Talkin Bout the Brewmaster.

[MoFaux]

Alright y'all,  first post ever so bare with me, but I appreciate any and all input in advance.

Brewmaster is by far my favorite master from a stylistic standpoint, been lovin him since m2e. His playstyle has changed quite a bit in the new edition, even though it still revolves around the theme of "let's all get drunk and fight". He has potential to hit like a truck, his auras are annoying for an opponent to deal with, and he has some control capability with a lure/obey if the target is sufficiently hammered. However, and this could just be me not being good as a player myself, I'm having trouble figuring out how to truly take advantage of his strengths to win games. Also, he really really struggles into match ups that can remove/ignore/take advantage of his poison (von schtook makes me sad), which is to be expected from a condition based master of course. 

So my question(s) to the boards, what are your thoughts on the Brewmaster? How do you feel about his keyword? Strengths and weaknesses? What strats and schemes does he shine/fail miserably? And how do you deal with his counters? I love the Brewmaster, and will play him just because of that fact. I just want some outside perspective to step up my game and give me that juicy knowledge that I be lackin sometimes.

Thanks again y'all, and cheers from the Tri-Chi! 

[Ogid]

Not that much into bayou but I guess I can give you some quick thoughts:

The crew seem quite balanced, has some fast models, healing, defensive and ofensive de/buffs, ping damage, lure, obey, minor summoning, Drunken Kung Fu, some draw... maybe a bit light in the beating department and lacking specialized schemers; but it looks like they may tackle most strategies. Not sure how good it's considered tho, but if this is the master that you like the most, it'll be a good choice.

Asume the other player is going to bring condition removal; if he doesn't do it, you'll be in a quite big advantage. Try to play around these models or kill them. There are some Masters like Pandora or McMourning that may require special adjustements, but I'm sure you'll have answers; being playing around them or going OOK a bit, you'll figure out.

Having access to Tanukis is great tho, those racoons are amazing and can really buff a strong combat model OOK with Focused and support it with condition removal and healing. A note about this, mind sober up must remove 1 condition; you have to use other conditions your own models deal (Poison, Slow, Burning, Distracted...) to get conditions to remove and be able to stack Focused in relevant models.

[Mxbedlam]

Ok so shameless plug: https://thirdfloorwars.com/time-to-talk-brewmaster/

Summing all that up: I play Tri Chi as a board control crew that has the potential to ramp up damage in spectacular ways. Take advantage of 1 and 2 inch melee to prevent interactions and score hold forces and take prisoner. Use 12 cups of coffee on Brewmaster to lock down anyone within 4 inches of him to a single Action. 

[OracleToronto]

The hardest lesson I have learned so far is to not over extend your Akaname. They are brilliant scheme models (especialy for schemes that need markers near models or in the thick of things) but the have horrible defensive stats and their trick to use "flicker" tokens to gain positive flips is seldom worth it as your opponent can likely cheat higher with what every their attack stat is. 

That being said two of them make it into any list I make (though depending on how much range the opponent is likely to bring I get cautious taking them into Reckoning or Turf War). 

[Mxbedlam]

I generally only bring 1 Akaname but i really like list diversity. However, depending on schemes they are an incredible grab for the SS. 

[OracleToronto]

Also a miscalculation that most beginners make (including when I started) is assume that like McMourning - Brewmasters crew wants to have tons of poison on their own models. However you will find roughly half your models are simply immune to the negative effects of poison and don't really gain anything by having it on them. Models such as the Whiskey Golem, Fingers, etc will have a specific rule or trigger you want to look for which requires varying degrees of poison - even Brewy himself only needs 4-5 points to be comfortable in most turns. 

 

So basically avoid wasting actions applying poison to models who don't need it or overstacking models that only need a little. When applying it use action efficient methods (such as charging with Moon Shinobi 2" past one of your models to get the movement and use the "free" attack that comes with the charge action to use Have a Drink to apply poison to the model you moved past. This way you get the desired poison but also the movement for the Shinobi.

 

 

[OracleToronto]

1 minute ago, Mrbedlam said:

I generally only bring 1 Akaname but i really like list diversity. However, depending on schemes they are an incredible grab for the SS. 

As my regular opponents are catching on to their value v.s. how easy they are to kill I find I am having to play differently enough with them I may start using them less altogether. But yeah when they work they are incredible value for their stones. 

