New to McMourning please help.

[thaehl]

Im new to McMourning and have play tested him a few times and he has been pretty good as an individual model, but I feel the minions of the reserectionists are somwhat lackluster. I would like to know what is the most effective way to run him. I play both Scraps and Brawls quite often so any help would be apriciated. As it stands I like to run him with Bette Noire, Sebastian, Rotten Belles, and the Zombie Chihuahua. I feel these are the right models to be using, but in what quantity of each is the real problem for me. The army as a whole seems to lack damage capability (with the exception of the ever so amazing McMourning himself), what suggestions do you have?

[chaosobscuros]

Sorry, this will be long-winded...

McMourning, when used effectively, can be one of the most effective damage-dealers in the game. As far as for crew composition, it really matters a lot on what you are trying to accomplish in a game. A recon crew is going to look different from Slaughter crew. The only constant to mcMourning is Canine Remains, Canine Remains, and more Canine Remains.

With what you have above, I would find myself hard pressed to include both Sebastian and Bette unless you are playing 35+ Soul Stones. However, if you wanted to put them both in a 30ss game, I would begrudgingly go with:

McMourning

Zombie Chihuahua

Sebastian

Bete

Rotten Belle

Rotten Belle

Canine Remains

Canine Remains

I would, however, prefer to drop either Sebastian or Bette, and go with 3 to 4 more Canine Remains. The problem with only having 2 Canine Remains lies in their dependence on attacking as packs. Companion, the loss of Insignificant, the -2 to an opponent's Df, and the 1 AP charge against a wounded opponent, as well as Rabies can all make up for their low damage output. I have personally taken down a Peacekeeper in a single Alpha Strike with a circling pack of 6 Canine Remains.

Stepping away from my obvious infatuation with the Canine Remains, I'll discuss the damage potential of a McMourning crew.

McMourning himself is pretty straightforward. The man can put out a serious hurt with his Surgical Implements, and can kill nearly any model in the game with Dissection if he cheats a high card + soulstone for the casting, and another high card for damage. Get him into melee as soon as possible, and take advantage of his ability to summon Flesh Constructs in the midst of his butchery. McMourning and 1 to 2 Flesh Constructs in the heart of your opponent's models is about as brutal as it comes. The only difficulty here can be keeping McMourning alive long enough to get the momentum moving. His low Df makes him a target for enemy attacks, especially ranged attacks before he makes it into melee. There are several ways to counter this. Utilize cover to your best benefit. Armor + Hard to Wound are a great combo. Also, try to keep a screen of disposable models between McM and the opponent to draw their fire. Belles casting Lure can help McM move forward, or bring the enemy to him. In a pinch, you can Scalpel Slingin as a 0 action to bring you into melee with any model within 6" (as long as you succeed in hitting). Finally, keep as many soulstones as you can ready to boost his abysmal Df, because you are probably going to need it more than once.

Bete may not have high damage output, but she has some nasty tricks up her sleeve. There has been a lot of discussion regarding Bete on the forums. Just to summarize:

1. Keep a Fate Card handy for One with the Night

2. Try to bring her out at the end of your opponent's activation as opposed to your own.

3. Her damage output is not great for a 9ss model, so take advantage of Depraved Tactics and Slit Jugular for the utmost nastiness.

4. Flurry often.

As for Sebastian, once you can get him into melee, his damage output is very strong. He doesn't move exceptionally quickly, so more often than not, I find it helpful to keep a couple of Belles handy for chain Lures to get an opponent up close to Sebastian, preferably after the opponent's model has already activated.

The Belles are not direct killers, but are very important support weapons in melee, whether they are Luring models into melee, or using undress to help make high Df opponents more controllable. Their high number of wounds help keep them around long enough to make sure that they earn their keep. As Lure is typically their strongest asset, it is worth noting that you will get the best bang for your buck when using two (or more) Belles in tandem to bring the opponent to you as quickly as possible.

Finally, the Zombie Chihuahua is good for generating body part counters for McM, and there are numerous players that will immediately Wrack and Dissect the poor puppy for a quick Flesh Construct. I personally do not like this tactic for two reasons. First, I do not like slowing down McMourning's charge for even the single turn, that this will take. I feel that for every action that he is not advancing, there is a lost opportunity for killing opponents. For the second reason that I do not like this, IRL I own a chihuahua, and he looks at me with a very disapproving stare every time he sees me do this.

But what it all really comes down to is going to be your personal play style. Try the tactics that appeal to you, and constantly change up your crews composition until you find something that really appeals to you. Don't be discouraged if you are losing more games than you are winning. Every Master and crew has some degree of a learning curve to them. The first game of Malifaux that I ever played was with McMourning, and the Ortegas killed every model I had by turn 3!

[thaehl]

thanks alot that does give alot of help, i have never thought of using so many remains that does give him an interesting swarm almost bayou gremlin aspect that i love, ill give it a shot thanks much you gave me alot to consider.

[Chucklemonkey]

An excellent post by Chaos Obscuros, there is not much more I can add. I too am a McMourning player and it took me quite a while to get the hang of him. It has only been in the last 3 games or so that I feel I have used him to his full potential.

I have no issue with including Bete and sebastian in my list rounded out with remains and the chihuahua but then, I don't use any Belles. There should never be a game where you fail to bring up a Flesh Construct so that is another damage dealer on the table.

