Bringing back the Crossroads 7

[Cuilion]

This most notorious band since the Blues Brothers have been my 3rd crew and back then (short after 3rd edition was released), being a total beginner, I struggled a lot with them. I tried several times to field all 7 of them and got my butt kicked each time. I accepted meanwhile that playing all 7 of them is not a good idea. Also, in the meantime we got more versatile models. 

So I wanna make a new effort in playing a Pride-led crew with much more use of versatiles. 

I'll post my initial thoughts below but all of that is theory-faux, so any real experience from you folks would be much appreciated. 

 

The Crossroads 7: Pride is the leader obviously. I feel like I should always take Sloth and Wrath - Sloth because all his actions are good and he punishes healing, Wrath because he punishes enemy damage and Bring it is so good to draw enemies in. Gluttony and Lust seem situational to me, depending if I expect a lot of markers/card draw from the opponent (while I doubt that Lusts 6" are enough to really punish card draw). I am not very attracted by Envy, if I really want ranged damage it seems like I could do better going versatile or OOK. Greed has 2 interesting actions with Guitar Bash giving a sin token without a suit needed but 0" engagement sucks and Unchecked Avarice which requires some setup; so still I feel she is not worth it. In general, I feel like I want to spend all my Crows (plus soulstones) on Pride, Wrath and Sloth, so I am not sure how much use I can get out of any additional crossroad model. 

Catalan models: I am very tempted to hire all 4 . The brawler can protect the crossroads model, Rifleman give some ranged and produce free scheme markers and Yannik enables the card draw machine - with the Crossroads being hungry for those high crows that seems like an excellent option. 

Malifaux Child: 3 points to have another Destructive Performance? Yes please! I can potentially cause 6 damage on each model with 2 sin tokens with investing a 8 of tomes and another 6. Especially great, if I only bring 3 crossroads models. 

Johann Creedy: Good beater, I like that he can make Sloth stronger by removing the Slow from his heal, also Showboating supports card cicle to fish for those Crows. But is that worth 7 stones? 

Midnight Stalker: Good for the known reasons, also has Showboating. 

Barbaros: Alternative to the Catalan Brawler. Another Bring it would be great but I think the downsides are that he needs Crows for his defensive trigger (same with Brawler) and that I will need all my soulstones for the crossroads. Also does not synergize with Yannik. 

Hans: Ranged tech piece, I do not see much specific benefits for the crew. 

Prospector: More soulstones? Yes plz! Also Malifaux mining law can synergize well with all the Catalan scheme markers (if I do not remove them). 

Out of keyword: Only had a quick look, maybe Freikorps Engineer and/or Scavenger could support the card draw engine but I doubt it is worth the 7 stones. 

Upgrades: Effigy of Fate seems like a great choice. Emmissary is always good, Weary Road gives another free scheme marker per turn which support the Yannik card draw. Servant of Dark Powers and Soldier for Hire do not seem to be worth 2 stones. Wanted Criminal could be nice for the 0" engagement crossroads if there is enough impassable terrain and depending on the opponents number of expected scheme markers it could draw some more cards. Still not sure if I wanna spend 2 SS for that. 

 

Any thoughts? 
Already tried some of this? 

[SEV]

Pride is a good leader (the other choices are Wrath and Envy).

Wrath and Envy are auto-include (don't sleep on Envy gun, you can't do better).  Sloth also make 90% of my list so I won't disagree with you here. The other 3 are situational (the best one being Glutony for the markers removal option). 

I would always hire at least 4 CR7 models (including the leader) and give the upgrade to the effigy. So this is 23 points.

CR7 operate in small (2 to 3 models) or big (all of them) bubble. So they're not the best at scheming. They also need card draws. 

I didn't play them since the release of the outcast starter... I don't see much synergy with the CR7 tough (brawler is fine to protect them, but I think Marlins is way better).

For the outcast versatile, the only one I hire are prospector and Midnight Stalker. A scavenger OOk is nice (especially when hidden martyrs is in the pool) as is Marlena when you need a bit of protection. 

No upgrade are needed with this crew (outcast don't have upgrade anyway).

(Edited : I realised that I wrote this in an assertive way, but it's just my view on this crew, feel free to disagree... And enjoy the band, they're really fun to play).

