Sparks

[bas_2312]

Hi guys,

I've been looking at the Tricksy keyword and I need your help:

I don't understand Sparks.

What does he do for my crew?

And especially his Scrapyard mines ability? At first I thought "Cool, now I can use some tricks to Ride the Rails really well!", but it only works on markers within 6".

Can anyone who has used Sparks in his crew explain why I should bring him? I love the model, but right now it seems like a really expensive model for some not that useful abilities. 

Thanks

[Myyrä]

His best ability is to pack friendly models with explosives, letting them damage enemies when they suffer damage in melee. He can also give out fast with his action if he has a scrap marker and a .

[wizuriel]

In my experience Spark's designed for Foundry and just an afterthought in Bayou.

As Myyra mentioned his Pack with explosives is really nice, but you want it on a fast model that can engage the enemy and not blast your own models and survive a few hits (metal golem, howard Langston, emissary's are really good for this).

His 6 Hostile Work Environment can really destroy certain crews (cough McMourning) that like to target themselves, but in my experience Spark's is a bit too fragile and expensive to want to be within 6" of enemy models.

imo Bayou doesn't produce enough scrap that you're really going to ever use ride the rails, scrapyard mines or Now Yer a Robot more than once a game at most. Foundry though will litter the playfield with scrap letting Spark's jump in and out of troubled areas, heal constructs and make scrap yard mines. 

 

For a fun 1 time cheese list you can use packed with explosives, pigapult and stuffed pigs to throw nukes at your opponent if they fail the MV tests.

[Myyrä]

25 minutes ago, wizuriel said:

As Myyra mentioned his Pack with explosives is really nice, but you want it on a fast model that can engage the enemy and not blast your own models and survive a few hits (metal golem, howard Langston, emissary's are really good for this).

In my opinion, Mei Feng herself is probably the best target for it.

[Scoffer]

Sparks can pack Pigapult ammo with explosives to blow enemy models away. 

When Sparks is around, enemy models can't target other enemy models with actions. It means no obeys, no healing, no condition removal, no Ride With Me etc. Sometimes it's better to throw him into enemy lines with Pigapult to break the whole plan of your opponent.

When Sparks is around, Wong can launch a Pit Trap into space and drop two Pit Traps back at the start of next turn.

[Morgan Vening]

On 10/23/2019 at 11:29 PM, wizuriel said:

In my experience Spark's designed for Foundry and just an afterthought in Bayou.

As an active participant, you're probably right.

But as a counterpick, I can see him getting a lot of play.

Against Hoffman, Ramos, Mei, Puppets, Transmortis, possibly Sonnia, Analyze Weakness is great. Anything that relies on Armor and/or Shielding can be stymied a fair bit.

Scrapyard Mines makes Mei very unhappy. Makes Rail Riding a little more difficult, and Walking Forge isn't optional. As well as Now You're A Robot being able to pick them out for good benefit.

[Mxbedlam]

10 hours ago, Morgan Vening said:

As an active participant, you're probably right.

But as a counterpick, I can see him getting a lot of play.

Against Hoffman, Ramos, Mei, Puppets, Transmortis, possibly Sonnia, Analyze Weakness is great. Anything that relies on Armor and/or Shielding can be stymied a fair bit.

Scrapyard Mines makes Mei very unhappy. Makes Rail Riding a little more difficult, and Walking Forge isn't optional. As well as Now You're A Robot being able to pick them out for good benefit.

If he wasn't a paper bag stuffed with other paper bags already soaked in kerosene I could see that. Unfortunately, his counter tech wants him to be close up and he has no ways to keep himself alive once he's in the mix. At most he wastes 2 AP from their big beater to get taken down and then its business as usual. Doesn't seem worth the stones unless you are using him as a demolition expert with stuffed pigs or bayou gremlins. 

[Barmution]

I want to try a build in Bayou Zoraida with Sparks putting bombs onto spawned Gupps. Then you obey big beaters to hit the Gupps (using the Gupps as a node) and they get hit by both their own secondary damage from the blast marker and the damage from the upgrade. It sounds a bit janky but I think Stealth will help keep the Gupps alive compared to other Bayou disposables. Think it could be fun if nothing else.

[Mxbedlam]

1 hour ago, Barmution said:

I want to try a build in Bayou Zoraida with Sparks putting bombs onto spawned Gupps. Then you obey big beaters to hit the Gupps (using the Gupps as a node) and they get hit by both their own secondary damage from the blast marker and the damage from the upgrade. It sounds a bit janky but I think Stealth will help keep the Gupps alive compared to other Bayou disposables. Think it could be fun if nothing else.

