Tactica: Ortega

[Jonas Albrecht]

First let me say that, as a crew with one of the more forgiving crews, the Ortegas hardly need a tactica. They simply excel at the pick up game. Additionally, while they are my favorite crew, I'm not an expert. I welcome your critiques, ideas, and random punchings. Anyway, with that in mind, why the hell not make an Ortega Tactica.

Meet the Family

Perdita Ortega - Malifaux's premier gunslinger leads the Ortega Family in their war against things that go murder in the night. Her weapons in this fight are her speed, will, and a combination lethal gunplay and stoicism that would give Roland Deschain a run for his money.

Nino Ortega - The youngest Ortega, he's the group's scout and sniper, with accuracy on par with Perdita. Young, but no less deadly than his elder cousins.

Santiago Ortega - With all the time they spend around bullets, it was only a matter of time before one of the Ortegas became practically immune to them. That Ortega is Santiago. Bullets do not kill him, they only make him angrier.

Francisco Ortega - My favorite character in the game, he stepped aside to let his younger sister lead the Family, despite having a reputation as a legendary duelist. *crosses fingers for a Henchman version and alt sculpt*

Papa Loco - Malifaux can take a toll on a person in both body and mind. The latter being the fate of Papa Loco, broken by one too many horrors in the strange world on the other side of the breach. Despite this, the Ortegas still utilize him in their missions, and let him have access to high explosives, which should cast question on their judgement.

Abuela Ortega - Though Perdita may lead the Ortegas, its clear that the eldest Ortega wields plenty of authority around their stronghold, Latigo. She is apparently not to be trifled with.

The Ties that Bind

The Family shares a few common traits:

Companion (Family): This easy to use tool is what allows the Ortegas to perform their infamous Alpha Strike. One an enemy gets in range of a few of them, they can take it down in a hail of gunfire (or dynamite).

Stubborn/Immune to Influence: Buffs and Immunities to to duels that target willpower gives them an edge against a lot of magical attacks.

Shrug Off/Spellbreaker: For everything from Poison to Blight to Slow to all the other horrible crap Malifaux likes to spring on its inhabitants.

Blood is Thicker than Slaughter

Or, How they Play.

Perdita Ortega: The first thing I think every Ortega player should learn is that 'Dita is excellent at riding herd on the biggest threats in the game. Players tend not to want her activating in range of their more important figures, and will do a lot to keep them from her, including waltzing them right into the range and LOS of your other models. Of course, even if they see your trap, there's little Perdita cannot kill on her own. Cb7 and a minimum of 3 damage on a hit, combined with Fast, allow her to burn down a lot of smaller foes, and mortally wound the larger ones.

That said, she's not invincible, and has some threats to keep an eye out for. Chief among these is autodamage from pulses. Both C. Hoffman and Ramos are giant pains in the ass when it comes to this, and can cause you to burn through your preciously small soulstone reserve keeping wounds off her.

The "Coretegas"

These are the three Ortegas I think should be included in Perdita's crew every time.

Santiago Ortega: Paired Peacekeepers, Hard to Kill, Bulletproof, Just a Flesh Wound, Rapid Fire, Critical Strike on a ranged weapon... he's quite simply the best there is after Perdita, and I'll put him in any non-robot-themed Guild crew out there.

Nino Ortega: 16 range and some nice triggers make Nino a necessity for your Ortega crew.

Abuela Ortega: In addition to Shotgun Wedding, she's got a wealth of useful abilities, including a mass heal, a spell kill switch, Obey, and a spell that forces your opponent to perform WP duels to be able to attack.

Tomorrow, I'll continue with a write up on Papa Loco, Francisco, and some of the more useful targets of Shotgun wedding.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Jonas Albrecht

[nilus]

Nice write up and I agree with a lot of it, which means it must be right

[micahwc]

I agree with most of what you have said. It is tempting to say that a tactica for Peredita should include the following tactic:

If the enemy is alive, shoot it until it is no longer living. If the enemy is the walking dead, shoot it until it is the non-walking variety.