 

 

[SAYNE]

Also don't forget that Brewmaster has a large "audible" list in the construct side. Mecha Porkchop, Cooper, Whiskey Gamin and such can make other players get very confused why they're suddenly playing against a Drunk Hoffman crew with all the armor you can bring. Always try to play close to your opponent a side of the board (except maybe in reckoning) since most strats or schemes want you to be there anyway. Lastly, winning is just as much knowing the enemy. If you hear terrain markers, consider the emissary. Lots of shooting? Bring stealth or armor. Heavy beaters? Try to disable or waste their activations.

Good luck! And keep on that bender!

[Mxbedlam]

39 minutes ago, SAYNE said:

Also don't forget that Brewmaster has a large "audible" list in the construct side. Mecha Porkchop, Cooper, Whiskey Gamin and such can make other players get very confused why they're suddenly playing against a Drunk Hoffman crew with all the armor you can bring. Always try to play close to your opponent a side of the board (except maybe in reckoning) since most strats or schemes want you to be there anyway. Lastly, winning is just as much knowing the enemy. If you hear terrain markers, consider the emissary. Lots of shooting? Bring stealth or armor. Heavy beaters? Try to disable or waste their activations.

Good luck! And keep on that bender!

My construct list is: Brewie, Wesley, Whiskey, Porkchop, Cooper, Emissary, Akaname, Tanuki. 

[MoFaux]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I definitely need to consider running akaname because they do have so much value with the ability to drop markers when needed. I also like the idea of running the construct list, functions totally differently then his normal crew for sure. One thing i will point out, and this is something i discovered recently, is running a couple fermented river monks with inferiority complex, and a single whiskey gamin. This allows the fermented monks to fill the gamin with poison while simultaneously increasing their own poison OR taking the concentrate action (usually poison). Turn 1 each monk will have a chi token and poison +4, and the gamin will be at poison +8 for a juicy 8" push before any other actions (over the course of 3 turns it amounts to about 21" of pushes). And the monks can also be Lured/Obeyed by Brewmaster/Fingers for even more mobility, poison, focus, and/or chi tokens. The more I theorize and play Brewmaster, the more his style feels like a martial arts and I love that.

[Kiryn]

On 10/21/2019 at 3:29 PM, Ogid said:

A note about this, mind sober up must remove 1 condition; you have to use other conditions your own models deal (Poison, Slow, Burning, Distracted...) to get conditions to remove and be able to stack Focused in relevant models.

As its not in italics I didn't think the condition removal was necessary. Obviously if they have a condition it would need to be removed but if the model had no conditions it would just gain focus anyway. Same as the trusty flask, you don't need to be able to heal in order to gain the +1 poison. 

[Ogid]

28 minutes ago, Kiryn said:

As its not in italics I didn't think the condition removal was necessary. Obviously if they have a condition it would need to be removed but if the model had no conditions it would just gain focus anyway. Same as the trusty flask, you don't need to be able to heal in order to gain the +1 poison. 

For the first focused isn't an issue. My point is if you want to stack it up. If the only condition the model has is Focused+1 and it is targeted with "Sober up"; you must end that Focused+1 to gain Focused+1. But if it also has Distracted or Slow, you can end that one and increase your Focused+1 to Focused+2

[Kiryn]

Ah cool, good. I thought I'd misunderstood the rules. 

[GrumpyGrandpa]

Here is a fun fact.

Prof. Von Schtook has an Attack Action called Administrative Review, which removes any number of conditions from a model. A build-in Suit on the action says that:

Target suffers X damage, where X is the highest value Condition ended by this Action(to a minimum of 1)

I didn't know about that when I charged my Brewmaster with a stack of 17 Poison into his crew.

[Jesy Blue]

4 hours ago, Ogid said:

For the first focused isn't an issue. My point is if you want to stack it up. If the only condition the model has is Focused+1 and it is targeted with "Sober up"; you must end that Focused+1 to gain Focused+1. But if it also has Distracted or Slow, you can end that one and increase your Focused+1 to Focused+2

You need to hit the trigger on the first Sober Up so it gives the target Poison, then the next Sober Up can remove the Poison; I do this with Whiskey Golem as we is not immune to Poison.

57 minutes ago, GrumpyGrandpa said:

Here is a fun fact.

Prof. Von Schtook has an Attack Action called Administrative Review, which removes any number of conditions from a model. A build-in Suit on the action says that:

Target suffers X damage, where X is the highest value Condition ended by this Action(to a minimum of 1)

I didn't know about that when I charged my Brewmaster with a stack of 17 Poison into his crew.

You only need like 5-7 poison on any of your own models... except Gamin & Akaname, they get all the Poison you can squeeze on them!

[Chemic]

On 10/20/2019 at 3:45 PM, DrankMaster said:

Alright y'all,  first post ever so bare with me, but I appreciate any and all input in advance.

