Building for 35ss games: Ressers

[ezramantis]

Recently I've been playing 35ss games.  The guy I've been playing with has limited time available and we're playing over VASSAL, so 35ss size is perfect because it usually allows us squeeze in about a turn a session.

Most crew building wisdom centers around standard 50ss size, so I'd like to explore what the community thinks about how to build 35ss crews.

Obviously each game is different, with opponent's master, keywords, strats and schemes, etc. but I feel like there must be some general philosophies that can be kept in mind with smaller games.

As a conversation starter I'd like to offer how I've been thinking about it ("right" or "wrong").  With less models to achieve objectives, I've been focusing on how to score the strat and 1 objective, with the second object being a "plan B" of sorts.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Some general thoughts about 35 stone games, a lot of which is theory:

• Summoning crews are wayyyyy stronger. Kirai is probably the best possible Resser master (to the point that it feels like it breaks the spirit of 35 stone games, and I'd not take her in a 35 stone game).
• Card-hungry crews are stronger, as there's not as many models to split your cards over.
• Synergy-oriented crews can be weaker if they need too many specific models (like Reva).
• Stand-alone models become stronger
• Models that can kill a single model (like Seamus) are stronger.
• Models that are hard to kill are stronger.
• Things that punish card-hungry crews are weaker (Terrifying, Execute, etc).

And probably lots of other things! I'd start with Seamus probably, but maybe that's just because I'm getting prepped to play him in 50 stones xD

For casual games, I reckon most masters would be fine, but maybe avoid Jack Daw - his combination of slow and reliance on hand punishment may not be great.

[Maniacal_cackle]

@ezramantis, if you want a sample crew:

Molly, machine, Dead Rider, Archie, Manos, Crooligan.

Molly tends to be quite good at 35 stone games as she is very efficient at scoring and denial, so can really punish AP light crews.