Nino's headshot and Papa Loco's take you with me abillity are priceless when they work, which is precisely why your opponent will try very hard to make sure they don't.

So far in my experience I have not liked Santiago. He is designed to get close to the enemy, and the fluff makes him sound like a total badass in melee, but he doesn't have gunfighter and his combat with peacebringer blades is horrible.

I have not used Francisco because of a miss-pack, but his stats suggest that you are paying an extra point over a guild guard or death marshal mostly for the companion abillity.

Peredita is a master that works well with any crew. Her alpha strike ability is great, but short of that all of her advantages work just as well with other minions. She is awesome in close combat as well as ranged.

Her totem is a must if you want Nino to headshot things and Papa loco to blow stuff up. My success story with the totem was activating it last and obeying Nino to headshot Von Schill after my opponent had used all but one of his cards and soul stones. Von Schill had full health and died. When headshot works, it is awesome.

Papa Loco is awesome against Kirai, as seishin are usually packed really close together and one of his explosive abilities is a spell, so the damage is magical and will kill the spirits. When my opponent realized this he used a hanged to terrify his own master so she and the seishin would retreat away from Loco. Alas, it worked well and he only killed two of the four, but it was awesome.

I have no experience with Abuela, I will let others comment about her.

Peredita is extremely fast, and is able to accomplish objectives with relative ease because of her 3 actions a turn. However, some abillities will cause her pain because of this. Pandora's abillity which requires a WP test for every action taken will require 3 WP tests from Peredita even if she passes. It can also be easy to over-extend Peredita because of her speed. While she is awesome, she still needs a crew to function well.

This week I will be using her with Lucious and I will see what ideas come from that.

[nilus]

So far in my experience I have not liked Santiago. He is designed to get close to the enemy, and the fluff makes him sound like a total badass in melee, but he doesn't have gunfighter and his combat with peacebringer blades is horrible.

Yeah that;s your mistake. Santiago is best at abut 8" from an enemy(with Fransisco standing next to him).

The trick with Santiago is to not wait for an enemy to wound him. Shoot him youself and cheat the damage to exactly what you need to get his cool abilities off. Then use his free walk to position and then drop your card and rapid fire someone to death.

He is terrible in melee and that is his weakness, which is why you keep Fransico close to him. He can generally clean up any enemies that charge in and tie Santiago up.

[Jonas Albrecht]

I am not sure how the fluff convinces one that Santiago is a melee badass, but a gander at his stat card should provide enough incentive to use him at range.

[Rage]

Papa Loco is awesome against Kirai, as seishin are usually packed really close together and one of his explosive abilities is a spell, so the damage is magical and will kill the spirits. When my opponent realized this he used a hanged to terrify his own master so she and the seishin would retreat away from Loco. Alas, it worked well and he only killed two of the four, but it was awesome.

Just for future reference, only living models test for terrifying. The Seishin would have stuck around, and possibly Kirai if she was a spirit at the time.

[Fetid Strumpet]

I think what happened would be that at the end of the Hanged's activation, once Kirai had been terrified into running away, the Kirai player utilized the Seishin's Enslaved by Kirai ability. Basically at the end of any activation if a Seishin is not in base to base contact with Kirai it can move so that it is in base to base.

[Rage]

I completely forgot about EbK for the Seishin! Just wanted to point it out just in case, but your example is likely what happened.

[micahwc]

I am not sure how the fluff convinces one that Santiago is a melee badass, but a gander at his stat card should provide enough incentive to use him at range.

Book one states at one point that Santiago is so skilled with his weapon that he can fire a bullet and strike an enemey with his peace bringer blade at the same time. Sounds pretty badass to me.

[Jonas Albrecht]

Book one states at one point that Santiago is so skilled with his weapon that he can fire a bullet and strike an enemey with his peace bringer blade at the same time. Sounds pretty badass to me.

Odd. What page is this on? I just have the blurb next to his statline about no regard for cover and being a hothead.

[micahwc]

I don't have my book with me but i believe it is in the section desribing the peacemaker gun.

