Von Shill and Yannic

[Ghour]

Hey,

I recently started playing Von Shill, I have about 5-10 games with him and are doing fine. My go to list is roughly:

Vs, trunk, Engineer, Librarian, Hannah, Arik and the HP Emissary.

I’ve heard on a lot of podcasts/yt channels that Yannic is a must include in an Freikorp list and I don’t really understand how (the why is obviously the card draw).

My main question is, where do you get all these scheme markers from? The Freikorp has a lot of card discard (everything from shouting orders, Kinetic Amplifier, Strengthen armor and so forth). And to be able to do a card draw instead of a discard would be amazing… if I had the scheme markers. The emissary can produce one “free” every turn with his weary road. But that’s about it..

Are you using her Democratic elections and the mask trigger? Can someone please explain this to me 😊

 

[ShinChan]

16 minutes ago, Ghour said:

Hey,

I recently started playing Von Shill, I have about 5-10 games with him and are doing fine. My go to list is roughly:

Vs, trunk, Engineer, Librarian, Hannah, Arik and the HP Emissary.

I’ve heard on a lot of podcasts/yt channels that Yannic is a must include in an Freikorp list and I don’t really understand how (the why is obviously the card draw).

My main question is, where do you get all these scheme markers from? The Freikorp has a lot of card discard (everything from shouting orders, Kinetic Amplifier, Strengthen armor and so forth). And to be able to do a card draw instead of a discard would be amazing… if I had the scheme markers. The emissary can produce one “free” every turn with his weary road. But that’s about it..

Are you using her Democratic elections and the mask trigger? Can someone please explain this to me 😊

 

I'm not a VS player, but based on what I've seen the answer is simple: you interact. You use the engineers early game to sculpt your hand. They drop a scheme marker, move or concentrate and take their quick action.

Other option would be bringing a cheap minion to drop the scheme markers for you. Freikorpsman with Rocket Boots can drop 2 in a single activation and keep the boots.

[Ghour]

Thanks for the answer!

Is it worth it tho?  I see its worth early on (T1-2) but I don't see it as a worthy payment (freikorpsman + yannic is already 12 ss) for the whole game. I get seriously yanked by not getting it  

Ofc getting to mold a great hand T1 is really beneficial but I usually save the good cards in my hand T1, with tools on the engi and siphon power on hannah both Arik, Hannah usually end T1 with 2xfocus and 6-8" up the board. And when the duels starts in T1 the good cards get depleted fast, and I usually don't afford to use activations for these kinds of actions.

Perhaps I'm the problem and the yannic+VS combo doesn't fit my playstyle..

 

 

[hydranixx]

It's possible, but you won't know until you try it.

There's a very good reason it's extremely popular and very powerful - cards win games.

Hire a second Engineer in lieu of your Librarian, bring in Yannic in lieu of your Emissary, and try a few games and see if you like it. 

2 hours ago, Ghour said:

Is it worth it tho?  

Almost always, yes. It's not like you pay 7ss to exclusively draw cards. Yannic has a lot of other relevant text. Democratic Elections is brutal, but don't overlook that Daze trigger. Built-in Stun at 10" with a 2/4/5 is very dangerous. And on Turn 1 she's helping set things up by Interacting and cycling cards so she's going to be adding a Focus for that shotgun.

2 hours ago, Ghour said:

And when the duels starts in T1 the good cards get depleted fast

This is exactly why you need dedicated card draw in the crew.

Imagine you're down to your very last card in hand. It's a 12 or 13. You really want to hang onto it to Cheat Fate to win a key duel but you're also desperate to get a Strengthen Armour or Shouting Orders off. You have to choose whether to throw that high severe away or keep it - unless you have Yannic around, in which case you get the best of both worlds.

Even if the card she lets you draw is terrible, you can just use it as more fuel for Discard effects. 

Without her, 1 card = 1 discard effect.
With her, 1 card = 3 discard effects.

2 hours ago, Ghour said:

I usually don't afford to use activations for these kinds of actions.

If you plan a turn ahead by getting the Scheme Marker down early, you won't need to be Interacting on the turn where you're trying to fight. As you unpack, each Engineer works to sculpt your hand Turn 1, but it's also a good idea to leave 1-2 Scheme Markers near them for Turn 2 so that they can help fuel your card draw engine then. That way they can activate, Tools to grab a good card, draw a couple of cards with their bonus action, and still have 2 AP left to either move, prepare a Scheme Marker for the following turn, or more likely, help the fight.

[Trample]

Yannic is worth the stones in my opinion. As the others have pointed out, she really makes engineers shine. My standard VS crew includes Yannic, an engineer, and the metallurgist. Yannic allows both the metallurgist and engineer to essentially trade an AP for a card during the first turn at least by using their free actions. Since the engineer is drawing two cards during that action you're drawing 3, using tools for the job, and normally operating with a 7 card hand. You should be able to do some serious work at the end of the first turn!

As hydrannix pointed out, Yannic isn't bad to have around just on her own. She's a surprisingly good healer with democratic elections and consolidate power. 

 

[Adran]

In effect you are turning actions into cards.  The friekorps then turn these cards into more power. It might be that you find the power you lose by spending those actions on interacts is not compensated by the power the cards give you back, but I think in general most people feel they do get their worth out of those.  1 interact gives you a net of +2 cards, which is a pretty good return. As said the friekorpsman with rocket boots can drop 2 markers in a turn, and I you are using those markers it can do that every turn. Your 5ss model then potentially generates effectively  20 cards over the game for discard effects ( or 10 actual cards and 10 free discard effects). 

