New Guild Player-Justice crew

[Mattimao]

Hello Everyone. My name is Mattimao. I posted a brief write up in the Introduction forum. I am new to the game and have the Lady Justice crew.

I went with the anti-death crew primarily for the cool anti zombie theme. I also tend to be an in the front lines type of player. Melee makes me happy!

I welcome any pointers on how to use this crew to it's full potential. I have been reading the other posts and have gathered some strategy. If anyone could give me a basic strategy for just the Lady Justice starter crew, that would help.

I do have the rule book and should be playing my first game soon.

[PIT_91]

Well, Death Marshals are actually slightly better shooters than melee fighters, although they are not bad at both. Try to weaken your opponent's crew first with their shooting and then you can charge in with Lady J. and the Judge. In the subsequent turns you might consider casting Melee Prowess at the Judge and DM and get into melee with all of them. Some basic strategy

[Mattimao]

Thanks PIT. I guess it's kind of like the old weaken them with range and then send in the pain! Now to figure out how best to use Lady Justice's spells. :viking:

[Ropetus]

You got it correct: Guild models are very versatile in the fact that most of them can lay the hurt effeciently both in melee and ranged combat. They're also almost all generalists so they can easily take on another model's role in case one of them gets taken out. Not all factions can do this all that efficienly.

However, the Guild is very limited on spectacular magic abilities and special tricks, focusing almost completely on physical damage. Spells are mainly about buffs to enhance this aspect. Lady Justice is the prime avatar of this playstyle, lacking any subtle tricks and having a pure focus on combat and buffing her allies.

About Lady Justice's spells: Sword style is her only (0) action so it's a no-brainer to use it every turn. Fate and Vengeance are the primary uses, former against those pesky hard to hit enemies like Lilith (make sure to cheat in a Ram to get a nice Cb 11, that will hit anything) and the latter against low Df models to ensure you get high damage. Blind Justice is situational but absolutely brutal against the correct enemy (Pandora will cry when this gets used). Combat Prowess is also very good when most of your crew gets engaged in melee. Handing out 2-3 Melee Experts effectively grants you 1 or 2 free AP for the round. Restore Natural Order is extremely situational and more of a threat (your opponent would be extremely foolish to swarm her with Undead).

It is very worthwhile to get a Totem to accompany her. LJ's Ca is low for a Master so a Totem can cast those buff spells equally as well as Justice herself, freeing her AP to be used on smacking your enemies.

-Ropetus

[GuySmiley]

Ropetus is completely right about taking advantage of a totem when playing with Death Marshal.

If you go with the Governor’s Proxy you get a higher CA and a ram for getting off her spells. Also you have the extra 2 WP out of him. If your playing against undead then you will be looking at a ten willpower which should make you pretty resilient to undead trickery. Also no model likes having there suits removed from there CA/CB. This will make some triggers and spells impossible to get off. Just remember to try and break LOS if you are looking at anything that can do a moral check on you.

If you go with the scales your looking at a lower CA but no fear of dieing to a lost moral duel. Also the ability to tune your control hand is very nice. Also adding a positive or negative to duels can be pretty brutal. Either way your looking at a great choice for rounding out your starting box.

I would argue that the Guild are better shooters then melee fighters. This is true with the Ortega but I don’t think it is with the Death Marshal. Lady J isn’t an offensive caster the buffs of the crew really come into play. It really comes down to the importance of your turn sequence. For instance, if you lead with LadyJ and kill something any of your crew watching becomes nastier making subsequent killing all the much easier. If you used combat prowess on the Judge then you are looking at a possible five attacks. The big thing with that crew is not much should be able to survive activation from Justice or the Judge.

The marshal themselves are good fun. You can use hard to wound to burn through peoples decks pretty quickly. Slow to die has been a deciding factor in more games then almost anything else I have done. Don’t expect to get pine box off too often as it can be hard to pull off. Although much like obey you might consider using it on your own guys as a way to move them forward under protection. This can create a pretty tough choice as if they kill the marshal you have the slow to die action to make an attack and then out pops whomever was in the box. Then if they aren’t in companion and have used up actions to kill the marshal they are now standing next to a model that can activate and kill.

[Mattimao]

Wow! Thank you guys for the tips. I just finished painting my Guild crew this weekend and I have my first game soon.

I was looking at using a Totem with Lady Justice already, and I think I will just learn to use the Scales and the Governor's Proxy. :guns:

Other than Totems; if I was to add to the crew what would be some of the best choices? I would prefer to stay Guild, but I am not ruling out using mercenaries.

[GuySmiley]

If your looking for just where to expand your army that is a really tough question. It really will come down to your style of play. Personally for most games I like to build a skirmish group with my hard melee hitters and then a ranged support. This will help me keep pressure on while take the time to move my fighters in close and undercover. Additionally, if I am playing against another person as aggressive as me I can use the range to buy me more time to read how the other guy is moving and then adjust my skirmish group as need.

However, aside from my tangent about tactics, the executioner is a wonderful model. He has managed to be my mvp several times. If you are looking for a cheap and versatile unit then the witchling stalker is a pretty good choice. He was my first addition to my death marshal force as I wanted a unit that was fast and able to fill any role I wanted. He fit that bill and I could fit him in for a 25 point force. Currently I have been playing around with the peacekeeper but I am largely on the fence with how much he brings to the table for nine points. Hopefully in a few more games I will sort out my feelings on him. I am also needing to start using a proxy of the austringer and guard as I can see a lot of possibility with them.

In the end you just have to ask yourself if your wanting some range or melee. All that being said I think I would go nino for range and executioner for melee. If you want to stay under 25 points go witchling.

[DarkJeebs]

Lady J has no defensive abilities, so save soulstones to stop enemy attacks, or pinebox for safety at the beginning of the game. In my experience She pretty much destroys anything in reach, so your opponent is going to try and take her out before she can get into melee.

[Mattimao]

Thanks for all the tips. I played my first game and...had a blast! I made lots of mistakes and didn't use abilites that would have helped had I used them. The game ended on turn 5 with the other crew being wiped out. I held Justice back until about turn 4 and then moved in for the kills. All I can say is...WOW! Thank you to my friend John for a very good game. I now really fear the "robot spiders"!

[GuySmiley]

I am glad to hear that LadyJ did well for you. Those spiders can be a huge pain, but congratulations on overcoming them.