Is Outflank viable?

[Vessien]

Hi there!

In the last couple of games I played, I tried to score Outflank with no success, it seems to be too obvious and require too many APs.

What do you think? How do you score it? In which strategies do you choose it and over which other schemes?

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

I have scored it in a couple of circumstances.

Basically Seamus with buildings next to the flanks is a really good candidate.

You need to be able to control the rest of the board then teleport to the flanks to snag the scheme it seems to me.

Just running for the flanks results in battling over the flank, so you need scoring to happen elsewhere while you run off to the flank.

So it is a poor scheme in public enemies for instance.

[Vessien]

6 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

You need to be able to control the rest of the board then teleport to the flanks to snag the scheme it seems to me.

Just running for the flanks results in battling over the flank, so you need scoring to happen elsewhere while you run off to the flank.

So it is a poor scheme in public enemies for instance.

I agree with you, the scheme is hard. In my case, even with Misaki, who can teleport with shadow markers and has eash access to Katashiros, it has proven to be a pretty hard scheme to score, even the first point.

[Trample]

It depends a bit on the opponent, the other scheme options, and the deployment. If you're in wedge against a slow opponent for example, you can potentially throw a couple of relatively inexpensive models out there as permanent point scorers for the strategy. I could see perhaps putting a couple of from the shadows guys out there, like Freikorps Scouts who could interact on turn 2 and otherwise impact the board with their 14" range. It might also be a worthwhile scheme in BTL if you place markers on both edges and plan to dedicate some effort to those edges since they are now worth as much as 6 points. 

Having said that, I see it as only an option when you have a pretty poor scheme pool. I haven't taken it in my few GG2 games so far. 

It could be interesting to bluff that scheme with the right models. Dogs or Crueligans or some other cheep models that make a show of going to score Outflank, forcing your opponents more expensive models to dedicate their AP to preventing those points. It would be a gamble, but against a more elite crew it could be effective. 

[Vessien]

I like the idea of bluffing it.

On the other hand, the issue I found with BTL is that it makes it worth it for the opponent to send more expensive models to the edge, and makes it harder to score it.

 

[Mycellanious]

I play a lot of Foundry, and it is pretty easy for them to score. What I have also found is that Outflank can be a great scheme to bluff. If you drop a Scheme Marker on the centerline at the edge of the board your opponent has to respond in some way. Doing so can pull them very far out of position. 

[Trample]

20 hours ago, Mycellanious said:

I play a lot of Foundry, and it is pretty easy for them to score. What I have also found is that Outflank can be a great scheme to bluff. If you drop a Scheme Marker on the centerline at the edge of the board your opponent has to respond in some way. Doing so can pull them very far out of position. 

Foundry definitely seems like a faction that can pop over and score it, come back and do something relevant, and then return to the edge to score it again at the end of the game. 

There are a couple of situations where you could never take it. Against a guild crew running an undercover reporter comes to mind. That dude will flat deny both points. 

[Mycellanious]

1 hour ago, Trample said:

Foundry definitely seems like a faction that can pop over and score it, come back and do something relevant, and then return to the edge to score it again at the end of the game. 

There are a couple of situations where you could never take it. Against a guild crew running an undercover reporter comes to mind. That dude will flat deny both points. 

They can only move Minions, so as long as you send an Enforcer+ you are still fine! In general I think Nellie denies that kind of scheme really well however, since she can control your Interacts

[Cats Laughing]

I scored one point of it in my last vassal game, using Asami, where I bluffed the Claim Jump that was also in the pool.  I think I would have scored both points, but I misjudged how slowly we were playing, and pushed a BTL marker to 8" instead of dropping a scheme for outflank on a turn, because I thought I had more time and thought I might need that BTL marker further up the board to get the full 4.

 

I think it can be scored if you've also got a center scheme to bluff and force your opponent to decide which scheme they want to try to stop.  Scoring both points can be fairly hard I think, unless you've bluffed well or really dominated. You probably need to build your crew for it. Not completely, but you'll likely want 3 models that can do the scheme (one for each side and a central model that can move to a side if you lose the model on that side.

 

All that said, it's probably not a "go to" scheme if there's easier options in the pool.  It can be a scheme you pick if your opponent's master and expected/selected crew look bad for the other schemes in the pool.