[Jonas Albrecht]

I don't have my book with me but i believe it is in the section desribing the peacemaker gun.

So it is. How silly.

[micahwc]

I'll give him another shot and see how he does, but so far I have not been impressed with him.

[Blacktao]

I'll give him another shot and see how he does, but so far I have not been impressed with him.

oh I'm statisfied about Santiago

One day I was playing against Rasputina in a 35 SS game

And I was in BIg problems in Round 4 my Judge Lady J and Samael were al killed. Tho only ones I had left were 3 Ortega Brothers (Nino, Santiago, Francisco)

Nino and Francisco were both on 3 wounds (cause of Rasputinas blasts) . 3 gamins were coming ( al with just a few wounds left) to francisco and nino and then I did with Santiago Leadstorm and killed al of his gamins in 1 shot (actualy 2 )

Then I could fire with the other 2 brothers on Rasputina.

First I shot 2 times with santiago doing 4 damage ( she used al here SS for Justice )

With nino I first casted "In My Sights" and then triggerd a couple of times trigger happy. And last buth not least a great headshot with a Cb of 21 ( 9Cb + Red Joker)

My point is now. If it wasnt for Santiago I would've lost

And for the reccord I had Slaugther

greetz Blacktao

[truefiction]

Tho only ones I had left were 3 Ortega Brothers (Nino, Santiago, Francisco)

Only Francisco and Santiago are brothers. Niño is their cousin

[Blacktao]

Haha I know but it is funnyer to say they're brothers XD

greetz Blacktao

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Santiago and papa can waltz up with obeys and if the enemy is nice and cluster up can do giant 9+ damage pulse, not much can survive that. This is not as hard as it sounds with the ability to companion and use obey. The threat of this is where the real strength comes.

Santiago is a beast, and is in more of my lists than nino. Thanks jonas for a great summary.

[sephiroa]

santiago is very good, and like some said, put fransisco next to him (or executioner) and when he gets charged let the melee user finish the job.

santiago is baddass in mid range shooting and nino in long range. if they ever get close to you you have a back-up. and when nino is in combat use the "were'd he go" spell (very annoying,,)

i personally hate it when my brother fields his 3 ortega's and i have claim jump as a strategy,,

[nilus]

Another option if you are in a larger game or can afford to keep a few models back(For example if you are have Reconnioter as a Strategy)

Keep Santiago next to Nino. Nino can take the long shots and Santiago can, in theory, take out anyone trying to get in close to take him out. Its a big investment at 14 Stones to leave two models in the back field but it works for some situations.

[TooMad]

Peredita is extremely fast, and is able to accomplish objectives with relative ease because of her 3 actions a turn. However, some abillities will cause her pain because of this. Pandora's abillity which requires a WP test for every action taken will require 3 WP tests from Peredita even if she passes. It can also be easy to over-extend Peredita because of her speed. While she is awesome, she still needs a crew to function well.

Doesn't her "immune to influence" protect her from that?

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Nope Pandora removes all models immunities to WP duels, when they are within 12" of her. However Perdita has see the unseen, which bypasses Pandora's WP duel defense. All in all I would rather being running Perdita in a Pandy vs Perdita match.

[Dark Alleycat]

Pandora wouldn't do anything to change being immune to morale duels though correct? or would it change it due to morale duels being a type of wp duels?

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

2nd part Cat. That is why she is so damn powerful.

Now if the model has the ability to ignore some kind of WP duel, then her expose fears will not remove it.

[Dark Alleycat]

So lifer would work,because it specifically says never takes morale duels. But being undead,and thus immune to morale duels,would be removed? or am I misunderstanding things? If so,that would be an incredible move to do against a Resser player that wasn't expecting it. Load up on terrifying models and then pull that out.

[Wodschow]

So lifer would work,because it specifically says never takes morale duels. But being undead,and thus immune to morale duels,would be removed? or am I misunderstanding things? If so,that would be an incredible move to do against a Resser player that wasn't expecting it. Load up on terrifying models and then pull that out.

From the V2:

"Lifer: This model is immune to Morale Duels caused by

Terrifying effects."