 

[Azahul]

I actually really rate Greed in a Crossroads list. She isn't good on her own, but I find she really shines in a situation where other members of the Crossroads are generating Sin for her. I've had some striking moments in which her and Pride being near an enemy Master on 2-3 Sin meant that Envy was able to take those Masters from full health to dead in a single activation, and a myriad of instances of doing something similar to Henchmen.

[Cuilion]

Thanks for all the feedback!

@SEVno worries about replying with a different approach, I am thankful for every single take on that crew since there hasn't been much talk about them in the past months. I still do not get though why Envy is an auto-include. For 2 points less I can get a Catalan Rifleman who has the same damage track, smaller base, bigger range. With ignoring friendly fire he nearly equals the + that envy has, also he generates scheme markers and punishes enemy charges. Sure he is much more squishy, but there are ways to work around that. 

@Azahulthanks for the feedback on Greed! I still feel like this is situational. Not every Master/Henchman wants to enagage with several Crossroads. And even those who would might refrain when knowing what awaits them. I will def consider Greed when I am facing a master who wants to beat the s*** out of me but I feel in other matchups she would do nothing. As for Envy same question as above, what makes so Envy so good for you? 

 

How do you approach scheming with the C7? Apart from the Midnight Stalker I do not see many options that wanna leave the bubble. 

How much do you stay in bubble or do you have positive experiences with spreading out a bit? 

 

Discussing with a friend a few days ago we found a fun way to make more use of Sloths aura. The effigy/emmissary heal can target enemies and it is a simple duel - very easy to get off. Also Yanniks Democratic elections can trigger it. In fact you could choose the same enemy model to both heal and suffer 1 damage (or multiple if in range). Taking this even further the Malifaux Child could do the action again generating a massive amount of Sin Tokens if you can get enough enemy models into both Yanniks and Childs aura. So let's say you can get 3 enemy models into the aura we are talking 6 sin tokens for a 5 and a 7 without the opponent being able to do anything. Child could even start a first destructive performance after (triggering a potential second with a tome) before the enemy can do anything to escape. Much potential with low cards. Not easy to setup of course since affected models have to be below max health and within the aura. 

[SEV]

3 hours ago, Cuilion said:

For 2 points less I can get a Catalan Rifleman who has the same damage track, smaller base, bigger range. With ignoring friendly fire he nearly equals the + that envy has, also he generates scheme markers and punishes enemy charges. Sure he is much more squishy, but there are ways to work around that.

 

I suggest you to experiment it by yourself... But Envy's gun is a different beast than the (mediocre) Catalan Rifleman gun. 

5+ is way better than 5 (especially to get through concealment). Same for the damage track. 2/4/6 is straight up better than 2/3/5... Envy trigger give him a +1 damage against a lot of target (and removing positive conditions is strong on its own)... 3/4/7 can one shot minions with ease. A full activation of envy is scary for  a lot of models in the game (ofcourse hard to wound and armor 2 counter it a bit).

Finally, it's a crossroad, so he'll have 2 focus almost all the time (one from activating near a friend and an other from his bonus). That give him a access to that with 6 on severe with a lot of consistency.

 

This is just for Envy's gun... Being a crossroad, armor 2 henchman that punish positive conditions within 6" and a decent melee attack just put him in an other league.

[Cuilion]

I had a first game which was very promising. 

I played Pride, Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Effigy with upgrade, Yannik Waller, Catalan Brawler and Malifaux Child. 

Opponent played Shenlong Teacher Title with his Totems, Sensei Yu, Fuhatsu, 2 Wandering, 1 Low River, 1 High River Monk. High River and Fuhatsu with Hard to Kill Upgrade. 

Strat was covert operation with standard deployment, I took Public Demonstration and leave the mark, he took Spread them out and Set the trap. 

I ended up winning 7:5 while only leaving 1 Wandering River Monk and Sensei Yu (because I needed him for the scheme) alive. 

