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Who to Which?


Rufess

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So with the Explorer Society has been released about 2 weeks now, how do everyone thinks about each keyword good at and bad at in regard to Strategies and Schemes?

Apex
   Public Enemies: Do I need to explain this?
   Symbols of AuthorityArtemis is fast enough to run for symbols
   Vendetta: Crypsis Crops is a solid candidate for that scheme
   Assassinate: It depends on the opponent's master, but Cooper is tough enough
   Leave Your Mark: Cooper can kill enemy to drop scheme marker

Seeker
   Recover Evidence: Waiting opponent to come to you is the ideal case for every bubble crew
   Claim Jump: Mikhail can stand at the center point for the whole game long
   Leave Your Mark: With all scheme marker shenanigans they can easily place and remove marker in the center area
   Research Mission: Have access to more than enough amount of marker types
   Spread Them Out: Again they can hand out scheme markers at range like candy

Syndicate
   Symbols of Authority: Their movement trick can help reaching to the symbols
   Breakthrough: Anya is born for this scheme, her mobility and scheme marker placing are all the scheme needs
   Sabotage: same as above
   Let Them Bleed: They have some good AoE attack to spread out the damage
   Leave Your Mark: Again Anya

Edited by Rufess
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I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around Wastrel, but a few thoughts:

  • Board has lots of tricky terrain? Wastrel is good at handling that! (Although with an Alpinist anyone can be decent)
  • Extremely maneuvrable, probably happy to see Corner or Standard deployment.
    • Wedge may play to their strengths less?
  • Corrupted Leylines seems easy.
  • Take Prisoner seems pretty trivial with Desper.
  • Scheme running in general seems easy with Hucksters and Desper (not to mention rough riders and Rollins).
  • Symbols - might struggle to defend them? But should be able to score them extremely easily with Desper.
  • Research mission - they're probably okay-ish at this.

Basically any pool that you look at and think "I want to move around a lot and take the interact action", Wastrel are probably very good?

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Oh, and Frontier, the other keyword I've been interested in.

  • Game that doesn't require crossing the centreline as much? Probably pretty decent at it!
  • Recover Evidence means no sand worm, so for me personally it is a no-go.
  • Public enemies with spread them out seems very good.
  • Probably quite decent at claim jump + leave your mark pools, since they're so good at punishing piling into the centre.
  • With rough riders, they're probably almost as good at leylines as Wastrel.
    • But with the Sand Worm's self-bury, they're potentially better at turns 1/2 of the strategy. Self bury is fantastic on leylines.
  • Sand Worm is probably extremely good at scoring Vendetta, especially since the crew has multiple ways to heal up the worm.
  • Symbols should be interesting. Being able to deploy further out than the symbols has some perks. Still, I'll take Desper Laraux over anything Frontier offers for Symbols.
  • Sand Worm has some interesting applications for surprise Take Prisoner (since it blocks LOS of almost anything).
  • Research mission is tricky since the markers disappear.
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These are my choices.
My primary interests are DUA/Umbra (which I'll just call Ivan) and Cadmus
I have some interest in Wastrel, Apex, Seeker

--

Corrupted Ley Lines:
Cadmus/Ivan with Botanist(s), or Wastrel. Just try to deny the enemy with push effects/engaging their carrier/staggered. The Damned and Surveyors in some situations can take control of the center marker by surrounding it with Terrain similar to how Zipp does it.
 

Symbols of Authority:
Eva, Damned, Vernon&W, Winston Finnigan (surfing on someone), Artemis+Ullr. Also Cadmus can play some great defense on some maps with summoned EAE and Nests defending markers tucked in corners. Surveyors can do the stupid Pillar thing on markers tucked in corners with their Chronicle too.
 

Recover Evidence:
Probably Ivan. Winston Finnigan and Eva are very good here. Seeker can also play this well by forcing the enemy to approach and using 2" engagement ranges + Life Tokens to make it very hard for the enemy to collect markers without Don't Mind Me.


Public Enemies:
Obviously Apex is king. Don't take Ivan or Wastrel. Cadmus can do well since they have so many Insignificant models, death from Parasite tokens goes on the Upgrade carrier, and their Keyword are primarily 6 and 8 cost and tanky for their points. Of interesting note is Beebe + Calypso. They take up 12 stones, are dangerous + tanky, and Calypso only gives up 1 Bounty Token and then gets summoned back. Seeker can also do well since they deny kills, but you can't farm lots of Life Tokens since everyone brings elite crews here.

--

Breakthrough / Spread Them Out / Leave Your Mark / Sabotage:
Austera and Twigge - Enough Said. Ivan is very good here - Ivan, Corvis, and Operative can both remove and place scheme markers. He also summons near enemies and those new summons near the enemy DZ can disengage and threaten (or fake!) Breakthrough/Sabotage. If I can't take Ivan (like if opponent is Ressers - too many hard counters) then Apex, Seeker, or Cadmus can do fine if they take Austera and Twigge, Damned, Vernon&W, Winston Finnigan (OOK), Tannenbaum, etc

Assassinate
I don't take this often. Defensive options include Intrepid Emissary, Flush With Cash, healing, and against melee crews: Mikhail 16, Meredith's Quarantine, Eva's Lock. Apex is the best here - Cooper is difficult to kill and very dangerous, as are the Crypsis. Ivan doubles down on staying alive since he's so central to his crew but can also threaten the enemy Master well. Seeker is great defensively. Cadmus can do well here but will require investment to keep Nexus alive.

