Few Marcus Posts ?

[Kaine]

Doesnt seem much info on Marcus, is he considered a weak master ?

[GrottoKnight]

Doesnt seem much info on Marcus, is he considered a weak master ?

Lots of people whine about him. He rocks versus Guild as he closes in SO quickly. He tends not to help his gang unless he attacked mutiple models (beasting them) then using his (negative flips) stare down. Usually he is doing everything on his own and using Wild Heart to the best, beating 1-2 models down, and either using the extra "0"ap to strike again or companion a beast to the fight.

I also think he is our best Strategy winner as he is uber fast (fastest in the game). Without FAST he has a melee threat range of 26" (2+heart abilities: 8+8+8charge+2 reach). This helps him steal treasure in a heart beat or get to spots to claim.

Problem is people do not stricly focus on his own abilities of self preservation. He can use up to 8ss, cast a healing spell twice, use all kinds of tricks with Wild Heart, and ranged/charges can be deffered to another beast in 3". He has one spell to make something a beast and another (ap2) that activiates/reactivates an enemy model which could be an extremely powerful spell if pulled off as that model cannot activate again that turn. The problem is that getting something to be a "beast" AND casting that spell requires you to burn two high cards and likely burn two soul stones.

I love him, especially with a cerberus, some hoarcats, and maybe a snake. Molemen seem to make a ton of sense with his damage transfer and their ARM but they are way too slow. It can be done if you have the patience and Marcus will pobably have to burn some stones along the way.

Marcus deals moderate damage with his abilities and can kill two models in one turn but make sure you never lose focus to heal him.

[Rathnard]

Yeah, the general impression I've gotten is that he's not an easy Master to get the hang of. Then again, as per GrottoKnight's post he isn't exactly a pushover. You just need to know when and how to strike with your crew.

I think the thing to bear in mind is that his starter box isn't that good. I've yet to hear good things about Myranda and it's missing the two beast types that I hear alot of people recommend - Slurids and Molemen.

[Buck Dog]

Also, I am not sure whether the look and feel of the crew has anything to do with their popularity - in a game full of zombie hookers, mechanical spiders and sexy merc twins, it takes a special kind of player to go with the moleman !

I am not saying I don't like them, but they don't have the obvious appeal of some of the other crews out there.

[dboeren]

Personally, I like Marcus and picked him as my first master (I also considered Pandora and McMourning).

I like his versatility, he can heal other models or buff himself up in various ways and can be a beatstick if you need him to. But, a versatile model is usually a little harder to learn than a specialized model where it's fairly obvious what they should be doing all the time.

As said, he's great for many scenarios, don't get roped into slugfests with someone else who can do it better.

Try him with Silurids, activating nearly all your crew at once can be great. Molemen are OK, I'd just take one for the armor and use my points on other beasts.

[Calisto]

I can see molemen being good fore stakeing a claim or something. Hard to get rid of and all..

[pinkcarson]

Molemen are pretty good at Morale duels also, especially with Marcus. My last opponent was Seamus and his hooker crew, it took him 2-3 failed "Lure" casts to realise the moleman has WP:7. Marcus can also buff their WP by three with (1)Howl. Seems like it would be a good combo against Pandora and other WP attacking crews.

[Ropetus]

Against Seamus yes, they should be quite effective. They have high WP to resist their tricks and Seamus hates their Armor when shooting with his Flintlock, which otherwise would be a big problem for the unarmored beasts.

However, I doubt they are that hot vs. Pandora. Her Wp Duels go straight through their Armor making them easy kills. And yes, they do ignore Expose Fears but with Wk/Cg 3/6 how are they ever going to catch her? gainst Pandy I think Cerberus would be perfect. It also has Wp 7 when defending and using Howl makes it very hard for Pandora to avoid getting attacked (getting Pandora to get affected by Howl is a jackpot, that Wp 4 will down her soon).

-Ropetus

[Lictor]

Marcus is several kinds of awesome.

Went toe-to-toe with the Ortega Master back up with a razor spine demolished her, and spent the next few turns absorbing hits like a tank but between healing and dishing off HP to the razor spine and Myranda throwing down some healing flips my opponent was really getting no where.

