +2" toward this model. Then, the target must take a Action that cannot declare Triggers targeting this model, if able. Any damage flips from the generated Action suffer a "

You do things in order, but it doesn't matter if one of the parts can't be done. You simply skip to the next one. First the target moves, if able. Then it hits you, if able. Then the damage flip, if any, suffers a minus. 

Then there's this bit in the rulebook, under "Moving" (page 14 in the pdf):

Quote

Any time something changes location or is affected by a movement effect, it is considered to have moved (even if it moved 0")

Which leads me to believe that targets in base contact with Toni count as having moved if Bring It is used. Handy if you happen to have a hazardous aura on.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

Yep. Move of 0" is still a move.

[Cranky Old Man]

What crew did you against Wong?

[Cranky Old Man]

On 8/3/2019 at 2:14 PM, CD1248 said:

Played my first Ironsides match of M3E proper today, crushing victory vs Wong.

Turf War on Standard, with Dig Graves, Detonate Charges, Outflank, Claim Jump, Assassinate.

Final score 4-0 at end of turn 3, game called because Wong's crew was down to two models with a healthy Toni engaging him. Scored 2 Strat, 1 Outflank, 1 Detonate Charge points.

Big takeaways:

"Bring It" may be the best thing on Toni's card (dragged a Swine Cursed and Alphonse way out of position to their deaths, preventing a Claim Jump).

I like Outflank on Standard, we've got great Versatiles that can run flanks (SS Miner and Arcachnid Swarm this game) while the M&SU blob takes the middle.

I thought M&SU would have suffered more against a blaster-Master like Wong, but the Captain's aura kept the damage low long enough for Toni and the Gunsmith's impressive offense to kill his critical models.

What did you use in your crew?

[CD1248]

43 minutes ago, Hoff’s Ball said:

What did you use in your crew?

Ironsides

Mouse

The Captain - 10

Gunsmith x2 - 16

Union Miner - 5

SS Miner + Magical Training - 8

Arachnid Swarm - 8

3 cache

[Cranky Old Man]

Interesting, no Amina or Fitz?

[CD1248]

2 hours ago, Hoff’s Ball said:

Interesting, no Amina or Fitz?

All my picks were informed by the Strat/Schemes and the fact that my opponent had declared Wong.

I knew I needed Captain for his aura to keep Wong from murdering the M&SU bubble, plus his min-3 damage hammer to take down their beaters quickly. Then I needed two models that could take flanks independently for Outflank, and also to reduce how bubbly my crew actually was, so in go the SS Miner and Swarm.

Gunsmiths went in because Wizz-Bang doesn't have a huge amount of anti- tech, they're good for sniping people out to unflip Turf Markers, and they could provide cover if a fight on a flank was going poorly. Union Miner was there to do Detonate Charges.

All in all I think my picks ended up being correct. I was on track to score somewhere between 6-8 points had we played to the bitter end.

[frumpypigskin]

Hey.... With the gunsmiths grit... Why don't you have to declare what suit your adding when you declare the action? It says "when declaring an action" before mentioning final dual totals. It would be nice not to have to decide until after the flip and cheat but I believe the line about declaring the action means you have to pick first. Anyone else?

I love your breakdown of the steamfitter. I have struggled to get the most from them this edition and am keen to give them another go now!

[Douglas Scoundrels]

3 hours ago, frumpypigskin said:

Hey.... With the gunsmiths grit... Why don't you have to declare what suit your adding when you declare the action? It says "when declaring an action" before mentioning final dual totals. It would be nice not to have to decide until after the flip and cheat but I believe the line about declaring the action means you have to pick first. Anyone else?

I love your breakdown of the steamfitter. I have struggled to get the most from them this edition and am keen to give them another go now!

I think this could use some clarification regardless of what the actual ruling is. My interpretation is that the 'when declaring an action' is to clarify that you can only do this during this models actions. But I can definitely be wrong.

[MuMantai]

5 hours ago, Kaiser Senpai said:

I think this could use some clarification regardless of what the actual ruling is. My interpretation is that the 'when declaring an action' is to clarify that you can only do this during this models actions. But I can definitely be wrong.

I disagree. When declaring an action is a specific timing, and it happens to be before flipping. Until it is clarified, I will play my Gunsmiths so that they declare the suit from the grit before they actually use the action.

Also, a neat trick I have picked up is shooting at Ironsides with Mouse in the first activation. The way the trigger is worded, you get the adrenaline anyway, and don't punch back. Just make sure to flip both (on Df) and not hit, as staggered is nasty. The Union Miner can do this as well, and here hitting is not nearly as bad. Not something for every game, as it will slow you down, but a nice way to get some adrenaline going

[Nikodemus]

36 minutes ago, MuMantai said:

I disagree. When declaring an action is a specific timing, and it happens to be before flipping. Until it is clarified, I will play my Gunsmiths so that they declare the suit from the grit before they actually use the action.

I don'd even see the need for clarification, since as you say, "when it declares an Action" refers to a very specific point in Action resolution.

For source, people might want to check "Declaring Actions" from the rulebook. Page 23 for the pdf rules.

[Douglas Scoundrels]

I don't mind admitting that I misinterpreted a rule. I'll edit when I get home from work. As far as 'clarification' goes it would be nice to simply state you choose when you declare an action, then add the declared suit to the final duel total. 

Well that makes me a little sad. Not for a drop in perceived power level, but that it's much harder to have an excuse to declare anything but Rams. 

[Cranky Old Man]

Points can be really tight. Fitz, Amina and The Cap all seem to be such auto includes with Toni. That bubble! I’m thinking only one gunsmith am I crazy?