The synergies feel super strong. I placed a lot of scheme markers the first 2 turns and used them for Yannicks Aura - the card draw gave me a great hand, many high crows and other high cards. All the healing and protection from the Brawler made this a sturdy crew, I only lost the child in round 4. Abusing Sloths healing aura is incredibly strong. In 2 subsequent turns I was able to put sin tokens on 3 models with democratic elections and repeating the same with the Malifaux child. 6 Sin Tokens for 2 fairly low cards! The child synergizes so well. I used it to copy the Effigies heal and Yanniks elections, never needed it for destructive performance but still this is another great option. Another thing the crossroads really benefit from is being able to use Focus for simple duels now. They usually have more Focus than they need and using it for destructive performance allows to fish for tomes and reducing the amount of cards needed for cheating. 

The one thing I struggled with was denying points. With 2 Wandering River Monks and Spread them out I did not feel like having any chance to deny this. Set the trap I also did not see a way to avoid since I got only the emmissaries weary road to move models out of combat and no marker removal (did not have gluttony). The main reason he did not score the second point was that he only had 2 models left and I had tons of healing. The lack of movement and movement tricks (no skill to move enemy models) is a weakness. I might end up having to play them very killy. 

As for the list: Pride did not do much actively but his auras are dope. With his 3rd AP he can help scoring in this slow crew. Wraths bring it was super important. It is a threat and it helped me murdering the high river monk early. The fact that you force the opponent to trigger his aura when punching you with this skill makes Bring It even stronger. Sloth aura is nuts with this crew, he mostly just stood around and did destructive performance. Envy was indeed very strong. Concealment does not hurt, his quick action can be used with Yanniks aura and being able to end conditions on targets is strong (Shenlong with tons of distracted). Brawler was a great bodyguard, has a decent punch if needed and helps the card engine. Yannik was just great. Democratic elections is so strong in this crew, both for ping damage and healing your own models and also for triggering Sloths aura when healing enemy models. Effigy was solid and you can use accomplice with Yanniks aura. Emmissary later was a big help with easier heal and weary road helped a lot with scoring. Accomplice upgrade on the crossroads is also very strong. You can for example chain 2 Bring its with destructive performances right after before the opponent can react. Lastly I loved the child. It is insignificant and even with the -2 penalty you do not need crazy high cards for healing, elections and destructive performance. 

I think I will experiment much more in the future with slight variants of this approach to see how this works in different matchups. Denying scoring could remain an issue. 

[Cuilion]

I had another game in the meantime against Parker 2. I altered the list a bit and brought Gluttony and Barbaros instead of Envy and the Catalan Brawler. Reason was that armour is not as good against Mad Dog and I hope to punish the many scheme marker drops with Gluttony. Due to time reasons we were not able to finish. It was a close game that would have ended with a draw or a close victory for one side. 

Major insights: The crossroads are extremely killy. I drew Parker into the bubble with Bring it and killed him within 2 turns. Crossroads are good at scoring and dominating the middle. They really struggle on the sides of the board and with denying points. I could use some advice how to work around that. 

My first idea was to buy a master like Zipp 2 or Tara 1 fort more mobility but guess what - Masters are not allowed in Henchman Crews. Learned something new. 

Midnight Stalker seems not the right choice since he is only fast on the other half of the table and therefore a scorer, not a denier. 

Prospectors could work to deny scheme markers but they are not fast and not very durable. 

Another approach would be to use Envy and/or Catalan Rifleman to shoot anything in my half but usually opponents should be able to work around that with movement/terrain. 

Metallurgist with Grenades is another option to burn markers but I feel like that is not enough reson to bring her. 

My fav idea so far is to bring the ancient construct instead of the brawler so I can toss anyone in the crew towards an enemy scheme runner. Also the Card Discard from Take the hit synergizes well with my Yannik approach. 

 

Thougts? Better ideas? 

[olonsdale]

I've been playing around with using a Dead Outlaw in Crossroads - Sloth can make him fast, then he can make up to 3 of the crossroads fast as well. Better stat on Covetous Cravings and the ability to be fast from Sloth makes him better than a Student of Conflict. I've tried it out once with a prospector to make some scheme markers t1 (effigy can do this too to get 3 easily with 6 of crows for I Can Dig It.)

The rest of the game was spent making Envy fast and doing incidental shots from charging into position.

Definitely needs more practice, as this was into McMourning2 so he spent his whole first turn barely moving (and Gluttony was MVP by far for removing markers...)