Barking Orders: A Quick Run Down of Dashel Barker

[Mxbedlam]

Dashel Barker, guild's summoner. 

Guard Keyword

Pros: Solid Tool box of models, Fairly sturdy master with built in LLC no upgrade needed, Crew grabs all the soul stones, very mobile, good access to fast and focus.

Cons: Card hungry, needs enemy scheme markers to summon, very fragile models for the most part, lots of soulstones but only 2 soulstone users. 

Common keyword abilities: Pursue gives all guard models +1 to duels when their target has already activated making some models stat 7 on attacks! Loot Their Corpse eats corpse markers for soulstones. Two very solid abilities all around. 

Dashel's role:  He is a mid table commander, who wants to get to a position, hold it and command his  minions from that point, making him a solid choice for Turf War as he can command from the center point. Dashel wants to come into a scheme pool with lots of scheme marker heavy options, especially near the center line, so that he can force opponents to scheme choices. He's no slouch in combat either, not a true brawler but able to hold his own for a while. 

Dispatcher: This guy does a couple things for you, 1) he's a potential to summon off of in a pinch, 2) he stops your crew from being pulled around the board, and his consolidate power for a 5 masks gives you an enemy scheme marker to summon off of that doesn't hurt him

Queeg: At first glance, Mr Queeg seems frustrating, giving a fragile crew access to fast for 2 damage seems harsh, but fast on models who are probably going to die in one shot anyway isn't losing anything especially as they can usually concentrate as a bonus thanks to Dashel. Add to that a 2" engage attack with some very strong triggers and one of your only models that can use soul stones to gaurantee a Drop It trigger makes Queeg fairly essential to the crew. 

There's tons of minions to summon, I won't go into them all but there are a few fun tricks to use. Guard has a ton of good models to be used in the right situations and at 8" on his summon the Captain can get models like executioners into the mix very quickly. 

Guild Steward: This guy might as well have Guard on his keyword. He's essential. Offering focus and heal to make Queeg's fast aura even better and protection money to turn that 5Masks from Dispatcher's Consolidate Power into a drawn card as well, not to mention all the drop it triggers. The steward is almost essential to get the crew's engine online and your opponent will think twice about killing him with his disturbing demise ability

Pale Rider: More Mobility and unstoppable after turn 2, no should be surprised that this guild staple gets added to the list of common takes. 

Death Marshal Recruiter: Ok so this guy is a bit of a hot take, but for the (somewhat high) cost of 2 cards if a Guild Guard Patrol takes a hit and dies you can ditch to cards and turn it into a somewhat hardier Death Marshal.  Its a fun trick but the crew is pretty card hungry to begin with. Good take if you think Tara or MIsaki might show up as he can attack buried models.

Domadores de Cadaveres: Your Exectutioners will be engaged. Domadores can heal them and damage the enemy. Win/win. 

Jury: anti summoner tech.  

 

Playstyle: If you play Dashel you have to be willing to lose some pieces to gain advantages. His summons are often either pawns to take the hit or ballistic missles to go after a problem. There's very little resilience in the crew so you have to be willing to sacrifice some good soldiers for the cause.  You should be very aware of the scheme pool, your opponent will be. If there are 2 scheme marker schemes then your opponent is either giving you free markers to summon off of or they are skewing towards other schemes. Removing choices in the pool is a very powerful tool. 

Any other insights? Disagreements? 

[4thstringer]

I would add to the cons that the theme is very suit dependent.  You want the mask to get the enemy scheme marker, or a high tome to shoot it onto an opponent if you don't mind putting daschel in danger.      Then you need a ram to do the actual summon, but can soulstone for that.  The guild Sarge and Queeg both have a scheme marker manip ability that needs tomes too.  

I think it is worth talking about 3 specific summons.  That is the two big ones (mounted guard and executioner) and warden

The mounted guard gives this crew its mobility.  It is wound efficient because of the demise ability, and ride with me is just really useful.

The executioner murders.  Thats pretty much it.  The weird anti-synergy between juggernaut and trail of gore+grit means you have to make a choice between healing and a second hit.

The wardens may be the best summon/card value.  They can really stick around in the middle of an opponent.  It is really nice.

Really nice work though.  

