New Guild recruit - Need help with 30ss force

[hewasneverborn]

Hi all

I'm new to the Guild, but I have a little Malifaux experience in the Neverborn. I wanted a different style of crew, one that has a viable ranged ability as well as some combat punch. I played a 30ss game the other day using:

Lady justice

Judge

Peacekeeper

2 Marshals

Austringer

It was mainly an excercise to figure out what I was doing, but even in this first game, I felt that the Judge was not offering me anything fresh. I'm thinking of taking out the Judge and replacing him. I have a limited model range available for the Guild, but I have these options availble:

Nino Ortega (straight swap)

Executioner (straight swap)

Fransisco Ortega and Scales of Justice (straight swap)

Nino offers very decent ranged abilities, and can help take down control cards or difficult models. The executioner is much the same, though is a pretty tough fighter . The latter option provides me with more activations, and flexibility of activations, but is less able to deal with some of the tougher models out there.

I'd like to hear what more experienced Guild players would choose in this case. I have not used any of these models before, and sometimes on paper something looks better/worse than it tends to be in the game so a bit of real world information would be helpful.

hwnb

[Bas1]

I would think it would depend a bit on who you are going up against, but all of the are solid choices. Nino obviously will help a lot in the range department, and the Executioner is a beast in melee. If you're going up against an opponent who will easily let the Executioner keep healing I would use him over Nino.

Nino is never really a bad choice though.

Or, I could offer the advice 90% of people do: Convict Gunslinger

[Stockholm]

Your list is very functional. I would trade out Francisco for the Austringer in most match ups because Franc is a beast in melee while still a great shooter for a 5 pts model.

Having the PK, Judge and Franc as your fightning line behind the rushing Lady J are three dudes who can all Flurry and have Cb 6 or higher. Lady J kills at the top of the round and everything within 10 inches and LoS gets +2 Cb for the whole round. Keep some masks in your control hand for anyone foolish enough to attack Lady J and blow a soul stone with a good mask card and Riposte the crap out of them.

Overall your list is solid. Models with staying power and strong melee and no slouches on the dakka dakka.

[Stockholm]

People frequently neglect a good drop of a Finish the Job spell with a ram as well. +2 dg to all Death Marshals, Lady J and the Judge within 4 inches of the casting DM is awesome. Go go synergy!

[nilus]

Or, I could offer the advice 90% of people do: Convict Gunslinger

I would have to disagree in a Guild list. You got plenty of shooty already to choose from in faction. No need to bring the Gunslinger.

Don't overlook Santiagos coolness. He can take a beating and dish out some great damage at range. Just don't let him get into melee

[Borthcollective]

I would go with Nino, a fair string of triggers can pretty much put down most non-master models in one activation.

[fcwookiee]

I Played a the following list last week and it won 5 vp to -1 against Resurrectionists Nicodem.

Lady J

Judge

2 Deathmarshels

Scales of Justice

Austringer

2 Witchling Stalkers.

The Austringer was ok doing a single pt of damage each turn before allowing one of my other players to take a turn. But it was the stalkers that were fantastic with their hunter and scout ability gave them great tactical advantage. They both died but they took down much more than they cost.

The Judge was good with the Scales casting lady Js combat prowess on him giving him Melee expert on top of his flurry and a 2" range on his Melee weapon!

[John_Dredd]

Below isn't really a recommendation so much as some things to think about that may help you decide.

Personally, I like running Peacekeeper and Executioner as my primary melee units (but I tend to run Perdita as my master). PK and Ex both have terrifying, which is nice vs. other terrifying and harmless units. PK has Armor 2 and Immune to Influence whereas Executioner has Slow to Die and Love the Job. Thing is, I also like to run them with Nino for ranged support. Nino can kill any model in one activation with the right hand and/or a bit of luck from your deck. Plus I like to mix up my trigger suits. Rams for critical on most models, crows for decapitate on executioner (amazing trigger, as it does damage whether opponent discards or not) and headshot for Nino (situational since it does no damage), and masks for a couple of things, but especially for Nino's Trigger Happy. LJ's totem can help get the right card in your hand, but Perdita's Hero's Gamble can do it as well (without the 2 points for a totem.) But, as you can see, that's a lot of points (23) before getting any foot soldiers or what have you. 1 Death Marshal or 1 Austringer would round you up to 27 or 28 points. A totem would get you to 29 or 30 points.

[hewasneverborn]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to try out the following today (and various versions based on suggestions above over the next few games):

Lady J

Peacekeeper

Executioner

2 Marshals

Fransisco

On paper it seems to have decent ranged support at shortish range, but with exceptional melee clout. Will post back on findings after I play.

[Lord Shaper]

One thing I have started using in my games is at least one Watcher with the Scales... The watcher lets you stack the next 2 cards and if needed for your hand you can use the scales to put it there.

Sort of like playing a control deck in MTG...

[nilus]

On paper it seems to have decent ranged support at shortish range, but with exceptional melee clout. Will post back on findings after I play.

The only issue you might have is that the Executioner might fall behind the rest of your army. He doesn't look it on paper but in play he is really slow. So he might be playing catch up with LJ and the peacekeeper

[tedwin183]

Ok, ill throw my hat into the ring here. My girlfriend has been playing solely lady j, and her list of choice is:

Lady j

Judge

3x death marshals

Austringer

Scales of justice

If I had any swap to recommend it would be judge for nino. I just can't really put into words how good nino is. He wants masks for trigger happy, but otherwise functions nicely without needing to cheat fate (much).

I find the peacekeeper to be lacking...at least until hoffman comes out and makes him more reliable. Arachnid is nice for the odd severe terrain-heavy setup, but otherwise is kinda meh.

Anyways, she kicks quite a bit of butt in our local meta with the above list.

[hewasneverborn]

I have yet to use Nino, but based on what I have seen from the executioner, automatic kills at range with Crows could be very nasty.