How do the Schemes and Strategies affect your Crew Building?

[Kharnage]

So I'm mostly a one-trick player at the moment, I have my consummate crew for the God Empress and I play that crew regardless of the schemes and strategies. My playstyle will change based on what I have to do, but it's the same 6 models doing it all. Lets me focus on a crew and understand it inside and out, but this seems to be a less common approach. So I'm curious, what do y'all do? How strange is this practice?

[Maniacal_cackle]

I initially only owned 48ss of models... So at that point, it was the same core every time.

Now that I own a bit more variety, I have a smaller core (Molly, Archie, crooligan), but the more models I own, the more I heavily tailor myself.

Even already, if I see claim jump, that pushes me towards P&N, grave golem, and grave digger. That's a 24 stone swing!

[TheJoyInGaming]

I have been playing Hamelin into everything so I have a small core that I have been using. I fill the rest based on Strats and Schemes.

Core List

Hamelin

3X Stolen

Nix

Rat King- SoDP

 

[solkan]

Yeah, I don’t think the voting option are realistic.  Because “the last few soulstones” sounds like 4 to 8, not 30 to 40.   

Realistic description of process:

When you decided to play a game today, you chose a faction and a pool of leaders for that faction.  Pack a bunch of candidate models for that choice, and then find someone to play.

When you get to Step E, panic and either go with the leader you had your heart set on playing today regardless of what the schemes and strategies say, or blindly pick one of the leaders you packed.  Upon discovering what the other player’s choices are, settle on a crew based on which models you can find in the case.

It’s equal parts “Who did I want to try out today?” and “What do I need for the pool, and will what I want to use work?”

 

[Vangerdahast]

I have 8 Masters but since end of open beta, I only play Colette (and a little bit of Hoffman). I have voted for the third option (core crew and adapt).

I have a semi-fixed list and I adapt depending on Strategy and Schemes:

Colette

3 Mechanical Doves

Cassandra

Coryphee Duet

Mechanical Rider OR 2 single Coryphees

Angelica OR Soulstone Miner + Magical Training Upgrade

Showgirl (that can be swapped for a Mannequin or the Effigy though I rarely do that)

Soulsotnes: 5 to 7 depending on the crew version

 

And I play her even in bad Stragegy/Schemes  in order to learn all the tricks the crew can do even in the worst situations. These tough games are where you learn the most about your crew.

I will even play her versus Ten Thunder (usually not a good idea because of lot of positive flips in the faction among other things). Playing versus Misaki with Masked Agent, Fuhatusu and one or two Samurai is something scary for the Performers but the victory (when it happens) is much rewarding.

 

So I don't exactly play as Kharnage but there are similarities in the way we approach a game.

 

[Morgan Vening]

32 minutes ago, solkan said:

Yeah, I don’t think the voting option are realistic.  Because “the last few soulstones” sounds like 4 to 8, not 30 to 40.   

Realistic description of process:

When you decided to play a game today, you chose a faction and a pool of leaders for that faction.  Pack a bunch of candidate models for that choice, and then find someone to play.

When you get to Step E, panic and either go with the leader you had your heart set on playing today regardless of what the schemes and strategies say, or blindly pick one of the leaders you packed.  Upon discovering what the other player’s choices are, settle on a crew based on which models you can find in the case.

It’s equal parts “Who did I want to try out today?” and “What do I need for the pool, and will what I want to use work?”

Pretty much this. For me it's location dependent too.

When I'm playing at home, I've got full access to my entire collection. So I build the table a couple days in advance, take photos to send to my opponent, have them randomize the schemes and strats, and then start from scratch on design, even if I have already got a couple of decent candidates for what I want to play.

When I'm playing at the LGS, I've got limited bag space (motorcycles are great fun, but cargo space is limited), so I'm only able to take ~20-30 models, that I need to choose before I even know what the table looks like. So that means either taking two fairly rigid crews, or one base crew but having some decent flexibility in what I'm wanting to do. Also some crews just aren't viable, like Zipp or Asami (there's no way Iron Skeeters or Jorogumo survive the trip intact).

[Mycellanious]

Petition to add "I only have 1 master/crew..." as an option. I think it may be distorting the results

[Kharnage]

24 minutes ago, Mycellanious said:

Petition to add "I only have 1 master/crew..." as an option. I think it may be distorting the results

Added that!

[Gnomezilla]

Too master-dependent for me at the moment. I haven’t varied my Leveticus list except when I overran the proxy limit (tournament situation, two proxies max per crew to allow missing totems and other unreleased models, not just ‘I hate the true sculpt’). I have rarely brought the same Hoffman list twice. Nellie’s list is flexible. Zipp’s won’t be. Etc.

[Jesy Blue]

I play 9 master and 2 henchmen Leaders over 3 factions.

I look at the board, the schemes, and the strat first before thinking who can get the most points in this scenario.

Reevaluate Leader pick after opponent's Faction is declared.

Reevaluate crew build after opponent's Leader is declared.

Reevaluate schemes after opponent's crew is declared.

[Ludvig]

I have another option that wasn't represented: 

Bring some stuff from maybe two crews with a strong intention of playing a particular master. Try to adapt to the strat while building in the app only to realise you forgot some models at home and need to replace them with whatever you managed to bring. 

[HowNot2Wargame]

will wait to seem deployment, terrain, schemes and strategy before picking master, but then most masters I have a core which then  build/adapt to the pool.