 

[4thstringer]

41 minutes ago, Mrbedlam said:

 

Playstyle: If you play Dashel you have to be willing to lose some pieces to gain advantages. His summons are often either pawns to take the hit or ballistic missles to go after a problem. There's very little resilience in the crew so you have to be willing to sacrifice some good soldiers for the cause.  You should be very aware of the scheme pool, your opponent will be. If there are 2 scheme marker schemes then your opponent is either giving you free markers to summon off of or they are skewing towards other schemes. Removing choices in the pool is a very powerful tool. 

Any other insights? Disagreements? 

I don't usually like summoners into reckoning, especially with these fragile models.  What do you think of the Daschel show into reckoning?

[Starrius]

With other factions I've been using some summoners into rekoning,j know it seems counter productive but most games 1 or 2 points are going to be scored in rekoning that's a given but even with summoning it takes work to get the 3 and 4 points and plus those extra ap help take down omtheirnstrong models.

Also with dashel I tried a Death Marshal Recruiter in the list too and it helped deny points or become a target which also wasted AP. 

[Mxbedlam]

15 minutes ago, 4thstringer said:

I don't usually like summoners into reckoning, especially with these fragile models.  What do you think of the Daschel show into reckoning?

I agree. Unless the minions you are summoning are insignificant then summoning easily killed models feels like feeding your opponent points. 

[Mxbedlam]

Just now, Starrius said:

With other factions I've been using some summoners into rekoning,j know it seems counter productive but most games 1 or 2 points are going to be scored in rekoning that's a given but even with summoning it takes work to get the 3 and 4 points and plus those extra ap help take down omtheirnstrong models.

Also with dashel I tried a Death Marshal Recruiter in the list too and it helped deny points or become a target which also wasted AP. 

Good to know. I really want it to work but man 2 cards feels rough unless the drop it triggers are just rolling out with the steward nearby.

[Mxbedlam]

24 minutes ago, 4thstringer said:

 

I think it is worth talking about 3 specific summons.  That is the two big ones (mounted guard and executioner) and warden

The mounted guard gives this crew its mobility.  It is wound efficient because of the demise ability, and ride with me is just really useful.

The executioner murders.  Thats pretty much it.  The weird anti-synergy between juggernaut and trail of gore+grit means you have to make a choice between healing and a second hit.

The wardens may be the best summon/card value.  They can really stick around in the middle of an opponent.  It is really nice.

 

 

I agree here as well. I generally hire in a mounted guard with No Prisoners on it, but I can see the summons.  I think you can't quite discount hounds though. I don't know about summoning them with their mindless + slow,  but 3 stones for a walk 6 significant model is damn good. 

[Starrius]

I've been known with a decent hand to summon 2 or 3 hounds  and kill one tonget the soulstone used to summon them back, then let them run off to cause annoyance

[4thstringer]

23 minutes ago, Starrius said:

I've been known with a decent hand to summon 2 or 3 hounds  and kill one tonget the soulstone used to summon them back, then let them run off to cause annoyance

If they could, despite the not activating the turn they were summoned, at least shake the slow, I would consider it.  As it, it just doesn't seem doable.

 

[Starrius]

3 minutes ago, 4thstringer said:

If they could, despite the not activating the turn they were summoned, at least shake the slow, I would consider it.  As it, it just doesn't seem doable.

 

They are like mobile soulstones, but you do have a point

[Mxbedlam]

13 minutes ago, Starrius said:

They are like mobile soulstones, but you do have a point

If Dash could blow them up like Somer does bayous and just get soulstones I'd be down with that. Normally though a summoned Sargent, Warden or Rifelman will do more work over the course of the game though. It is worth noting that you can summon anything else AND a dog if you need just to get the extra activation/ soulstone later on. 

[Angelshard]

@4thstringer a steward can dispel the slow, if one of the hounds is within 4" of queeg he could remove slow on it too, thanks to trigger.

Using the stewards ap for slow removal seems the best use in a guard crew

[Mxbedlam]

1 hour ago, Angelshard said:

@4thstringer a steward can dispel the slow, if one of the hounds is within 4" of queeg he could remove slow on it too, thanks to trigger.

