Frontier tips and tricks

[Angelshard]

Frontier is going to be my main focus in GG2, and I think they're going to be really strong in this pool. One thing I really like is that they seem to prefer staying mostly in keyword (I do have an extra layer that's going to be converted so he fits the theme, I've yet to find a crew where he isn't good). 

I haven't had a lot of experience with them yet, so I'm wondering what neat plays people have found. 

The ones I've got are:

Take prisoner on a rough rider and use him to send reichardt into combat. 

Placing traps next to strat markers, I've only used this in symbols, but there it worked great and I'm thinking it should work in everything but leylines now. 

Austringers are great for vendetta. It's relatively easy to hit a target from safety, with the raptor, and then keep him alive. 

I also have a question. Does anyone have a good use for frontiersmen? 

[4thstringer]

Frontiersmens get lots of value out of their 2" pushes, field kit, and out of activation shots.  Remember, they don't have to hit with the tomahawk to heal, and they are friendly to themselves. Their guns have 2 really nice triggers too.

[Angelshard]

@4thstringer I can see that, I guess I just keep thinking that for one more stone I can get a Pathfinder or the steward.

I think my problem with them are that they do a lot, but they don't do anything really well. 

Deputy is nice, but I tend to spread my crew out, when playing frontier.

The heal is fine, but it requires a low tome and is only range 1.

The gun is decent, but I get better shooting for a few stones more. 

I just always end up switching them for a more expensive model. 

So you usually run more than one? Maybe they work better in pairs. 

[4thstringer]

2 hours ago, Angelshard said:

@4thstringer I can see that, I guess I just keep thinking that for one more stone I can get a Pathfinder or the steward.

I think my problem with them are that they do a lot, but they don't do anything really well. 

Deputy is nice, but I tend to spread my crew out, when playing frontier.

The heal is fine, but it requires a low tome and is only range 1.

The gun is decent, but I get better shooting for a few stones more. 

I just always end up switching them for a more expensive model. 

So you usually run more than one? Maybe they work better in pairs. 

I'm not sure they are great, certainly they struggle to compete with the Pathfinder and steward.  But I certainly get some enjoyment out of them.

[Filox]

- Frontiersman are underwhelming, keep them away from the table unless you have to
- There always must be at least one Pathfinder in your crew 
- False Witness is nice "card draw" for Basse, you can easily set up 7 cards draw on your first turn without losing momentum as Frontier
- It's always better to discard an upgrade then summon Raptor
- stoning  for  on CiQ to double blast enemy is always a almost always a good move, especially after you can use severes generate from False Witness
- Lone Marshal is good tech against summoners, although thanks to his gun & Unimpeded he is not impeded by Dust Clouds and brings nice mobility to the crew
- LLC on Reichart & Basse are must haves, they are your tanks and carries in the keyword so always keep alive for almost any cost, taking Pale Rider, Emissary & Steward can keep them alive and/or take off some heet
- you can move your own models with CiQ
- don't be afraid to spend SS for Reposition trigger on Basse Kick up Dust or his Df trigger
- Rough Riders are good, but you will soon start to see that you don't have enough space to put one, he mostly is trading places with Austringer
- avoid match ups against RR & NB. Basse weakness is not being able to put out good blasts & low Wp all across the board
- always try remember about CiQ, nice tech is using  CiQ to bring enemy  closer to Basse, then putting your own Dust Cloud under them and doing it again. It can really disrupt enemy positioning or advance your models if needed
- Sand Worm is nice, although I often find better picks instead of him, he usually is picked in severe heavy maps when he can unbury on almost entire map
- you often find yourself in strange situation not being able to scheme, almost always go for middle centered or damaging schemes

[Filox]

8 hours ago, 4thstringer said:

I'm not sure they are great, certainly they struggle to compete with the Pathfinder and steward.  But I certainly get some enjoyment out of them.

They problem is that they are not Pathfinders 

But this is a general problem with most low cost minions. For not so much more you get better option. Exceptions to this rule are mostly models designed to do a single job only, like Watchers & Crooligans (scheming only) and Rotten Belle & Beckoners (deposition tech). Also with ratio of 1SS=1Wd (except RR, the get special treatment) most of those low cost models are going down from single moderate/severes. Especially when not a lot of them are having Defensive tech to keep them alive in situations like this. Having Df 4/5 and 5 Wd without ability to either reduce or make them harder to deal damage makes it too easy to die even from random shots.

