Some thoughts on a speedy ghost boy with a lot of soul

[Azahul]

I've been on a bit of a Jack Daw Ensouled kick lately and thought I would compile some notes on the experience. Unlike my previous exploration of a title (that would be my Parker2 breakdown for reference) I didn't come into this super down on Jack Daw2. A little sceptical, perhaps, because the original Daw had a lot of strengths and Keyword synergies that the new Daw didn't appear to live up to, but I was still open to the idea that Daw2 would have a clear place in the game if for no other reason than Daw1 having very clear weaknesses Daw2 could avoid.

Nevertheless I was taken off guard by just how much I liked Daw2. I really gelled with him in a way I don't think I ever truly did with Daw1. His flexibility, mobility, and disruptive potential is excellent and it's a lot of fun watching the carnage he can create.

Here are some of my general takeaways in terms of Daw himself:

• Much has been made of his Draw Them In + Guilty of the Many ability to melt opposing crews, but I haven't actually had much luck with it. Most times I've used it my opponents top deck the cards they need and cheat to preserve the most important models, so it can feel a little low impact to me. It is a low card burden for Daw though, so if you don't have good cards in hand and you are in position it sometimes pays dividends.

• Honestly though it's rare for Daw2 to not have a good hand. Without the pressure to discard cards or sacrifice card draw for healing that Daw1 has, his hand advantage is actually quite ferocious.

• Daw's melee attack, Repressed Aggression, is the attack I go for more than any other action. I usually want to get at least one Burst of Speed trigger off every activation, stoning for the suit if need be. This attack looks initially unimpressive at 2/3/4, but it scales dramatically from there. Obviously there is the ping damage from Burst of Speed, but the Hazardous auras created by the Curse of Reckoning are so impactful they deserve their own dot point. Suffice to say that Burst of Speed does two major things. It forces a lot of simple duels Last Words, and any model that fails those duels will start taking additional ping damage from Hazardous terrain once you have a couple of auras in place. The second important aspect of Burst of Speed is that it lets Daw engage new enemy models. You usually want to hit at least two different models in a turn with Repressed Aggression, ideally including one already activated model, so that you have multiple Curse of Reckonings in place. The resulting blanket of hazardous becomes extremely debilitating for an opponent, and Burst of Speed lets you set that up even against opponents who are trying to spread out.

• Here's that Curse of Reckoning dot point I mentioned. This Curse is so ridiculously impactful. You usually want to land it on your opponent's biggest beatsticks, because you force them to do nothing if they want to get rid of the upgrade. And if they don't get rid of the upgrade then it can be catastrophic. As Tormented models you get to move them with Daw's own Cursed Dreams action, forcing them into clumps with other cursed enemy models to ensure the impact of the Hazardous auras. They make it easier for Daw's Last Words effect to drop enemy models into Hazardous for increasingly wild amounts of damage. And of course they make the act of activating near them debilitating for other friendlies. Don't forget that they not only need to deal no damage in their activation, but also take no damage (such as from Hazardous auras from another Curse of Reckoning model) due to the wording of Quell the Rage. Which sometimes means a 10 stone beatstick has to activate and then end its activation taking no actions.

• Spreading out would appear to be the solution to fighting Daw, but it can be surprisingly difficult to achieve. Nearly everything on Daw's card moves either him or an enemy model in some way. Forbidden Knowledge and Jaakuna's Lure provide you with yet more ways to move enemy models in. Your ability to manipulate your opponent's crew is dramatic.

• Daw has a secret 5th action. After his three Repressed Aggression swings and his very impactful bonus action you will probably be drawing a card from Torment. Revealing this card with Beckoned to Betrayal lets you take a 2" move. Importantly this is a move, not a Push, so if you've succeeded in getting Daw into a big clump of enemy models he can sort of vibrate slightly in place and just touch the bases of all those nearby models. That will force a barrage of Last Word checks, with those models that fail taking yet more Hazardous damage.

