McCabe players - what does Turn 1 look like?

[regleant]

I bought the McCabe Nightmare Box because it looked cool, but otherwise had no intention of playing him. Damn Wyrd for their cool alternate models! In looking through the cards, and the 2 different keyword write-ups, I realized that at a tactical level, I have no idea how it works. The list clearly needs Scrap / Corpse markers to work. Is Luna's once-per-turn action really the only way to accomplish it? Do you use Luna to keep the artifact with "Luna Give" to go to someone else, or do you use Rollins to create and pass the artifact? Do you cycle the artifact around the crew or leave it on one model? Do you full-court press forward, or sit back and shoot?

 

Just overall curious at a very tactical level how the list works. For reference, I am currently looking at a list containing:

• Lucas
• Luna
• Sidar
• Rough Rider x2
• Huckster
• Desper
• Samurai
• 4 SS

Seems like a lot of use for "Ride With Me" and I can get everyone (literally everyone) well up the field Turn 1.

[Modernpenguin]

Luna's once per turn is indeed key to making the artefact engine work, however you don't really use 'Luna Give' to pass them around, you use the bonus action on the artefact: 'Take this!', since Luna does not have a bonus action anyway. This combined with Luna's 'Carry the goods', means she can create a scrap marker, make an artefact, then pass it up to 12 inches away (since 'Carry the goods' is an aura, she herself is eligible to use it.  

McCabes actions are too precious to be creating artefacts, unless you really, really need it, and have corpses lying within reach.

As for artefact cycling, you can get some nasty turns out of it, especially if you give it to the samurai mid-combat. But usually, if I can spare the bonus action to do so, I will cycle the artefact around, since it can get around fairly easy with 12" range. I usually try to make the last cycle be the one the artefact stays on, such as desper or McCabe (since their bonus actions are awesome for them). 


Your questions on how to play the crew depends a lot on who you are facing, and what sort of scheme/strategy pool we are talking, but I will give it a general shot. Your crew is very shooty, so I would in general push up the midfield, and control the middle of the board, slowing and staggering with mccabe, while you shoot stuff to dead, while desper and your huckster schemes. If you are setup properly, you wont need ride with me on rough riders (unless they get engaged), so they can throw upgrades to each other and sidir for those juicy fast turns. 

Generally though, I feel like the name of the game with McCabe is control through his netgun (it is NASTY!), while you win by scheming. He can play killy, but I think you need some healing in your crew above to go for a killy scheme pool, since rough riders are rather squishy for their cost. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

10 minutes ago, Modernpenguin said:

Luna's once per turn is indeed key to making the artefact engine work, however you don't really use 'Luna Give' to pass them around, you use the bonus action on the artefact: 'Take this!', since Luna does not have a bonus action anyway. This combined with Luna's 'Carry the goods', means she can create a scrap marker, make an artefact, then pass it up to 12 inches away (since 'Carry the goods' is an aura, she herself is eligible to use it.  

McCabes actions are too precious to be creating artefacts, unless you really, really need it, and have corpses lying within reach.

As for artefact cycling, you can get some nasty turns out of it, especially if you give it to the samurai mid-combat. But usually, if I can spare the bonus action to do so, I will cycle the artefact around, since it can get around fairly easy with 12" range. I usually try to make the last cycle be the one the artefact stays on, such as desper or McCabe (since their bonus actions are awesome for them). 


Your questions on how to play the crew depends a lot on who you are facing, and what sort of scheme/strategy pool we are talking, but I will give it a general shot. Your crew is very shooty, so I would in general push up the midfield, and control the middle of the board, slowing and staggering with mccabe, while you shoot stuff to dead, while desper and your huckster schemes. If you are setup properly, you wont need ride with me on rough riders (unless they get engaged), so they can throw upgrades to each other and sidir for those juicy fast turns. 

Generally though, I feel like the name of the game with McCabe is control through his netgun (it is NASTY!), while you win by scheming. He can play killy, but I think you need some healing in your crew above to go for a killy scheme pool, since rough riders are rather squishy for their cost. 

Worth noting Rough Riders can use any tome to heal - the trigger on ride with me is after resolving. So the ability doesn't need to succeed.

It is sort of a third bonus action hidden on the card.

[Maniacal_cackle]

I'm halfway through assembling the Wild Ones but have been reading up on him this year.

You can create extra scrap with Hucksters on a mask or Jessie with two actions, which can be a good source of extra card draw. But it seems so inefficient, I'm not sure it is worth it.

Overall, I don't think it is worth going overboard on the artifacts. They are super appealling, but ultimately take two actions to create which is quite a bit, especially if one of those is a master action. However, on corner deployment I might aim to make two artifacts turn one, maybe even three in extreme cases.

Also a note about passing artifacts - it requires a 4, so can drain your hand. Careful about that!