[Azahul]

My own approach looks like this:

 

Ingenious Engineering (Outcasts)
Size: 50 - Pool: 5
Leader:
  Von Schill
Totem(s):
  Steam Trunk
Hires:
  Arik Schöttemer
  Hannah Lovelace
  Yannic Waller
  Hodgepodge Effigy
    Effigy of Fate
  Freikorps Engineer
  Freikorps Engineer 2
References:
  Grenade Belt
  Land Mines
  Rocket Launcher
  Rocket Boots
  Reinforced Assault Shield

 

Turns 1-2 you get scheme markers by Interacting with the Engineers, the Effigy (you won't need the healing early in all likelihood given that every model in this crew bar Arik can heal), and Yannic herself. Turns 3+ you might need to start taking other actions with your Engineers to contribute to scoring or potshots at wounded enemy models, but at that point the Effigy has become the Emissary and you have another source of scheme markers.

 

As for what you get in return, well, with two Tools for the Job models combined with Ingenuity drawing you at least 3 cards a turn in those early turns (Yannic using Shouting Orders on herself and the Engineers using their bonus actions, which will draw you another two cards too) I find that you often end up with hands of like 6-7 Severes. Which makes Hannah and Arik incredibly lethal as they are now reliably hitting their Severe damage on attacks and should be one-shotting models left, right and centre.

 

This build works great regardless of which version of Von Schill you run too. I actually think it might be slightly better on Schill2 than 1 since you may end up with so many severes you have no cards you want to use on 1's Load Up TNs, whereas 2 is more likely to just want severes to punch with, but it really doesn't matter much. It's a crazy hand advantage that allows your Henchmen to do incredible things.

 

I don't really find Yannic all that good anywhere else (except Amalgam, she's solid there for similar reasons, Scavengers often having spare AP to interact with and there being a good amount of Discard) but she feels absurd in Freikorps specifically. 

[Trample]

Well, Yannic is kind of absurd in Freikorps. Azahul is right about that. We've been talking a bit about engineers interacting, but we haven't really mentioned the Steam Trunk in the room here. His Armory ability really shifts this into overdrive. Consider what Yannic might allow you to do on the first turn in wedge  with VS2, Trunk, Hannah, Arik, Yannic, Metallurgist, and 2 Engineers for example: 

• Steam Trunk activates and give boots to Von Schill 2 then moves up a bit ahead of the wedge to establish position for future activations
• VS2 activates, drops scheme, leaps (removes marker to exchange boots for rocket launcher and draw card; boots go to Hannah), focus, shoot with launcher feeling free to burn 1-2 severes to make sure you're pumping out plenty of damage (RL goes to Hannah), Stoic nod Hannah (attach something) 
• Engineer activates and, if the opponent hasn't made you use your discard, you have TFTJ to grab it. Then, move, interact, use you bonus to draw cards 2 & 3 
• Hannah leaps, interacts, shoots RL (using focus from VS, siphon, and feel free to burn cards; exchange for shield and pick up marker for card 4) 
• Engineer2 activates in a similar manner to the first and draw cards 5 & 6
• Metallurgist activates, move, interact, bonus to attach upgrade to Arik, draw card 7 (which you attach is highly dependent on board state this could be RL or boots) 
• Yannic can activate now to set up Arik and interact, bonus to draw card 8, and leave a marker for Arik (plus take an action) 
• Arik activates and probably isn't drawing a card, but depending on what everything looks like he could draw a card if you're shooting the RL, but probably not. 

Potentially you're drawing 9 cards with two instances of TFTJ and a arcane reservoir. With Iron Heart you can actually start this process immediately (without activating the Steam Trunk) since VS can attach the boots to himself with Stoic Nod. I like moving him to a better spot though. I love starting the first turn with a rocket launcher or two! It's so easy for Freikorps to dish out 6 damage with these things. 

Clearly a savvy player isn't going to make this easy. They'll stay out of range or get in your face, but if they get in your face you have VS, Arik, and Hannah. 

Now, we've just talking here about Armory (and to a lesser extent the bonus actions on Engineers and the Metallurgist) but with OG Von Schill you can durdle a bit and have that exact some crew (exchanging titles) draw nine cards and get a pile of focus with Shouting Orders and have a god hand for turn two. That's probably too many cards to draw if you're not burning them like you were in the first instance but you can sure do it. 

Like others have said, there's a lot of discard in Freikorps and I don't often leave Yannic at home. 

 

 

[Plaag]

On 11/25/2022 at 12:25 PM, Ghour said:

Thanks for the answer!

Is it worth it tho?  I see its worth early on (T1-2) but I don't see it as a worthy payment (freikorpsman + yannic is already 12 ss) for the whole game. I get seriously yanked by not getting it  

Ofc getting to mold a great hand T1 is really beneficial but I usually save the good cards in my hand T1, with tools on the engi and siphon power on hannah both Arik, Hannah usually end T1 with 2xfocus and 6-8" up the board. And when the duels starts in T1 the good cards get depleted fast, and I usually don't afford to use activations for these kinds of actions.

Perhaps I'm the problem and the yannic+VS combo doesn't fit my playstyle..

 

 

it always worth it-u just kill opp on 1-3 turns and score everything u want next turns

[Plaag]

most games u can play yannik, hanna, aric, 2 engineers, effigy+up

sometimes u switch hannah/aric with mad dog if u want to kill armored stuff faster

1 schill is much more better than title to my mind- even on corner u can go close to enemy and make pressing-kill enforsers, minions

on close deployments u just pull enemy into your crew and kill them while schill leaps back

[Trample]

I played Von Schill last night and made a note of my cards partway through round 1 after I had used tools for the job once, drawn four cards, and was running with arcane reservoir: BJ, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5! So hand sculpting doesn't always work!