McMourning crew help?

[Obeisance]

I've been playing Wargames for like 10 years plus. Played a huge amount of WHFB/40K, decided I was done with GW and started Warmachine (which is awesome btw).

The other system seeing a lot of play is Malifaux, so I'm thinking about getting into it. McMourning is apparently a rarity in my area, so I'm leaning towards him instead of my other two choices, Pandora or Rasputina.

So like, I don't even have a basic understanding of the rules at the moment. I'm planning on ordering 25SS and some books in one hit.

What I'm looking for, is a working 25SS McMourning list so I can just order it all and go from there.

McMourning, some Punk Zombies, apparently there's a neat shooting Merc and some other Mercs I'm apparently supposed to cut up for body parts.

I understand that the crew makeup can change from mission to mission as you can tweak your crew between. However, I'll cross that bridge later. I'd appreciate it if you guys could write me up a kickass list?

Thanks

[Penemue]

McMourning, some Punk Zombies, apparently there's a neat shooting Merc and some other Mercs I'm apparently supposed to cut up for body parts.

As with every game, you might find people hesitating to make you a "kickass" list. That said, there are a few things you might pick up for McMourning:

a) Canine Remains. Quick, cheap sources of corpse tokens, you'll be making them with Sebastian.

Sebastian. He makes body parts, he cuts things good.

c) Flesh Constructs. While you may not actually be buying these with Soulstones, they are great to drop with your body part counters and "Monstrous Creation."

Take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't actually played McMourning - this is just information I've been picking up on the go.

[Werecat]

The McMourning starter is one of the worst right out of the box, but with just a few additions it's great.

Two packs of canine remains is just the ticket. They'll leave corpses, can be cut up for body parts, and are quick to grab objectives. They're great with the drugs from the nurses, since you really wont mind when they die.

The box will give you a flesh construct to summon, but it never hurts to have a second.

3rd, the zombie chihuahua is huge for him. A free body part every turn is sweet. And only 1 stone!

After that, the punk zombies are a good buy, as is the convict gunslinger (probably the merc your friends mentioned)

Good luck man! I started with McMourning too. He's a LOT of fun.

[ProdigalPunk]

I was going to try to be cost effective, but then I remembered you said that you came from 40k/whfb so my suggestions will not even scratch that.

I would buy:

The box set (2 nurses is overkill, but the rest of the box is pretty much a must have, so I think it might still be better to buy the box)

2 packs of dogs (for a total of 4 dogs), you might eventually need more, but that should be an ok start

1 zombie chihuahua

1 pack of undead miners

Then run a list like:

McM

totem

Sebastian

Nurse

2 x canine remains

2 x miners

Not the most uber leet list ever, but it should allow you to get a feel for things and compete relatively well.

[Chucklemonkey]

At 25 pts I usually play something like this

McM

Sebastian 6

Bete Noire 9 (Your dogs will die after all)

4 Canine Remains 8pt total

Zombie Chihuahua 1

Leaving one extra stone. As others have said you will be trying to create a flesh construct so having one of those would be very useful.

A lot of people still take the nurse but I have never got the hang of her.

[basher]

sorry for hijacking your thred

what are the hanged like

[Werecat]

Hanged are ok, but I don't think they have a lot of synergy with McMourning, honestly. Wouldn't hurt if you're going against a low WP crew.

[Natty]

I would recommend against picking up more than one flesh construct because when the new uber monster (Rogue Necromancy?) that can be made from body parts finally gets sculpted, you will mainly want to summon those.

[JMGraham]

The Rogue Necromancy is Rare 1, so only one of them can be on the field at a time in most cases. because of that, and because of how easily McMourning can get body parts (as opposed to corpses for the other masters), I'd suggest having 2 Flesh Constructs and a Rogue Necromancy on hand. If you play the combos correct, it's not unlikely for you to have all three models on the board at a time (and you likely don't want to waste body parts summoning canine remains).

[Zethal]

What I'm looking for, is a working 25SS McMourning list so I can just order it all and go from there.

McMourning, some Punk Zombies, apparently there's a neat shooting Merc and some other Mercs I'm apparently supposed to cut up for body parts.

I understand that the crew makeup can change from mission to mission as you can tweak your crew between. However, I'll cross that bridge later. I'd appreciate it if you guys could write me up a kickass list?

So McMorning is a pretty decent Melee Master. He's only decent though due to his quite bad Wp and Df for a master. The 12 wounds and Hard to Wound are good, and Organ Donor is great if he can survives through a round of heavy fire. But he is also fairly easy to take down in a turn for an list with a lot of damage potential.

