To take or to administer POISON

[Michael Curran]

In regards to the good doctor my dilemma is thus:

how to make the best use of stacking poison on the doctors crew and precise examples of how to proceed?  
 

how to best administer poison to the enemy ( wide radius or single concentration ) & precise examples please?

[KingJocko]

Here's how I manage Poison with Experimental.

For friendly models:

• Aim for passive poison: Field Testing, Open Vials, Embalming Fluid, and Horrific Odor will get you Poison without spending an action to do so. Free actions like Bottle of Painkillers with the Smashed trigger or RN's Ambush can be used regardless if you want the heal or push to give you some extra poison without costing you a normal action. Managing your actions is key to victory in Malifaux so spending the least amount of actions purposely laying down Poison for your own team is for the best.
• Early game prep can lead to late game advantage: There are some situations where you'll want to stack up some poison during turn 1 or 2. If the enemy crew has a lot of min 3 damage, can ignore H2W, or has some annoying passive damage effects like Black Blood or Entropy, building some regenerative toxins on your own boys will help to counter that. Depending on your hand having a mask for Rafkin to get Swift Action on Flask of Formaldehyde or some low crows to let the ZC charge your own models to get Poison +2 out of Infect will be worth the 1 damage it'll inflict.
• Don't stack too much: It might seem fun to stack a huge amount of Poison on a single model just to see how many wounds they regenerate each turn, but If your opponent has a competitive bone in their body they'll bring Condition Removal. Then all that extra effort to build a regen monster goes away with a single action. It's best to have Poison sprinkled around to minimize your opponents power to take away your healing. Don't go out of your way to stack higher than 4-5 on any given model.

For enemy models:

• Don't try too hard: The majority of models in the crew have the Infect trigger with a crow built in, most of the undead have Bloated Stench, and there's all the previously mentioned passive poison. At some point the enemy crew's going to get poisoned just from engaging your models, it's an inevitability.
• Poison is a tool, not a goal: Maximizing poison, means sacrificing immediate effects. Cheating in crows for McMourning's Infect means not cheating in rams for Critical Strike. The former requires follow up to fully utilize (i.e. Blood Poisoning or end of turn damage tick) while the later is immediate and will force more desperate measures from your opponent, like sacrificing a soulstone to reduce damage.  Same goes for Rafkin's Rip and Tear, Sebastian's Sweeping Strike, or the Kentauroi's Rear Up. Think about how important it is to kill things now rather than to let them die at the end of the turn.
• Still don't stack too much: "But when do I get to explode something with Blood Poisoning!?" you may ask, my answer is probably not all that often. Blood Poisoning works better as a threat than an offensive tool. Remember that Condition Removal works for any model and the enemy is just as likely to save one of their own as they are to stop your regen monster and they're usually not limited on how often they can use it. Much like your own models, poison should be sprinkled around making sure every enemy has a little poison and are in one of your many Catalyst auras to slowly chip away at their wounds while yours continues to regenerate.

I'm not much of a competitive player so realize I could completely be in the wrong on these things, but McMourning's one of my most played masters.

[Michael Curran]

I appreciate the analysis most sincerely, thank you.  It seems as though there is some debate with the subject of Poison with the experimental crew and how to best facilitate its use.  I am a novice to the notion, and seek observations, analysis, and experience in this matter so thank you, best regards.

[Maniacal_cackle]

A few extra thoughts:

Charge + attack is a good way to get a "free" bit of poison without using an action.

Personally I use blood poisoning quite a bit. Getting 5 poison on your models is key so you can rancid transplant (with "on your heels" for action efficiency) for five poison, then you pop blood poisoning.

In general shoot for combos rather than trying to stack it. They'll be able to deal with that (either by removing it or ignoring it).

EDIT: not that experienced though.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Here is another thread on the same topic: