Hamelin vs Ulix

[Zebo]

Todas I played my fourth (and last by the moment) game with Hamelin, facing Ulix in the following setup. 

 

Recover Evidence

Standard

Assassinate, Make them Bleed, Spread them Out, Catch and Release, Research Mission. 

 

I repeated my last list:

Dejad Que Los Niños Se Acerquen (Outcasts)
Size: 50 - Pool: 6
Leader:
  Hamelin
    Servant of Dark Powers
Totem(s):
  Stolen
  Stolen 2
  Stolen 3
Hires:
  Benny Wolcomb
  Nix
  Obedient Wretch
  Malifaux Child
  Hodgepodge Effigy
  Winged Plague
  Winged Plague 2
  Prospector

Picked Make Them Bleed and Assassinate. 
 

I've been quite happy with this list's performance. Lots of cheap activations to build a solid first turn to drop markers for Benny. Some healing with the Effigy and the Malifaux Child if needed. Some resource generation with the Prospector and the Malifaux Child if he doesn't have anything better to do. Lots of table control with a swarm of blocking Malifaux Rats and Nix disrupting the enemy models. Lots of damage with exploding rats, Bleeding Disease and occasional Rat Kings, and if needed the Malifaux Child can also exploit rats. 

 

My opponent declared Ulix and deployed the following list:

New Ulix Turner Crew (Bayou)
Size: 50 - Pool: 6
Leader:
  Ulix Turner
Totem(s):
  Penelope
Hires:
  Old Major
  Gracie
  The Sow
  Hog Whisperer
  Squealer
  Gautraeux Bokor
 

Turn 1:

Both stoned for cards. 

I proceed to build some markers for Benny, while my opponent turn the Squealer into a. War Pig and summoned a Piglet to turn it into a Wild Boar. 

I used the Stolen to make Fast both WP, and then they interacted, walked and interacted to drop a total of 4 markers. I tried to use Malifaux Mining Law with the Prospector to drop a sixth marker after the Effigy dropped the fifth, but I failed and couldn't cheat a crow, and neither hers or Malifaux Child's Appraise succeeded to drop an extra marker, so Benny had to summon the standard 5 rats (at the end it only could summon 4 because of one marker out of his LoS, I still need to learn). 

The War Pig reached my back lines, and with the help of one focused hit, managed to kill my Obedient Wretch, but was left isolated and between Nix bites and Hamelin's Bleeding Disease it went down and drop an Intel token. Then Hamelin made rats turn into a Fast focus+7 Rat King while the WP drop two extra markers. 

At the end of the turn, I had two rats (from the death of the OW) and one Rat King, with three friendly markers (two dropped by the WP with Unclean Influence and the marker that I couldn't see from before) and one enemy scheme marker from Delicious Bacon from the War Pig. 

 

Turn 2:

Mi opponent won initiative and made me go first. 

My opponent summoned a couple of Piglets and Ulix turned one into a War Pig while turning the previous Wild Boar into another. The War Pig that could activate went to one flank and dropped a marker, while Gracie went to the middle and dropped another marker, and then charged the Rat King and made some damage to it. 

One WP dropped a fifth Scheme marker and run to out of LoS, while Nix was removing the enemy Intel marker and the Rat King killed Gracie after eating a rat to return to 4 Wd. 

I knew my opponent was going for Spread Them Out, and tried to block Old Major from droping the last marker by making the Rat King Run with Unclean Influence, while 4 of the rats turned into a Fast focus +3 Rat King and the remaining  3 rats moved to have better positions. 

The Old Major simply charged the Rat King and used his bonus to trigger Reposition and move the extra few that he needed to drop the third scheme marker and score. 

End of turn

Plague 1 (Recover Evidence) 

Sorry 1 (Spread them Out) 

 

Turn 3:

Don't remember the exact timing, but I made the Rat King without conditions to attack once to Old Major and then turn into a Rat Catcher. Also Hamelin sent two rats to the Old Major to exploit and hurt him, while the Rat Catcher made 2 extra damage and turn him slow. 

Probably before this my opponent summoned a couple of Piglets and made Ulix turn one into a War Pig and made it charge the Rat King and left it at 1 Wd (then I turned if into a Rat Catcher). The nearest War Pig surrounded the building and killed one of my Winged Plague, removing the Intel TokenToken. 

One of the WP was pushed by Unclean Influence and removed Gracie's Intel Token. Between Nix bitting and one Stolen puking, one of the War Pigs was down to 3 Wd, while one already injured War Pig was down also to 3 Wd because the puke of another Stolen. The remaining Rat King left Old Major at 1 Wd and that was the end. 

The old Major tried to escape from the Rat Catcher with his bonus again, but it failed and decided to hit him and did 3 damage to him. 

I remember not attacking Old Major until he, Ulix and the Bokor had already activated, because I needed to turn him down to half his Wd to score Make them Bleed, and the second Rat King was real close to finish him (I needed to waste its last action not attacking because I had no idea I was gonna be capable of reaching the second War Pig and turn it down also to below half wounds). 

Sorry because that last turn is really confusing in my memory, and it has been only 4 hours ago. 

In the end, I scored strategy and make them bleed, and my opponent concerned because he was going to lose Old Major and give me my third strategy point, while he was really far from scoring another point. 

 

This time I lost the OW before even activate, but that was near the perfect scenario for Hamelin, keeping his ground and forcing the opponent to come at him to score (and with lures). 

I like a lot that list. It must have obviously hard weaknesses, and until now I've been playing versus opponents that were also learning their crews, but I'm quite happy with the performance of every model. 

Benny is key to fuel the crew with rats for Hamelin to use, to spread blight, to disrupt enemy movements and to turn into Rat Kings. 

Nix is key for giving heavy blight and to pin enemies and slow them, while also having hard damage with Bleeding Disease. 

Obedient Wretch is key to add some heavyweight ranged punch for almost free cost. 

The Versatile models are key to provide the crew with resources in form of ss, cards and healing, with all of them helping also in the first turn for rat summoning. 

The Winged Plague are key to start the summoning engine, and breed it a bit more in the following turns. They also can spread Blight while needed and engage beaters. 

Obviously, Hamelin is the Main Key to take advance of summoned rats, lure key targets and be the central force of your crew. 

Surprisingly, the Stolen are being really good both supporting the crew (that sweet cheese or key rats when needed) and making damage to blighted models. Maybe 3 of them so hard to kill (for their cost), helpful and killy (for their cost) are a bit too much.