To assist with this weakness his greatest ally seems to be Betty Noir. She is also quite fragile but puts out a scary amount of damage. Using Betty to draw fire from McMorning seems to work quite well. It gives a really tough choice to your opponent. They either have to go all out on McMorning to take him out risking Betty eating through them, or take out Betty which is a much safer bet and she is more of a damage threat. Additionally Doug's crews normally run quite low on card requirements so its not a problematic restriction to retain a high card for her One with the Night.

Besides that, Sebastian is amazing. The most Reliable AoE attack in the entire Ressie faction, wonderful damage, melee expert, Gravedigger, farms body parts and can give corpse/body counters to Doug.

Canine's work well with Sebastian and are generally amazing for any Ressie master except Kirai. They are threatening enough to force your opponent to kill them, they collect Corpse Counters, arguably better then even Nico's vultures. And most of all the are really cheap Corse Counters.

Then of course the Dissect trick.

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=119841&postcount=4

The Necrotic Machine is the best totem available to non-Kirai ressies. For a totem it's Ca of 4 great, its by far the hardest to get rid of, the highest attack stat, Mv 5 and absolutely scary damage with potentially Poison 3 and a base damage of 2.

So a general rule of thumb is bring every Corpse Counter you want to use. More then half the models in the game won't drop the counters and many crews don't have a single model that drop them. So don't rely on your opponents models to feed your need for these counters.

Here's a few 25SS lists that should work quite well. Although I highly suggest you push your group and yourself to move to 35SS the game really seems to shine at that size of crew. Similar to 2250 or 2k WHFB armies.

Betty Crew: May struggle a bit in 25SS due to Betty's Cost

McMorning

Necrotic Machine, 2

Betty Noir, 9

Sebastian, 6

4xCanine, 8

Total = 25SS, 6 Cache

More standard Crew:

McMorning

Necrotic Machine, 2

Sebastian, 6

Crooked Man, 4

Belle/Punk Zombie, 4/5 by preference

3x Canine, 6

Total = 25SS, 6/7 Cache

[Raintar]

McMourning is pretty versatile in that he can summon and melee but e is a much better melee fighter then summoner. The best McMourning combo is the Dead Rider/Grave Spirit giving your Dead Rider 2 armor in addition to the rest of his abilities. Nurses with Desperate Mercenaries are really good as well.

[Obeisance]

Thanks for the replies folks.

The probability of me starting Malifaux is pretty high now that I know what to run with.

What's the Necrotic Machine, btw?

[Obeisance]

I assume Necrotic Machine is in the Rising Powers book?

Also I can't seem to find the model for said machine. I know Rogue Necromancy isn't out yet and I'll have to convert it up.

I'm gonna go with this crew that Zethal posted

McMorning

Necrotic Machine, 2

Betty Noir, 9

Sebastian, 6

4xCanine, 8

Total = 25SS, 6 Cache

How many Flesh Golems will I need as summon fodder, on top of the Rogue Necromancy?

[Werecat]

I don't entirely agree with the comments about the Necrotic Machine. It's cool and all, sure. But I would never EVER take it over the Chihuahua with McMourning, and I'd have a hard time leaving out the Copycat Killer with Seamus. I may take it with Nicodem, but that may be because I've never had much luck with the vultures, I guess.

Anyway, yes. The Necrotic Machine is in Rising Powers. Like most of the rising powers stuff, a model has not been released quite yet.

I think if you had one Rogue Necromancy and two flesh golems, you'd be set. You'd be hard pressed to summon more than that in a single game. And if you are, then McMourning isn't in there slicing stuff up.

[Chucklemonkey]

Agree with Werecat on the totem situation, although for me it is mostly for thematic reasons.

Other than that it looks a pretty solid list, but then I would say that.

As you can see from the base lists suggested McMournings box set is not optimal but he is a LOT of fun to play.

[Obeisance]

Not having read Rising Powers, besides looking at the Rogue Necromancy, I have no idea what Necrotic Machine does.

Anyone wanna give me an idea?

McMorning

Necrotic Machine (2)

Betty Noir (9)

Sebastian (6)

4x Canine Remains (8)

If I trade the Machine for a Chihuahua, I've got a single point left. I can only take one Totem right?

Nothing seems to cost 1pt. =|

[Ratty]

You don't need to spend all your points infact a lot of the time you want to keep some soul stones in your pool.

[Zethal]

I think if you had one Rogue Necromancy and two flesh golems, you'd be set. You'd be hard pressed to summon more than that in a single game. And if you are, then McMourning isn't in there slicing stuff up.

Agreed that's probably fine. Although one might summon more then 2 during the game, you will unlikely have more then 2 on the table at any given time.

It also doesn't hurt his combat potential very much due it being his 0. You loose scalpel slinging or Master Surgeon. But the vast majority of the time it will be better to have a Flesh Construct if you can make one.

Not having read Rising Powers, besides looking at the Rogue Necromancy, I have no idea what Necrotic Machine does.