I WANTS the MOLEMAN (yes, I be special) just for Marcus's ability to dish off pain. Speed and Combat specialists, my kinda crew.

Does anyone know, regarding Myranda, with her ability to morph into creatures, can she morph into a 'pride' of Hoar Cats? Rules say she only can't turn into rare beats, and a 'pride' of Hoar cats is not rare...

Edited April 21, 2010 by Lictor

[Ropetus]

Does anyone know, regarding Myranda, with her ability to morph into creatures, can she morph into a 'pride' of Hoar Cats? Rules say she only can't turn into rare beats, and a 'pride' of Hoar cats is not rare...

Yes. She can turn into a Hoarcat Pride. Useful if you need some quick Healing for her (Eat your Fill) or if some of your cats have been killed and you need to Devour something.

However, her main uses for Transformation are the Cerberus and Rattler forms.

-Ropetus

[Tyzaronius]

One of the toughest models for Marcus to deal with I find is the Executioner, cause you pretty much NEED to take it down at range, but his ranged options are very limited

[Ropetus]

One of the toughest models for Marcus to deal with I find is the Executioner, cause you pretty much NEED to take it down at range, but his ranged options are very limited

Try using Alpha and turn him against his own buddies. His low Wp should make this very easy.

Also, a pack of Silurids or a Cerberus should take him out quickly with Leap and a gazillion attacks.

-Ropetus

[Tyzaronius]

Oh, he's not that hard to take down, to start with, but the whole Slow to Die/Love the Job thing is a bitch

[TimeLapse]

Has anyone tryed Waldgeists with Markus? They seem to be an intresting choice for 6 points and all with armor 2 and there ablity to move woods along with you.

Could be an intresting to add to a list.

[Tyzaronius]

Yeah, they'd be great in an alternative list in a tourney, where you check out the table layout before you chose your list to play with that round

[Wulfen]

Versatile is not the word I'd use with Marcus. Underwhelming is probably better. I'm not the most experienced Marcus player out there, but I really think he should probably be looked over for some improvements.

For one thing, he can only buff himself. Why not allow these buffs to apply to beasts? All that he can do to beasts is heal them, or maybe pull off an Alpha, but getting that close is generally not a good thing for Marcus, unless you have beast support. And if you have to clump beasts together to take advantage of his or Myranda's healing abilites, you're not taking advantage of the beasts abilities, which work better in coordination and space.

I dunno, just some thoughts. I've not been able to play a game where I thought Marcus pulled his own weight, but maybe that's my inexperience with him.

[dakrulz55]

i like the wiedegast as they keep up with marcus fairly well and armor 2 rocks. also slowing people down and triping them up makes singeling out people with marcus alot easier. i also find slurids only good for one thing, that being treasure hunt. sure they hit hard but they cant take a hit for anything.

[Blank]

Marcus isn't weak by any means. I chose him as my first master, and am very satisfied.

That said, I assume people don't go with him right off the bat because he doesn't exactly have much choice in the way of hiring crews. You have few primo models to chose from:

Slurids

Waldgeists

Molemen

Hoarcats

Even with those, he's more or less a situational character. You know how it goes, good against some, bad against others. Compared to someone like Leveticus, Marcus' choices for crews are slim to none.

But again, just because he isn't played, don't assume he's weak. I rarely see people play Som'er Teeth but that doesn't mean he's weak by any means. Quite the opposite. Some masters just take time to get the hang of or understand.

For one thing, he can only buff himself. Why not allow these buffs to apply to beasts? All that he can do to beasts is heal them, or maybe pull off an Alpha, but getting that close is generally not a good thing for Marcus, unless you have beast support.

If you're suggesting he's not very good in melee, imho that can be argued. Yes against someone like Lilith, melee is a stupid idea, but he can use Wild Heart to buff his Dg and if you have a tome (any tome, really) you can get another effect which could be a free strike or give his attacks a

I don't know, but I think he's a pretty good master, myself. My next master will be Levi, if that tells you anything. I personally like the challenging and confusing masters. I like figuring them out. Just my thoughts.