Using the stewards ap for slow removal seems the best use in a guard crew

I agree on using the Steward, just not sure using it on a doggo is the right choice

 

[Angelshard]

Depends. If you summon two dogs you might as well use dispel on them. The steward isn't going to do much else with his ap 

[Mikes]

Excellent post. Sticky, please!

[Qracy]

2 hours ago, Angelshard said:

Depends. If you summon two dogs you might as well use dispel on them. The steward isn't going to do much else with his ap 

In the beginning, I also tended to play the steward very defensivly, ending up that he didn't do much but healing ad focusing his pals.
But I started to play him more and more as a scheme runner: Because of his demise ability,  a lot of enemy models do not want to attack him.

The biggest thread is indirect damage, e.g. the Underbrush Markers pushed under his feet or shockwaves. But if you do not encounter anything like that, you can use him as a scheme runner in mid- and late-game.

[Cursed25]

2 hours ago, Qracy said:

In the beginning, I also tended to play the steward very defensivly, ending up that he didn't do much but healing ad focusing his pals.
But I started to play him more and more as a scheme runner: Because of his demise ability,  a lot of enemy models do not want to attack him.

The biggest thread is indirect damage, e.g. the Underbrush Markers pushed under his feet or shockwaves. But if you do not encounter anything like that, you can use him as a scheme runner in mid- and late-game.

I'm pretty sure if you kill the steward with a shockwave, his demise ability still triggers!

[Starrius]

Only way to stop the trigger is to obey a model to kill it,use execute trigger or aura of demise denial

[Cursed25]

2 hours ago, Starrius said:

Only way to stop the trigger is to obey a model to kill it,use execute trigger or aura of demise denial

or burning/poison and fall dmg

[4thstringer]

A little bit of a salt report: don't bother taking Daschel and co into Shen.  He easily kills everything you have much faster than you can summon it back.

[Ogid]

32 minutes ago, 4thstringer said:

A little bit of a salt report: don't bother taking Daschel and co into Shen.  He easily kills everything you have much faster than you can summon it back.

Haha, the monk is a pain in the arse; that one needs counterpicking or...

[Ludvig]

1 hour ago, 4thstringer said:

A little bit of a salt report: don't bother taking Daschel and co into Shen.  He easily kills everything you have much faster than you can summon it back.

Throw in the proxy or whatever it is called now and enjoy the demise when they just keep going and taking it out by force of habit. 😉 Nvm, just had a look at Schlong's card. Just lie down and cry for a bit. 😭

[Mxbedlam]

Brought the Guild Patrol and Recruiter combo into Seamus yesterday to great effect.  Guild Patrols did a ton of work for a 4ss model. At one point I summoned in a mounted guard, pulled the judge into position and trampled a gravedigger to get a scheme marker. The Guard died to Seamus and a Patrol popped up. Then he tried to kill the patrol and a death marshal popped up. The Death Marshal stuck around the whole game.  They were solid little speedbumps that scored me a point or two, much better than anticipated

 

Other take aways: Drop It trigger is easy enough to get on Dashel and Queeg thanks to ample soul stones, feels important. Queeg's ability to make the Judge fast was gross.  People are scared of Executioners but Mounted Guard get work done as well.  Steward needs to play up a bit to start collecting that Protection Money from all those enemy scheme markers. 

[Angelshard]

Has anyone tried a lawyer in a Dashel crew? 

Being able to get that severe ram back in your hand after summoning, so you can use it again turn two, seems like it could be worth it. Also the shielded and obey seems solid in a Dashel crew. Mask isn't something that's critical to the rest of the crew either (except a low one for dispatcher), so he won't be competing with others for them.

 

By the by, am I correct in assuming I can cheat the damage flip on the stewards demise?

[Mxbedlam]

9 minutes ago, Angelshard said:

Has anyone tried a lawyer in a Dashel crew? 

Being able to get that severe ram back in your hand after summoning, so you can use it again turn two, seems like it could be worth it. Also the shielded and obey seems solid in a Dashel crew. Mask isn't something that's critical to the rest of the crew either (except a low one for dispatcher), so he won't be competing with others for them.

 

By the by, am I correct in assuming I can cheat the damage flip on the stewards demise?

I don't necessarily think a lawyer is too bad in a Dash crew, just have to figure out if its worth using the cards in your hand for other things. The Obey could be really good if you get that high mask.