Overall, I think just treat it as a regular crew, but the totem spews out upgrades. Careful with your totem positioning to always get the 12" pass!

EDIT: rough riders with the mirror upgrade to draw off Know The Warrior can be pretty sweet. One focus turn one and they're set for the game. Really makes them efficient models.

[Modernpenguin]

3 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Worth noting Rough Riders can use any tome to heal - the trigger on ride with me is after resolving. So the ability doesn't need to succeed.

It is sort of a third bonus action hidden on the card.

That is indeed worth noting! Good catch, and the selfheal of 2-3-4 is nice! 

[Maniacal_cackle]

Just now, Modernpenguin said:

That is indeed worth noting! Good catch, and the selfheal of 2-3-4 is nice! 

Yeah, and it can be allies as well, so it is an extremely versatile trigger. I'd go so far as to say that the models wouldn't work for me without that trigger.

[DonQOT]

I tend to be a pretty aggressive player with McCabe, when I can. Wherever the enemy is congregating, I want my horsie kicking about. The value of all of all the simple duels he can force on an opponent cannot be overstated. The enemy either drains their hand into cheating or takes a lot of chip damage. The name of the game isn't necessarily to kill enemies, just to put the pressure on early. Getting the Mask on him enhances this further and makes a real nuisance of McCabe, making the enemy waste further resources trying to deal with him. Plus leaving the enemy bloodied tends to be a great distraction as they now have to worry about the threat of Sidir or Samurai, whose guns tend to be in kill range on most anything that's been kicked in the face by McCabe, especially if you've got the blade on them cancelling most any defensive tech they might rely on. Something like Izamu or Archie is sweating if it is looking at a trio of gatling/machine gun shots from someone who was just handed the Blade after taking a few nicks from McCabe. Throw in some other lovely distractions like Wanyudo or the Dawn Serpent and you can occupy the majority of the enemies attention with a handle of models.

Meanwhile your speedy little schemers are winning the actual game.

Or you can sit back and shoot the enemy with McCabe and his shooty boys if the matchup looks better that way. Or try to avoid the enemy altogether and go with play the points game elsewhere. Et cetera. Et cetera.

The other name for McCabe's game is versatility. I have had good success diving in, bunkering up, running like hell,  McCabe can do anything well, if not best in class. The key is capitalizing on that flexibility to hamper your opponent. Art of war that business. Avoid where your enemy is strong, hit them where they're weak. I like getting greedy with the artifacts and just out actioning my oppoent with all that Fast, but where that's not possible or useful you can focus on card draw with Looted Supplies, which I see as more an alternative option with your token placement available when you need it.

The point of this long ramble is that McCabe doesn't really have a set turn 1 to my mind, Wastrel just isn't that kind of crew. Like I said, I prefer to dive deep when I can, but if I try to do that all the time I'm going to see my crew get blended against a beater crew. The only thing you should 'always' be doing with McCabe is controlling the board flow, he excels when he can dictate how your opponent wants to go about their activations and where they have to use their resources, hitting them where they are weak from half a dozen angles, and winning the war by inches, figuratively and literally in this game.

Hope this was more helpful than confusing.

[regleant]

Okay another question - while the applications of the Timeworn Blade are obvious, when / how do you use the other artifacts? Do you just use them for the Fast bonus, or are there situations that you really like the benefits provided?

[dannydb]

33 minutes ago, regleant said:

Okay another question - while the applications of the Timeworn Blade are obvious, when / how do you use the other artifacts? Do you just use them for the Fast bonus, or are there situations that you really like the benefits provided?

Know the warrior is a great and undervalued ability which is great on anything that's going to end up with focus, samurai, fuhatsu, sadher 

[DonQOT]

Well the mask is also pretty obvious, I think. You'll want it on McCabe at the end of your pass chain, or any other model who wants (or has) to be up close and tank. Life Leech is great, any damage transfer like that is, really. I think those sorts of abilities get undervalued by design teams pretty often as it really represents more than just a 2 health value, but I digress. It's value is compounded on any model with good defensive abilitites, natch. Consider the Samurai. One point of healing on Armor +2 is functionally 3 health against anything that can't ignore armor. Consider it with Silent Protector as well. Hard to Kill means that anything that wants to kill the model either has to be able to put damage through twice for the finishing blow, or risk it healing up one and  needing two more hits if the healing procs again. I get less use out of protective spirits, but if you are passing it around and the model it's landing on doesn't need it's bonus action, throwing extra shielding on your newly masked model is just gravy.

It does have some additional value in it's trigger being another heal and wiping conditions for "free" to counteract oppoents who rely on those to get damage in or neuter the model.

Danny's suggestions for who gets the mirror are good. I think the mirror is less obviously impactful overall. But remember what I said about McCabe being a war of inches. Any card draw further compounds your hand advantage and keeps you from getting jammed up without a guaranteed trigger or high card you need. Equality of Fate would be better on a crew that wasn't already almost certain to have more cards than the opponent. But it does allow you to burn cards early and then get the balance back in your favor to keep that fast pace pressure on.

