Nurses...

[Necromorph]

So I've recently picked up McM's box, and I have a Miss Pack, but after sitting down and thoroughly researching Nurses, I find myself disappointed. I'll do a positive/negative.

Pro's

-Nice fluff and background, staple unit for Mcm.

-Massive Dose has it's uses...sometimes.

-Furious Casting.

-Some nice triggers.

-Despite it's cc, Life Support is pretty sweet.

Con's

-Melee support unit with relatively low defensive stats / 6 wounds.

-Lack of defensive abilities given their low stats (the Harmless cuddle hurt them a lot).

-High cc on many spells, and no built in stats on ca/cb

-Most spells comes with a "downside."

---Surgery makes both models slow, (not huge but for a high cc All action it's iffy).

---Massive dose sacrifices the unit affected, denying you corpse counters.

---(0) Actions must have b2b.

-Their lack of Companion or any kind of "linking" ability makes their (0) actions awkward to utilize.

-Considering the above, the 5ss price tag puts them far below other 5ss models in terms of overall usefulness (Ronin, Austringers, Convict, Stitched, Punk's, Belles for -1ss, blah blah blah).

-It's only really practical to ever use 1, denying the possibility for workable "themed" lists (aka Seamus/Belles, Nico/Punks).

That having been said, there seems to be only 1 main strategy that I can find for using them, and that is keeping them near Sebastian to turn Canines into cruise missiles and send them at the enemy. Granted, this is a good way to use them, but requires a somewhat dedicated list. We (at the LGC) also talked about using them with Desperate Mercs, which brings some evil plans to mind, but that's about it. They are basically pigeonholed into being "a 5ss unit that is only useful for buffing 2ss units." Sure they can have a use supporting larger models, but only in very specific situations, and assuming they survive being that close to the enemy for that long.

They are rarely going to be useful in Melee (where most of their support spells, abilities, and triggers can really shine) thanks to their poor survivability and a cb of 4 with nothing built in. It is a little frustrating. I love the models, love the fluff, but feel that they are just too subpar to be practical in most situations. Sure you CAN you them, but it almost always seems like you'd be better off taking something else unless you play a strict "dog spam" list.

Anyone have any idea's as to how they can be more effectively and consistantly utilized? Also Idea's as to how they could be changed for the better to make them more appealing? (Not that they're likely to change now, but hey, they are probably the least used "staple units" I can think of).

Edited May 19, 2011 by Necromorph

[kanhead]

I thought about this for a while and haven't come up with anything more than what you have stated. Every time i've used one i've been massively underwhelmed by their table impact. Sure they buff up dogs and make them much more dangerous but its a lot of SS to do that and i'd rather another threat/utility. Plus it changes the dogs into a one a turn burst mini rather than a swarming pack. I generally always take a belle/crooked man instead.

[Hookers]

I generally always take a belle/crooked man instead.

and a soul stone or body part

yeah its a shame, they are pretty terrible. i've been trying to work one in to a killjoy list (sacrifice something before its going to get sacrificed anyways) but even then they are very expensive for a model with 0 damage output and that takes hits like a wet paper bag.

it certain situations with certain strategies and schemes they can be invaluable, but those are so few and far between and difficult to predict that its very rarely worth it fitting them into a list.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Treasure hunt? This is one of their best strategies. Have them give reactivate to a dog and shoot him off to counter and back. You can easily get the counter back to within 6" closer to your deployment. Then kill dog from range and you get its corpse counter. You can do this with necropunks and get even closer with slow to die.

Nurses are situational but can really rock.

[d_mun]

I've only played the with one, once. I used reactivate and speed on a vulture to deliver Killjoy ridiculously far on the first turn. If I remember correctly I could have gone into the other deployment zone but I had to go in at an angle so Marcus couldn't get the treasure counter on the first turn.

I could also imagine using reactivate to make Deliver message easier, and letting a punk zombie slice and dice itself to death so it still creates a marker.