[Gaston]

This may help:

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-zq8xj-fbee26

[Trample]

The Undercover Reporter can be a pretty fantastic tech piece in this GG. Tried him last night in a Basse crew and he was great. I would definitely consider him in scheme heavy pools and Undercover, unlike so many tech pieces, can keep up with the crew in the sense that he can start buried and doesn't get left behind. 

[Angelshard]

@Filox do you really find that false witness are worth the 6 stones OOK? I've been looking at them myself, but had a hard time justifying them, just to draw cards.

Especially when the lawyer costs one stone more and has so much utility plus a bit of card cycling and card draw. 

What do you take instead of the worm? 

The only other beaters I can see myself bringing are emissary, peacekeeper or rider and only rider is close to as mobile as the worm. (I don't have phiona, as I've never liked the journalists theme). 

 

[im_open_to_suggestions]

Personally dont see the need of any out of keyword hires in a basse crew as they compliment each other well and aid each other with the home on the range abilities. 

Austringers are amazing as mentioned above. 

Pathfinders are good but just so squishy. 

With Baby basse and Reichart using "bring it there" is a decent amount of potential distruption

If you want to hire versatiles i would only recommend the pale rider due to its mobility and ability to dump major injured on something you want removed. 

[Trample]

Have any of you ever gotten any use out of Crockett? It seems like he is probably never the right choice over a Pathfinder, but perhaps the coordinated attack can be where you use your high masks. Scent of Blood works with the Worm, but it's still probably not enough to make him worth it. 

[Angelshard]

@Trample I can't see any use for him in guild. In explorers there's some beasts that might make him worth it, if you bring them OOK.

I just think you'll have a hard time justifying him over a Pathfinder. 

[Trample]

Yup, I think you're right. You will still need Crocket if you want a full contingent of 5 in keyword 14" guns on your team! Perhaps not a very good idea, but certainly fun! 

[im_open_to_suggestions]

11 hours ago, Trample said:

Yup, I think you're right. You will still need Crocket if you want a full contingent of 5 in keyword 14" guns on your team! Perhaps not a very good idea, but certainly fun! 

Crocket does seem to be a meme model rather than one that will appear in a competitive list. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

4 minutes ago, im_open_to_suggestions said:

Crocket does seem to be a meme model rather than one that will appear in a competitive list. 

Yeah, as far as I can tell, he has 2 fundamental issues (in addition to things like weak stats).

1. If you have a beast in combat with something, it is probably in trouble already. So it is a bit 'win more.'

2. His fail case (not having a beast to support) is a bit weak. It'd be nice if he could do something useful with a bonus. Forage is amazing on like a crooligan, but not nearly as good on a sniper.

[Angelshard]

My main problem with him is that he has some good abilities and actions. 

Problem is, as @Maniacal_cackle says, he is a long ranged, fairly squishy model, that has close support abilities.

Natural musk and forage are great, on a model that wants to get up close. 

He also loses to the Pathfinder big time. Heck I'm not even sure if I'd take him over a frontiersman. 

 

[Adran]

9 minutes ago, Angelshard said:

My main problem with him is that he has some good abilities and actions. 

Problem is, as @Maniacal_cackle says, he is a long ranged, fairly squishy model, that has close support abilities.

Natural musk and forage are great, on a model that wants to get up close. 

He also loses to the Pathfinder big time. Heck I'm not even sure if I'd take him over a frontiersman. 

 

Guild is most likely going to be the worst of Crocketts 4 factions, because they already have good access to guns, and they don't have good access to melee beasts. 

He is slightly squishy in melee, but not appallingly so, DF5 with effective hard to wound and wounds =cost is no more than average. His melee is ok, but again nothing amazing, which is why he is often looked at for his gun, which is good for many factions, but only average for guild. He probably suffers the general guild issue that he is Ok both in Melee and at Range, but doesn't excel at either, so what ever you do with him, you feel you are missing out on part of his capabilities. 

In explorers you have the potential "infinite" (until your hand runs out) attack with ullr, even beyond the typical 3+ attacks he threatens with his carbine shots normally. Which is not going to come up all that often, but the threat of it can be scary. 

[theamazingmrg]

Crockett is one of the reasons I advocate for Guild Hounds to be Versatile.  Cheap Beasts that can get extra attacks because of Crockett (and aren't Insignificant, unlike Trained Raptors) and so can still be useful even if you can't get the shots to line up.  But there is no way they're worth 4 SS.