Again, hope this helps. I am a half-decent player on the table, but I do think about mcCabe a lot...as I wistfully stare at the ceiling at night...dreaming of those terrible sideburns.

[regleant]

One more question: what is the advantage of False Claim in the Huckster vs a simple Interact action? Net result seems to be 1 Scheme marker on the board for scoring.  
 

is it the additional distance gained? Is it the Place (so can be within 4” of another)? Is it that she can do multiple times?

[Maniacal_cackle]

10 minutes ago, regleant said:

One more question: what is the advantage of False Claim in the Huckster vs a simple Interact action? Net result seems to be 1 Scheme marker on the board for scoring.  
 

is it the additional distance gained? Is it the Place (so can be within 4” of another)? Is it that she can do multiple times?

The trigger is the big factor for turn one (drop a scrap marker). But yeah, as a scheme-dropper, it lets you stack them more easily (for instance, leave your mark at the end of the game, remove a marker elsewhere that you dropped earlier).

[Maniacal_cackle]

Interact + False Claim can get 3 markers in one spot, so that is pretty nifty.

Give a Huckster fast with an upgrade, then they can secret passage and triple drop. Could get Breakthrough or Leave your mark in a single activation. Just have to prepare ahead of time to have another marker elsewhere to remove.

[touchdown]

You could also bluff, put 2 markers down in a way that it could score 2 different schemes and your opponent won't know which is the important one until the end of the turn. I've never actually accomplished this but it's theoretically a possibility.

[Maniacal_cackle]

1 minute ago, touchdown said:

You could also bluff, put 2 markers down in a way that it could score 2 different schemes and your opponent won't know which is the important one until the end of the turn. I've never actually accomplished this but it's theoretically a possibility.

I reckon this would have been way easier in GG1 GG0. I always bluffed schemes then (like Power Ritual I always put a scheme in the corner xD)

[Azahul]

False Claim also lets you transfer AP across turns and table inches. I.e. if a model Interacts Turn 1 to leave a Scheme Marker in the deployment zone, two turns later that can be the Marker you remove with False Claim letting the two placed by that action remain in place. Or maybe four turns later, most times you need multiple markers it's for end phase schemes, but there are exceptions.

[Modernpenguin]

On 3/18/2021 at 10:05 AM, DonQOT said:

I tend to be a pretty aggressive player with McCabe, when I can. Wherever the enemy is congregating, I want my horsie kicking about. The value of all of all the simple duels he can force on an opponent cannot be overstated. The enemy either drains their hand into cheating or takes a lot of chip damage. The name of the game isn't necessarily to kill enemies, just to put the pressure on early. Getting the Mask on him enhances this further and makes a real nuisance of McCabe, making the enemy waste further resources trying to deal with him. Plus leaving the enemy bloodied tends to be a great distraction as they now have to worry about the threat of Sidir or Samurai, whose guns tend to be in kill range on most anything that's been kicked in the face by McCabe, especially if you've got the blade on them cancelling most any defensive tech they might rely on. Something like Izamu or Archie is sweating if it is looking at a trio of gatling/machine gun shots from someone who was just handed the Blade after taking a few nicks from McCabe. Throw in some other lovely distractions like Wanyudo or the Dawn Serpent and you can occupy the majority of the enemies attention with a handle of models.

Just wanted to mention that while the blade is good, the precise ability it gains is only in melee, so your samurai/sidir won't ignore defensive tech at range. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

7 minutes ago, Modernpenguin said:

Just wanted to mention that while the blade is good, the precise ability it gains is only in melee, so your samurai/sidir won't ignore defensive tech at range. 

Totally great point to raise! Plus Samurai already ignore armor on their melee ability.

Still great against hard to wound, though, so you can get those sweet moderate and severe damages.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Posted this on the ES forum but relevant here as well:

Just played my second Wastrel game.

I found this sequence on Iggy Pup to be insane, and did it basically every turn starting turn 1:

• Make an artifact with an existing scrap.
• Toss the artifact 12" and teleport to the new location.
• Drop a scrap to prepare for next turn (and to give card draw to the models in the area).

Just repeated that every turn and it is so damn good.

[regleant]

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Posted this on the ES forum but relevant here as well:

Just played my second Wastrel game.

I found this sequence on Iggy Pup to be insane, and did it basically every turn starting turn 1:

• Make an artifact with an existing scrap.
• Toss the artifact 12" and teleport to the new location.
• Drop a scrap to prepare for next turn (and to give card draw to the models in the area).

Just repeated that every turn and it is so damn good.

Where did the first scrap marker come from? 

[Maniacal_cackle]

6 hours ago, regleant said:

Where did the first scrap marker come from? 

Huckster with a mask