Vendetta:
You can do the typical Sniper thing with a Crypsis Corps (careful only Stat 5). Austera and Twigge can shoot someone once and then play safe. Seeker can keep their Vendetta model (either their own, or enemy's target) alive indefinitely. Intrepid Effigy with fate upgrade is another viable option. Eva isn't bad, she can hit once and then teleport away or lock herself to stay safe. Mr Mordrake is a great option if the opponent can't ignore Demise.

Claim Jump:
Seeker with Mikhail is obviously the best choice here. Mr Mordrake if the opponent can't ignore Demise. Winston Finnigan since he practically can't be hit. Grave Goo is a tanky model, heals itself, and discourages attacking it with Hazardous. Look at Assassinate for good options to protect your Claimer. Generally we have a lot of healing in our faction which makes the second point easier to score.

Runic Binding:
Tannenbaum is a great choice, as he lets you pick a different scheme.

Research Mission:
I'm 90% sure this scheme is going away in GG2 - it's just too easy for some crews. Ivan and Cadmus have an easy time, but also can't help but give your opponent an easier time too - so be careful. Explorers have way too many marker options: Lamplighters, Bellhop Porter, Surveyors, Vatagi, Beebe, Damned, etc

Hidden Martyrs:
Unsure about this one - but Price of Progress models are both dangerous and prompt your opponent to take the easy kill. I imagine Ivan can do well here, Corvis Rook with Fast from Gibson charging everything and POP-ing Execute 3 times can't go unaddressed, and then Intrepid Effigy can get the second point. Taking an Operative who POPs to drop schemes or Shadow Markers until she's at 1 Health (and then is still too dangerous to keep alive with her double positive gun and 2 free card draw). An interesting option is Beebe and Calypso - Calypso dies and Beebe stays safe by making a new one. Cadmus can deny VP using Poison/Burning.

Take Prisoner:
Deny using Cadmus Burning/Poison. Careful if your crew makes Hazardous terrain because your crew can be denied. The first point is easy, but the second is hard, since if your opponent activates last it's very hard to prevent them from running away. The Treasure Map upgrade can help with this, but is otherwise such a bad upgrade I worry it reveals you're taking Take Prisoner. Tannenbaum can give you a backup plan on a 13. Cadmus or Winston Finnigan can place enemy models in ways they can never escape. Ivan with his many small pushes and summoning Daeva can do well.

Catch and Release:
I usually wouldn't take this, except for Seeker who can keep a Surveyor alive forever. Tannenbaum can sometimes give you a backup plan.

Let Them Bleed:
No real preference here. Explorers' healing is great for denial. Keep note of your 2 most expensive models. If you take it make sure you have a fast model who can damage someone hiding away from you.

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Ivan of course should be summoning, so I see not wanting to take him to Public Enemies. But I've tried it a couple of times, and he doesn't feel useless as a mobile turret of doom, his damage can be really impressive, and reliable to hit for min 3. Plus he hands out staggered. His crew has access to attack any stat pretty reliably, with Mordrake being copied, and shockwaves making attacking MV reliable too. Otherwise you either take high DF or high WP models to defend against him and are in trouble either way. Most of his keyword have Df 6 as well as access to passive (and low cost) healing. And his summons are far from Gamin for survivability. Just only summon stuff when you know it can survive. There are better masters for it, but I am beginning to think Ivan isn't a terrible solo master so far. Surprisingly flexible, and not because of summons.

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  • 1 month later...
45 minutes ago, farmoar said:

who is the "schemey" crew then?

I'm not fully sure, but McCabe, Basse, and EVS should have no trouble on corner deployment I think? Though most people don't seem to rate McCabe or Basse in ES.

It may also be solved with versatiles and OOK. Vernon and Welles fits into most crews and can do tons of scoring all by itself. Beebe and Calypso may be viable in many crews and are very potent at mobility.

Overall unless you're planning on playing super competitively, it is best to pick crews you like. You will score better with a crew you like that you've played 30+ times than the perfect crew.

Also I guess I'll throw it out there that there is current debate about Cadmus - they may be good at everything xD Some might claim the same of English Ivan.

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10 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

I only have looked briefly at the two crews, but I would worry about really scheme-y pools.

Like corner symbols or leylines may be tricky? I could be wrong, though.

Seeker can be pretty "schemey" if you want them to be, with Austeria and Twigge, Jedza and Tannenbaum and the lamp lighters having scheme marker tricks, as well as Leap on the damned. 

You don't have to play in a bubble with them, or at least not all of them, and even if you do, combinations of the above models can get scheme markers quite a way outside the bubble if you want. They are not the fastest of crews, but they can have quite a lot of bonus movement if you really want (+1 Mv from Sophie, Chain gang on the surveyors, Chronicles on the lamp lighter)

Syndicate are similar in the ability to get scheme markers down, but probably less of a bubble crew naturally, so it sort of depends what you are trying to get in the game. 

 

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25 minutes ago, farmoar said:

Surveyors seem good, but I won't be buying another Core Box for a keyword I'm not interested in to get the 1 or 2 Surveyors that may get used :(

That's a fair point, but if you did find a Syndicate player they may be happy to sell you 1 surveyor. 

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