Anyone wanna give me an idea?

It's just generally good. Has a Ca of 4:crows making him the best caster of the totems. a Cb of 4 and a good damage at 2/2/4. It's Hard to Wound with 4 Wds and 5 Wp making it the hardest one to kill as well. Then it has a Cb trigger on a crow for Poison Three which is really scary. Makes your opponent have to deal with him in combat or possibly take a 5 (8 over a few turns) damage weak hit from this little guy. Plus he makes a unit undead within 2" as a 0. Which is nice for Sebastian in Nico's list but doesn't help much in Doug's.

[chaosobscuros]

You are right, unless the card says otherwise, you can only connect a Master to one totem.

Another model to look at in a McMourning list is the Rotten Belles. I always run with at least 1, and usually 2 Belles. A McMourning crew is very heavy on melee, but not very effective at ranged attacks. 2 Belles set up correctly can Lure an individual opponent 4 times in a single turn. Combine this with McMourning's Scalpel Slingin', and against a mode with a Movement of 4, you can effectively create a 22" threat range, with 4 Surgical Implement attacks on the target. With the Belle's increased Ca stat, the spell will be effective more often than not.

However, in a 25ss crew, I wouldn't take both Bette and Sebastian. Together, they will run you 15ss, or 60% of your crew cost. A solid Rezzer tactic is to play a numbers game. In a perfect world, your opponent will need to activate all of his models before you. This allows you a strong tactical advantage. As a basic 25ss McMouring list, I typically go with:

McMourning

Zombie Chihuahua

Sebastian

(2x) Rotten Belles

(5x) Canine Remains

With 10 models in this list, your opponent should run out of models long before you will. Utilize the Canine Remains to form a screen in front of the rest of your crew. After your Canine Remains and Chihuahua have gone, utilize the Belles to lure over one of your opponent's nastiest model (who has already acted). McMourning can then use (0)Scalpel Slingin' to pull himself into melee range. There is no non-Master model (and few Masters for that matter) that McMourning cannot take out with 4 attacks. Just be careful not to leave him too exposed afterward.

After Turn 1, it becomes a swarm attack from McMourning and company, with the Canine Remains leading the charge. Once McMourning makes it into a comfortable melee, he can begin using his (0) action to start bringing out Flesh Constructs. The Belles still act in a support role, plucking out enemy models for McMourning and/or Sebastian to take out each turn.

[Obeisance]

Hm!

I like that dual Belle list.

So many dead dogs. o.O

[jmp_mydog]

You might want to proxy some Guild Autopsies as well. In a pinch they're a good summons for McMorning. Also they help with your limited range.

[Werecat]

I've yet to test them out, but I still think I'd prefer the dogs over the autopsies.

[hippieshopper]

I'll be honest, I have played MCM for several games now and it had never even crossed my mind to put range in his list.

Not as an oblivious notion but just one that I don't see any point to. There are very few masters I haven't played against and even less that it occurred to me to add more guns to this equation.

If you use MCM, just know that his specialty is in the front line. He dishes it out hardcore and getting hurt means little to him because everytime you carve your initials into an enemy, you heal that same amount.

He has a lot of other nice tricks and spells but my primary goal here is just the units.

The main ones I see him best with are as follows;

Sebastian: His "henchman", or lackey I suppose. He's a mini version of the mad doctor himself, with the ability to shoot out dogs, mow down weak models and a pretty nice combat of 6. He's worth it.

Canine Remains: These are cheap and simple. Although I mostly use them to summon Flesh Constructs, some people use them in large amounts to grab objectives due to the fact that they companion with Sebastian and they lose their Insignificant quality while in groups of 2 or more.

Flesh Construct: These big guys are the second largest thing that MCM can summon (at a cost of 5 Body Part Counters). I love these guys, they're big and scary looking, they have a melee range of 2", they can do some pretty nice damage, they are immune to influence, and Ceaseless Advance lets them walk and attack for free. I want to reiterate this, I love these guys.

Punk Zombies: These are the bread and butter of my Nicodem set, but that's no reason not to use them here. They don't have a lot of Wounds and their defense is average for an undead goonie but what they lack in that they make up for in raw power. Not only do they sit at a whopping 7 (with a crow) combat, but their weapons are Paired which means you automatically get an extra flip when you wail on someone. They can flurry, and Rot is always nice, and if you are swarmed by smaller dudes you can always try to use Slice and Dice.

I'm not going to bog this down too much, most people have already said a lot of great things and I am hoping to just add my 2 cents. I know it's just my opinion, and it's other's preference to branch out to other types of units but to me the Ressers already have a great lineup, adding convict gunslingers and desperate mercenaries is good for others but I prefer the old school stuff. Home is where the zombies are.

Yeah this probably is good TLDR material.