 

Neither of Basse's Faction help too much with his lack of card draw, so Guild Hounds would be a nice way of adding extra pressure on the opponent.

[Angelshard]

@Adran very true, and he might be worth it in other factions. But for guild he just doesn't cut it.

I can't help but look at GG2 and think that frontier has no dead schemes or strats. 

Sure, there are some that are harder for them than others. But even research mission doesn't seem that bad.

[Filox]

On 5/13/2021 at 7:32 AM, Angelshard said:

@Filox do you really find that false witness are worth the 6 stones OOK? I've been looking at them myself, but had a hard time justifying them, just to draw cards.

Especially when the lawyer costs one stone more and has so much utility plus a bit of card cycling and card draw. 

What do you take instead of the worm? 

The only other beaters I can see myself bringing are emissary, peacekeeper or rider and only rider is close to as mobile as the worm. (I don't have phiona, as I've never liked the journalists theme). 

 

Yes, Lawyer is nice and all, but you don't have much valuble Models to obey. Concealment is also a big problem. Debt of Gratitude is smth your oponent won't expect from Basse even if you tell him about this. Having hand full of severs in Round 2 is very important for Basse (Blasts, Bring It's and tomes for traps). Also False Claim and Exclusive Interview saved my ass multiple times. 

[Maniacal_cackle]

9 hours ago, Angelshard said:

@Adran very true, and he might be worth it in other factions. But for guild he just doesn't cut it.

I can't help but look at GG2 and think that frontier has no dead schemes or strats. 

Sure, there are some that are harder for them than others. But even research mission doesn't seem that bad.

But they can't use their dust cloud markers for Research Mission or the last point of Death Bed's, unless Sand Worm makes them permanent (or last an extra turn, whichever he does).

[Angelshard]

@Filox I'm going to have try a witness. The lawyer just brings a lot to the table outside of his obey, which is honestly often too costly outside of lucius.

@Maniacal_cackle I'm not saying they are great at either. 

But death beds is a solid 1 vp scheme for them, which is something I just accept sometimes. 

Research mission is probably one of the worst schemes for frontier, but if you're willing to sacrifice a trap and spend your worms turn two on it, then it's quite doable. 

Place a trap on the enemy table side, walk up and hit it once for moderate so it dies (or shoot it with something else), then turn two you place a scheme marker and a lasting sand marker and it's a point. 

The second point should be quite easy. Three different models near three different markers. Especially if it's leylines or turf war. 

It might be that this is too much theory craft. But I'm definitely going to try it. 

 

[Trample]

2 hours ago, Angelshard said:

Place a trap on the enemy table side, walk up and hit it once for moderate so it dies (or shoot it with something else), then turn two you place a scheme marker and a lasting sand marker and it's a point. 

You're right about this one, but with GG2 you probably won't need to rely on the dust cloud. Since all of the strategy markers can be used as one, just make sure your trap dies next to one you plan to use and drop your scheme. The sacrificed trap is enough to get you what you need. 

[Trample]

I do like a lawyer with Frontier. I haven't tried a False Witness, but love the idea of that much card draw. The challenge I've had with the Lawyer, and what I expect would be true with the False Witness as well, is that they don't give me deployment flexibility like I have with all Frontier models. I don't always deploy forward with the crew. It depends on terrain and my opponent, but I often don't make that decision until I see my opponent's full crew and know if I am attacker or defender. If I do deploy forward most non-Frontier can't keep up to add enough value. 

The current GG gives Basse a lot of reason to deploy forward. BTL strongly encourages it. Turf War is great when you can abandon a quarter or two and so heavily favors use of Home on the Range. It is usually good in Symbols as well. I would say I am deploying pretty far forward 75% of the time (although I only have a couple of GG2 games in so far). So I would be reluctant to take those models in most crews. 

Having said that, you do have a Pathfinder that can help them along a bit during the start phase, which might put them only 3-4" behind. For the lawyer that's been OK since his abelites work well from that distance. The False Witness needs 3" for the scheme markers, so with the help of the Pathfinder could be where they need to be for turn 1, but not for turn 2 unless you give them a ride from a Rough Rider. 

[Angelshard]

Has anyone used expert marksman on Basse for armour piecing? 

It seems like the best anti armour option for frontiers.