[goblyn13]

With Wild Heart,

Remember, he gets one ability for successfully casting, one for the tome that's required to cast it, and one more for each additional tome, so he can gain up to 4 abilities by using a soulstone.

but every successful cast he get 2 abilities,

So to buff him for melee, you can take bear and eagle giving him on the attack and +2 on the damage. And if he actually has an additional Tome, you can add in the +2 to his Df.

Edited July 21, 2010 by goblyn13

[Natty]

Molemen are pretty good at Morale duels also, especially with Marcus. My last opponent was Seamus and his hooker crew, it took him 2-3 failed "Lure" casts to realise the moleman has WP:7. Marcus can also buff their WP by three with (1)Howl. Seems like it would be a good combo against Pandora and other WP attacking crews.

It seems good until you realize that Pandora almost always has a Doppelganger with her so you get minus initiative flips, which means Pandora usually goes first, which lets her hit all your guys with spells before you can get that +3 wp from Marcus. That or she can incite/pacify to make you activate in the totally wrong order for your buffs to work properly, so none of your guys get that buff when they are activating.

Also, if I remember correctly, Marcus is a wp 6 and his buff doesn't hit himself, so he won't fight that well against her on his own when he finally does get his chance to activate.

The only good thing against Pandora for Marcus is molemen, but when you look at them, they are SO slow and Pandora is SO fast that any good Pandora player will position her so molemen can never use their blindsight.

This is all theory though. I've never actually played a Marcus with my Pandora. Not really afraid of him though.

Perdita/Lady J are the Pandora killers. Those two I fear.

[Raintar]

Marcus honestly isn't really that strong. His only good beast support unit is the Molemen and they are painfully slow, which considering he is really fast. His support spells are garbage, Alpha and Primal Flame need suits and cost actions, Feral is a waste of a 0 action considering you need to use Staredown right after it to be useful at all. And then if you waste all your 0 actions doing that crap there's no way you're going to be keeping up with the damage your opponents master is going to be doing.

And if you use him as a melee fighter his weapon is sub-par and you NEED to use bear for him just to be average for a melee master and tiger to keep up with other melee masters. And after that he has nothing, unlike other melee beatstick masters like LJ (Riposte, Sword Style, greatsword), Lilith (high def, greatsword, rush of magic), McMourning (4 attacks, full health leech, ignore armor/H2W), Viktoria (2 of them, Whirlwind, Paired, sisters in spirit).

So if his spells suck and his melee ability isn't great why use him?

[HopelessHeretic]

Marcus is good because he only struggles with the slaughter strategy. Assassinate: he (and his crew) is (are) so fast a smart player can choose to attack when you are exposed. Treasure hunt: silruds and a sabertooth. They can avoid you well making reconoiter much easier. Claim jump can be tricky but the best strategy boils down to pick isolated units apart and making a last turn rush into the objective.

Marcus is very much a finesse master and it takes a talented player to use him well.

-Heretic

[Ropetus]

I agree that Marcus could use some buffing. The main problem with him is Action management: Marcus is the only Master without a real (+1) Action. Instinctual is nice but when the extra Action basicly has to be used on Wild Heart (preferably cheating with a :tomes ) to function at all the extra Action feels kinda wasted. The second (0) Action is not that great since most of the others are not that good: Feral is a joke, Pack Leader is nice at times to get activations in fast, Stare Down can be killer but requires another successful Action and can be avoided if you have a larger model. Using Blinding Strike and Feline Speed is usually not worth it since you have to give up Bear, Eagle or Fox to use them. If Tiger gave him Melee Expert it would buff him a lot since he could combine the extra Strike with Stare Down.

His spells are also not very AP efficient. Primal Flame is almost always a waste with the suit requirement. If it was a (0) Action and/or a bit easier to cast (like 12) it might get used sometimes. Alpha is effective if your opponent has a beatstick like a Mature Nephilim or a Steamborg running around but otherwise not worth sacrificing your Master's entire activation. Howl is a nice buff for 1 AP but very situational as not many Crews focus on Wp based attacks (at the moment, Seamus, Hanged, Zoraida and Pandora Crews are big on those), and it suffers from the flaw that it leaves Marcus himself vulnerable.

Marcus is an interesting, fun and challenging Master to use. However, he really feels a bit lackduster compared to the others.

-Ropetus