[CivicNecromancer]

I've also had good luck in the few games I've played with Nurses + Punk Zombies. I got the nurses with the McMourning box, so I figured I might as well use them. Paired with Punk Zombies, you can use one of two strategies :

1) Use the nurses to turn your already nasty Punk Zombies into frothing berserkers that destroy everything they touch... albeit for one turn, but it makes a great desperation move, or good for taking down a bigger model with one of your relatively smaller models.

2) Add some ranged support to your crew by having the Punk Zombies self mutilate, and have the nurses sit back and use Surgery on them to top them back off afterward. With this strategy, you also have the Punk Zombies back to defend the Nurses, should your opponent rush you, flank you, and assassinate your nurses first thing like happened to me a game or two ago...

Food for thought. Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I don't have a LOT of experience yet, but I'm getting there.

[Peterdita]

I run McMourning and generaly do pretty well. (forget the tourny this weekend but...)

Two words: PUNK ZOMBIES

These guys thrash. On the band stage and on the Malifaux table. :rockon: Paired swords hitting with cb7 and a rot trigger. They can Flurry, hard to wound and slow to die. These guys should prob be your thugs for hand to hand. Try adding some of them at 5SS and see what you think. They almost always hit.

As far as McMourning goes, Chaos speaks the truth. Couple things I'd add is don't ever forget the rancid transplant to disscetion combo. So mean and dirty dirty! One shots almost anything. although at that point its a two shot, but you know what I mean. Also the Wracked with pain is great to do on enemy masters before they activate to cancel out the 0 actions. Great for PITA ones like Rasputina's freeze over heaven forbid you go againsts LJ.

Another thing about him is he is a real target with his weak Df. I spend a lot of his 6SS on Df with him, as already mentioned above. Good news is he heals wounds that he deals with the scalpel. So, you can't activate him early in the round and leave him exposed. He'll fall. If you are running a bunch of dogs(which you should) you will have initiave advantage (more models) and can pretty much get him to go last if you want. So activate him later in the turn so you aren't a target and you can heal anywounds back up. Also if there are two models beating on him, first action should be a reg scapel to the weaker target to heal your wound up,then drop the bigger/dangerous one with a disection (doesn't heal wounds) and then your set.

Also never forget disecting your own troops as they get low. You can dissect a punk zombiw with one wound, get 5 BP for it and it gets to take its slow to die shot on its way out.

(For me) Turn one for him is dependant on the cards you have in your hand but usually always goes the same. I cut up a dog right away. Various ways to do this but usually scalpel sling forward 6" to the dog and weak damage for 2 wds. an 1BP. Then dissect it for any amount and get 5 BP. Discard one of those for Fast and move up. So you've moved 11" and have enough (5BP) for a Flesh construct on turn 2. I save any high crow and mask I get for turn 2 when they will actually be needed more.

Necro Punks Now I've heard a bunch of people hate on these guys but I think they are great. If you run them, like dogs they work best in at least 2 as an attacking unit. They overpower and leap with a medium mask. Low damage but they can flurry and have a rot trigger, hard to kill and slow to die. Great for distractions as you approach and then leaping onto unexpecting models. If you can get them both on something it activates as slow, making it real tough to get them both off.

[Peterdita]

oh yeah you can use the Zombie Chia totem to "Get the stick" to generate a BP for free.

I use the Grave spirit for shooty crews like the guild.

[thaehl]

wow all of you guys thanks so much, I really was drawn into McMourning blind, just loved the models, and needed a third list, ( i teach a lot of my friends ) and he just seemed like a good beginner army, but the more I look into what you all have to say i see he has got a lot more than what lies on the surface, I never really thought of cutting up a dog on turn one, its definately a way to speed him up and make lemonade out of lemons, though in this case the lemon happoens to be the corpse of a dog, and the lemondade happens to be, well its frankenstien. thanks alot all of you, and if anyone has more tips please feel free to add.

[chaosobscuros]

Two words: PUNK ZOMBIES

These guys thrash. On the band stage and on the Malifaux table. :rockon: Paired swords hitting with cb7 and a rot trigger. They can Flurry, hard to wound and slow to die. These guys should prob be your thugs for hand to hand. Try adding some of them at 5SS and see what you think. They almost always hit.

no doubt that the Punks are strong models. I almost feel that they are auto-includes for Nico, but I have always found them too pricey to run with McM. It could be fun to revisit them though. How do you usually fit them in? Do you cut out the Belles or one of the higher priced models such as Sebastian or Bete?

[thaehl]

ill proxy the punks and see how they work but they definately sound impressive.

[Raintar]

Wow chaosobscuros I agree with your long post completely. I've been preaching since the forums were creating that McMourning is used for melee and not wasting your precious soulstones for Flesh Constructs, good job.

Back on point when it comes to your McMourning crew however, your options are decently limited. Bete Noir is a fairly good option and Belles are pretty good as well, or you could go with some Nurses with Angry dogs. Basically you just need your crew to take some of the pressure off McMourning because he can pretty much kill most of the entire opposing army by himself given enough time. Scalpel Slinging is ridiculous and he has fast for 4 attacks, ignores armor and H2Wm and has full damage leech, don't be afraid to soulstone with him.

[hippieshopper]

My 2 cents is to follow up on the Punk Zombie praise. I like 35ss scraps, and I have found that the punk zombies are my bread and butter for straight up killing.

That's just me though...I also like to throw in Killjoy, but that's another topic.