Can't blast off friendly models, even the upgrade doesn't change that. 

[Barmution]

25 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

Can't blast off friendly models, even the upgrade doesn't change that. 

Pretty sure that if you Obey an opposing model to hit your upgraded Gupps it's not considered friendly to that model since Obey doesn't change a model's allegiance.

[Mxbedlam]

5 minutes ago, Barmution said:

Pretty sure that if you Obey an opposing model to hit your upgraded Gupps it's not considered friendly to that model since Obey doesn't change a model's allegiance.

You are correct. Sorry I read that as you obeying your big beaters. 

[Barmution]

47 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

You are correct. Sorry I read that as you obeying your big beaters. 

Np, I agree that it reads a bit ambiguous.

[DuBlanck]

On 10/25/2019 at 3:25 AM, Morgan Vening said:

But as a counterpick, I can see him getting a lot of play.

As a Mei primary player, I like using him, and I expect to bloody hate playing against him.

Besides Arcanists, Lucius is my main side-horror, and switching off the ability to launder AP through the output models just ends the Elite crew.

Molly probably wouldn't like it either, but she can probably work around that 6" aura fine...

For all people are saying he's too easy to splat, the model that kills him is probably left in a significantly disadvantageous position after snuffing Sparks - and it probably needs to be a reasonably heavyweight model to get it done in fewer than 4AP, between Shielded and Scamper, so you probably trade pieces roughly comparably but you spend fewer resources on the counter-punch. Even if it somehow ignores the ping damage, carrying a stack of Injured is not fun.

[Mxbedlam]

2 minutes ago, DuBlanck said:

As a Mei primary player, I like using him, and I expect to bloody hate playing against him.

Besides Arcanists, Lucius is my main side-horror, and switching off the ability to launder AP through the output models just ends the Elite crew.

Molly probably wouldn't like it either, but she can probably work around that 6" aura fine...

For all people are saying he's too easy to splat, the model that kills him is probably left in a significantly disadvantageous position after snuffing Sparks - and it probably needs to be a reasonably heavyweight model to get it done in fewer than 4AP, between Shielded and Scamper, so you probably trade pieces roughly comparably but you spend fewer resources on the counter-punch. Even if it somehow ignores the ping damage, carrying a stack of Injured is not fun.

I suppose its a matter of stop theory faux and just get him on the table. I do think he is a Huge counter pick vs Mei Feng. Probably against Hoffman too, no power transfer makes them real sad.  As far as Lucius goes, I don't know that Sparks has the movement to get close enough to matter but I could be wrong. Either way he is definitely a model they have to get rid of. Perhaps it'd be worth the Ghillie suit to keep him disguised? 

[DuBlanck]

5 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

As far as Lucius goes, I don't know that Sparks has the movement to get close enough to matter but I could be wrong

He only needs to be 4" behind your front line to stop the 9-AP Agent 46 gimmick - if 46 is not assassinating your key pieces because Sparks is protecting them, he's paying for himself already.

[Morgan Vening]

1 hour ago, Mrbedlam said:

I suppose its a matter of stop theory faux and just get him on the table. I do think he is a Huge counter pick vs Mei Feng. Probably against Hoffman too, no power transfer makes them real sad.  As far as Lucius goes, I don't know that Sparks has the movement to get close enough to matter but I could be wrong. Either way he is definitely a model they have to get rid of. Perhaps it'd be worth the Ghillie suit to keep him disguised? 

I was thinking Hoffman too, but they can still Power Transfer themselves, and the Power Convertor is going to neuter Scrapyard Mines unless you can lay down craploads of Scrap.

[Clement]

If you're running him in Tricksy, he can bring the pit trap game up to 11 if you can get him a source of scrap.  Since the scrapyard mines make scrap work just like a pit trap, but not BE a pit trap, they stack with pit traps.

[bas_2312]

On 10/30/2019 at 6:40 PM, Clement said:

If you're running him in Tricksy, he can bring the pit trap game up to 11 if you can get him a source of scrap.  Since the scrapyard mines make scrap work just like a pit trap, but not BE a pit trap, they stack with pit traps.

But that only works for Friendly effects right? So I don't really see the use of that ability. 

If you do, please explain 😜

[Adran]

Just now, bas_2312 said:

But that only works for Friendly effects right? So I don't really see the use of that ability. 

If you do, please explain 😜

Enemy models treat the area around a scrap marker as hazardous (1 damage and injured +1). if there is also a pit trap marker nearby, then making a model move/take an action in that place will cause 2 damage and injured +2. You do need a pit trap marker and a scrap marker close together, but it lets you get double effect of a push through hazardous.