Augmented

[theamazingmrg]

So, I played my first game with an Augmented crew last night.  It didn't end well.

 

I should say upfront that I was never expecting to do particularly well due to the format of the game.  It was a slightly modified Henchman Hardcore format for the first game of a slow-grow league.  We had to declare the faction and Master that we will be sticking with for the league (I chose Guild Hoffman - with hindsight I probably should have declared Arcanist, but hey-ho.  At least I'll get to use the Steward and Pale Rider in later games!).  This meant I could only take Ryle as my Henchman.  Without Hoffman dishing out Power tokens I was never going to be able to use the crew to their full potential.

The Strats/Schemes were limited to Plant Explosives and Assassinate.

 

I chose Ryle and one each of Guardian, Warden, and Watcher.  I figured Ryle should be able to do some damage, with the Warden and Guardian providing a little bit of toughness and move shenanigans, and the Watcher was intended to be the main scheme runner.

 

I faced off against a Bayou Infamous crew of the First Mate, Johan, and two Iron Skeeters.  Johan did nothing for the whole game which was the only satisfying thing about it!

 

My draws and flips were atrocious.  I managed to get two successful hits all game..  One did 1 damage and slow, the other did 2 damage (and was from the watcher, of all things!)  I managed to trigger Surge on Ryle's heal once and drew a Black Joker for my troubles.  This meant I could do nothing about the mobility of the Iron Skeeters or First Mate.  My Warden died to two hits from the First Mate (It would have been one but for Armor +2!)  It took three damage in the first hit, I managed to heal one with Ryle, and then the remaining three damage followed the next round!  The lack of successful hits or Hoffman meant that I didn't see a single Power token all game 😩

 

I was able to deny the Assassinate points though, but still lost 4-0.  An auspicious start to the league!

 

My next game will be a 30ss game with normal hiring rules playing Turf War, with a choice of one scheme from: Breakthrough, Harness the Ley Line, or Deliver a Message.  I'm likely going to be playing against Tara.  I figure Deliver a Message will be the easiest to score of the schemes, but I'm not sure what to take for the crew as I was very disappointed with the performance of the whole crew in game 1 (the lack of Power tokens meant I wasn't able to use a good portion of the cards though, so blaming the models might not be entirely fair!)

 

 

 

[Cursed25]

2 hours ago, theamazingmrg said:

My next game will be a 30ss game with normal hiring rules playing Turf War, with a choice of one scheme from: Breakthrough, Harness the Ley Line, or Deliver a Message.  I'm likely going to be playing against Tara.  I figure Deliver a Message will be the easiest to score of the schemes, but I'm not sure what to take for the crew as I was very disappointed with the performance of the whole crew in game 1 (the lack of Power tokens meant I wasn't able to use a good portion of the cards though, so blaming the models might not be entirely fair!)

forget Deliver a message vs Tara! She is way to mobile for you to get the end point of Deliver a message. It will be easier to do Harness or Breakthrough (if you protect well your hunter/watcher)

[theamazingmrg]

1 hour ago, Cursed25 said:

forget Deliver a message vs Tara! She is way to mobile for you to get the end point of Deliver a message. It will be easier to do Harness or Breakthrough (if you protect well your hunter/watcher)

Breakthrough is a possibility, but I don't have much faith in being able to score Harness the Leylines, unfortunately

[Humphrey]

Augmented without Hoffmann isn’t really viable. Consider taking a Peacekeeper instead of a Guardian next time as he does more damage and has a harpoon to compensate for his lack of mobility.

I dont have a ton of experience against Tara but be careful with overcharge as she tends to work with your fast conditions. You are also a fairly easy Deliver target.

what I often do with Hoffmann: Stack PT and fast on Peacekeeper and Joss with transfer Power from Attendant/Watcher/Warden and Overcharge. Then Peacekeeper activates, pushes 2”, (if necessary) buys a ram for harpoon, shoots and drags juicy target 6”, charge, flurry, attack. Buy positive flips or rams for crit depending on the target. I personally like taking the mobile toolkit to give free focus to the big models. The damage output gets pretty disgusting. Harness the Leyline and Breakthrough should be very doable.

[theamazingmrg]

1 hour ago, Humphrey said:

Augmented without Hoffmann isn’t really viable.

I definitely feel that! Luckily there won't be a next time!  The Henchman Hardcore format was just for the intro game as it was felt that it would be better for new players.  In hindsight the same basic rules, but with a free Master and 20ss limit might have been better balanced!  But hey ho, there's not much you can do when the game is in the past!

 

I deliberately didn't take the Peacekeeper as its a bit evil against new players.  As it turned out I needn't have been concerned and should have taken it.  It's not getting left at home for the next game, that's for sure!

 

The Mobile Toolkit is definitely going to be included.  My first thoughts are two Watchers, the Peacekeeper, Mobile Toolkit, Hoffman, and the Mechanical Attendant.  That leaves me 9ss to work with (if my maths is right!).  I just need to decide whether I think a Warden or Steward and some SS are better than a Hunter.

[Humphrey]

I have found a Warden to be fairly decent. 5SS 5LP 6er Stats and the ability to shoot someone slow are quite cool. I think The Steward adds practically nothing to the Hoffman Crew as he heals perfectly fine and even has the ability to remove conditions.

I’d consider something like:

Hoffman+Totem

Toolkit

Peacekeeper

Hunter

Warden/Watcher

4/5 SS

A fast attendant can lay two scheme marker for harness the leyline with companion or just run down a flank from the middle line and reach his deployment zone (push 2”, run 10, place marker) and threaten the turf war marker, while the Peacekeeper holds the middle marker with Hoffman.

 

[theamazingmrg]

30 minutes ago, Humphrey said:

A fast attendant can lay two scheme marker for harness the leyline with companion or just run down a flank from the middle line and reach his deployment zone (push 2”, run 10, place marker) and threaten the turf war marker, while the Peacekeeper holds the middle marker with Hoffman.

 

My worry is that a Fast Attendant won't last long enough against Tara to do much at all.

[Kharnage]

For future games, I'd recommend taking the toolkit for power tokens without Hoffman. Joss also functions better than some since he can charge himself with Dynamic Generator, if you go Arcanist (I know you said you went guild anyway). Steamfitters can also lay scrap down to power converter in the future, and they're good scheme runners with the same Free Action. 

[theamazingmrg]

1 hour ago, Kharnage said:

For future games, I'd recommend taking the toolkit for power tokens without Hoffman. Joss also functions better than some since he can charge himself with Dynamic Generator, if you go Arcanist (I know you said you went guild anyway). Steamfitters can also lay scrap down to power converter in the future, and they're good scheme runners with the same Free Action. 

Yeah, under the rules for the league we had to take the Henchman from the declared faction so that ruled out Joss.  I'm looking forward to giving him a go though!

 

The 4 model limit made me think the Toolkit wasn't a good idea.  Given how badly I performed, it can't have hurt!  It will definitely be a staple in the larger games though.