Brewmaster is by far my favorite master from a stylistic standpoint, been lovin him since m2e. His playstyle has changed quite a bit in the new edition, even though it still revolves around the theme of "let's all get drunk and fight". He has potential to hit like a truck, his auras are annoying for an opponent to deal with, and he has some control capability with a lure/obey if the target is sufficiently hammered. However, and this could just be me not being good as a player myself, I'm having trouble figuring out how to truly take advantage of his strengths to win games. Also, he really really struggles into match ups that can remove/ignore/take advantage of his poison (von schtook makes me sad), which is to be expected from a condition based master of course. 

So my question(s) to the boards, what are your thoughts on the Brewmaster? How do you feel about his keyword? Strengths and weaknesses? What strats and schemes does he shine/fail miserably? And how do you deal with his counters? I love the Brewmaster, and will play him just because of that fact. I just want some outside perspective to step up my game and give me that juicy knowledge that I be lackin sometimes.

Thanks again y'all, and cheers from the Tri-Chi! 

So I’ve also started experimenting with Brewie despite usually being a solid Arcanist. Played a game today against Reva and won 6-3. Can’t say it was the most comfortable of games I’m still nervy about pushing my models up early but I have to say it was a fairly durable crew. I took Popcorn Turner with Inferiority Complex, Fingers, Whiskey Golem, 2 x Moon Shinobi both with 12 cups of Coffee and of course Brewie and Wesley. 
I was fairly nervous at first as it’s quite a small crew and turn one a Shinobi and Brewie were Centre stage against two Draugr and a Lampad with Reva not far away. It was Flank Deployment and I also had Fingers and Popcorn, ready to run along the edges for Power Ritual. Plus Golem lurking who actually took a lot of damage from burning.

Without going into the mass intricacies of the game Brewie was great in attack killing two Draugrs, a lampad and Reva herself eventually. Moon Shinobi both took and did some damage but their self heal on a bonus worked well. Popcorn is super fast with his move 3 at the start of his activation and the Shinobi were just pretty unstoppable with their 12 Cups of Coffee. They were mainly either dropping markers for Power Ritual or flipping Turf War markers to Team Brewie. Admittedly my opponent had a fair few unlucky flips with the Black Joker rearing it’s head for defence on more than one occasion. But overall it’s a pretty durable crew and I’m looking forward to more experiments. 
 

The great thing I’ve found so far is Brewie, Fingers and Shinobi all having 2” melee. Gray to get around engaging but not being engaged under the M3E rules. Also can’t argue with Brewie’s 2/3/4 plus 2 poison attack. That three times plus expunging the poison in a bonus is pretty brutal and tough for any opponents to handle. 
 

Has anyone used Tanuki in M3E yet? I’m really liking the look of their card ready for the new model being released. 

[MrPieChee]

Has anyone considered a banjonista ook with whisky gamin? Two extra movement and two extra damage a turn for 6ss. The damage (shielded) costs you a card, but you get some condition removal for those crossfire burnings and distracted, and you can hand out some more distracted as well!

Worth a try?

[Kiryn]

Played brewie in to a strong levi crew a couple of times now and really struggling. 

The score has never been runaway but its so hard to keep models on the board so feel like I'm struggling from the get go. 

He tends to take rusty and mad dog and ashes and dust so a lot of threat on top of levi too. Killed a and d twice and got the core too the second time but it just cost too much ap and the storm was able to go off and kill my tanuki. 

Last game lost the golem quickly as non reducible is rough. 

Popcorn got mad dog and marlena but I was still left with a lot to do. 

[ShinChan]

2 hours ago, Kiryn said:

Played brewie in to a strong levi crew a couple of times now and really struggling. 

The score has never been runaway but its so hard to keep models on the board so feel like I'm struggling from the get go. 

He tends to take rusty and mad dog and ashes and dust so a lot of threat on top of levi too. Killed a and d twice and got the core too the second time but it just cost too much ap and the storm was able to go off and kill my tanuki. 

Last game lost the golem quickly as non reducible is rough. 

Popcorn got mad dog and marlena but I was still left with a lot to do. 

What about some Moon Shinobi? Thanks to Stealth you'll force your enemy to get close. You have some chances of deliver Stunned, which is pretty good against Amalgam. Also if you pay for the upgrade "Two Gremlins in a Ghillie Suit" they can't be the target of a charge action and you get an interesting shooting action that you can easily convert into a  shooting while you're engaging them with other model.

[Kiryn]

Need to give the moon shinobi some more game time for sure. Stealth is definitely going to be good.