 

So that's my breathless rundown of how I use Daw's own card. What about his crew?

• The first question with any Daw crew is two Hanged or one Hanged? This is a tricky one. Daw kind of wants to monopolise all your good masks, so On Your Heels isn't an easy trigger to get and you may end up having to stone or walk into combat with your Mv 4 Hanged. Not ideal, and taking two exacerbates the drain on your resources. At least we're Outcasts, so our Hanged can be 6" up the board before they activate Turn 1. What pushes me towards two Hanged though is the value of the Forbidden Knowledge upgrade in Daw. More Tormented models means more models Daw can push with Cursed Dreams, and if your opponent doesn't take damage to ditch the Forbidden Knowledge Curse then they will probably take yet more damage when you push them through Hazardous at the end of their activation. That makes up for Hanged taking longer to join the fight in my view.

• Jaakuna is an obvious pick. Another Hazardous aura in the brawl when you're already moving everything around pays dividends and makes it increasingly hard for your opponent to do anything when they're taking 2 damage on every action. She can have a hard time keeping up of course, but she feels like a mainstay.

• The rest of the crew is flexible. I've played around with Drowned (for more Hazardous) and Crooked Men (for Hazardous synergies) but they're so slow I haven't been able to get them to contribute much. The Midnight Stalker or a similarly useful schemer has paid off from time to time. Montresor/the Hanging Tree gives you some much needed Staggered synergy, without them I find enemy models are very rarely staggered when my Hanged go to attack them since Daw2 creates much less Staggered than Daw1. August Harte is... ok. Debuffing Wp when you're making a lot of Wp attacks with Daw is useful, but like every other Tormented model mentioned here he can have a hard time keeping up. Guilty can help with early game mobility but I honestly rarely find room for them. And the Emissary, or at least Effigy with upgrade, is tempting as Weary Road can proc additional Last Word pings from Daw and the extra Mv is invaluable.

 

Anyway, that's the lot for now. Despite his card not looking so impressive at first glance, I have found Daw2 capable of actually out-damaging Daw1 and messing with the ability of many crews to even function. It is a very good time, and I strongly recommend giving him a try and maybe looking to focus less on Guilt of the Many when you do.

[S4lt]

This write up is great, sums up exactly my experience with him to date too. 

There's a lot more to.him than the initial read of the card and I've been surprised at the level of damage he can put out.

He's a ton of fun and deceptively mobile. 

I'd argue over the value of Guilty in the crew, I've found myself taking 2 to really be able to reposition Jack. They also give more card draw from Jack's ranged attack.

[SoylentRobot]

Jack2 is stupid fun! ive been bringing at least 2 Guilty along since they can use Guilty As Charged to count as enemy models for Jack's Last Words, he can drag them around with him and cause additional problems like blocking LoS or having them do scheme stuff

[S4lt]

9 hours ago, SoylentRobot said:

Jack2 is stupid fun! ive been bringing at least 2 Guilty along since they can use Guilty As Charged to count as enemy models for Jack's Last Words, he can drag them around with him and cause additional problems like blocking LoS or having them do scheme stuff

Hadn't clocked he could move his Guilty with it too. 

[Burnin4tor]

On 8/11/2022 at 9:36 AM, SoylentRobot said:

Jack2 is stupid fun! ive been bringing at least 2 Guilty along since they can use Guilty As Charged to count as enemy models for Jack's Last Words, he can drag them around with him and cause additional problems like blocking LoS or having them do scheme stuff

I assume you’d have to do the move duel flips and then cheat to fail sometimes? 

[SoylentRobot]

On 8/27/2022 at 10:15 AM, Burnin4tor said:

I assume you’d have to do the move duel flips and then cheat to fail sometimes? 

yeah theyre simple duels so you cant relent, you have to flip. ive not needed to cheat to fail too often tho, luckily