Team Marcus

[ukrocky]

I was thinking about compiling all my mini-game reports, so including the lists etc, into one thread as the first post, with a QnA as the 2nd post. As all my games are in this thread somewhere!

[Nephalumps]

I was thinking about compiling all my mini-game reports, so including the lists etc, into one thread as the first post, with a QnA as the 2nd post. As all my games are in this thread somewhere!

Something like that would be awesome! I've kept up with your list postings since near the beginning of your run, and they've been very helpful.

What's most remarkable is the wide variety of models you make use of. A lot of Marcus lists tend to be pretty same-y, but you've put some crazy model combinations together and (apparently) made very good use of 'em.

That list construction is part of what I'm curious about with Marcus. I think part of Marcus' curse is that he lends himself strongly to a theme ("lots of beasts,") but that theme is not at all universally effective due to the weakness inherent in the current crop of beast models.

Half of Malifaux is picking the right models for the right job, and Marcus has a tremendous variety of models available to him. (Side note: I realized today that Marcus can hire from every single Special Forces option in the game!) However, its also really hard to sort out which ones are a good choice in a given situation, given how much that can vary by scenario and opposing crew.

I have no idea how one would collect and convey that much information, but regardless I think its an important concept to understand with Marcus. You seem to have a great handle on that though. Either that, or you just take whatever you want, and you're just that damn good at the game.

[Lucidicide]

I can definitely say I'm interested in trying to rock it with Marcus now that I have him, but this thread is WAY too intimidating to dive into. If there is some sort of summary available, I would give many cookies for it.

[Only Perfect]

Summary = some battle reports, a little rules disscussion, and variuos "Marcus is awesome posts".

It's and "all comers" thread

[Lucidicide]

Ha. The first like 100 posts are three people talking, and not about the game at all. You didn't mention that!

[dgraz]

I can definitely say I'm interested in trying to rock it with Marcus now that I have him, but this thread is WAY too intimidating to dive into. If there is some sort of summary available, I would give many cookies for it.

The "Pull my Finger" Wiki is pretty good.

[Wormstrum]

So today I finished painting my crew and managed to get 2 more games in.

Game 1 - Shared Distract

Me: Marcus, Shikome, Cerberus, 3x Silurid, Moleman, Jackalope

Assassinate, Primal Source - 4ss cache

Opponent: Perdita, Nino, Samael, Ryle, Witchling Stalker, Austringer

Bodyguard, Kill Protege - Shikome, 5ss cache

Turn 1 was largely uneventful. Until Nino activated and triggered 3 times against my shikome, killing her. Marcus then charged nino to engage him and samael, but flipped a black joker for damage.

Turn 2 was more of the same, with the guild guns taking down a silurid, and marcus swinging twice on nino to kill him and get a credit towards primal source.

Turn 3, more bad luck ( I swear my fate deck hates me) as after marcus finished off samael to complete primal source, perdita's crew managed to kill everything but marcus, my moleman, and the jackalope. Things were looking bad.

Turn 4. Marcus wins initiative, pokes perdita for 2 and uses stare down. The jackalope then leaps, and charges perdita. She flips a 5 for defense giving me an even damage flip. Apparently this particular jackalope just watched monty python, because he flipped a red joker followed by a 12 of tomes. Perdita takes 6 damage and dies to the totem. Unfortunately the remaining guild models aren't as amused as I am and I proceed to get tabled.

Final score is 8-6 Marcus. All hail the mighty Jackalope!

Game 2 - Shared Destroy Evidence

Me: Marcus, Jackalope, Shikome, Cerberus, 3x Silurid, Moleman

Eye for an Eye, Grudge - Ice Gamin, 4ss cache

Opponent: Rasputina, 3x Ice Gamin, Silent One, Snowstorm, Essence of Power

Kill Protege - Shikome, Tina Scheme, 8ss cache

Turn 1 was mostly positioning until Marcus' activation came up. I decided to play hyper aggressive with him and managed to charge raspy turn 1 as well as put 4 wounds on her.

Turn 2 I won initiative and Marcus proceeded to free the beast all over raspy's face. She died quickly. Rest of the turn was fairly uneventful. Some pot shots were taken against Marcus in revenge and he took 3 wounds. One silurid destroyed the neutral objective.

Turn 3 the game continued to devolve into a giant melee between marcus, snowstorm, the gamin, the shikome, and a silurid. After everything had settled my grudge target was dead, and almost everything in the fight was between 1-4 wounds away from dead.

Turn 4 the moleman finally joins the fight and punches snow storm in the face, killing him, as well as marcus and one of my silurids (shatter 4 ftl ><). One of the gamin tries to attack the shiikome and misses. She responds by moving to the edge of his range and finishes him off.

The resulting shatter finishes the other gamin and my moleman, leaving my opponent with just his silent one to fight against an untouched cerberus, my shikome, and 2 silurids.

We decided to call it there. Final score 6-0 Marcus.

So since finishing my paint jobs I'm now currently 2-0 with Marcus. Liking the beast master so far. And the reactions after beating somebody with him are just as rewarding as the victories themselves.

Also, Perdita getting owned by a jackalope was priceless

Edited October 7, 2011 by Wormstrum

[Nephalumps]

The "Pull my Finger" Wiki is pretty good.

Agreed. The wiki is definitely filling out nicely, and Karn's efforts to rally the forums has paid off over the past few weeks. Last I checked, everything from Books 1 and 2 for Arcanists had at least something decent in the entries, and most of them were reasonably well fleshed out.

The wiki may also be a good place to delve into Marcus many, many model interactions, as it'd be easier to flip back and forth between Marcus' list of the thousands of models he can take, and the individual model entries (which would contain info on how they work with Marcus.)

Also: congrats Wormstrum on the two wins! Marcus' crew definitely grows legs once you have more options, and it sounds like your recent painting efforts opened up some great options (Shikome, Silurids.)

It also sounds like you did a great job of keeping your focus on the objectives (which can be difficult sometimes.) Even though you got tabled the first game (a not uncommon occurrence in my Marcus games as well...) you still pulled out the win!

All hail the Jackalope indeed. For his piddly cost, the little bugger can kick out a surprising charge. Even worse when the Red Joker decides to help out.

[Adran]

The only downside I can see is that the Jackalope on the charge with the red joker can't do more than 6 points of damage. It sounds like an ideal win otherwise.

[Nephalumps]

The only downside I can see is that the Jackalope on the charge with the red joker can't do more than 6 points of damage. It sounds like an ideal win otherwise.

True, but its still 6 points of damage from a 1 SS model. Definitely not worth cheating the Red Joker in (unless its your only big for glory,) but if you happen to flip it, a little extra damage on that near-free charge doesn't hurt.

That's the best part about the Jackalope: its mainly a good Defend Me target (since it keeps coming back,) so any charge attacks/Primal Flame castings you get out of the little bugger are a pure bonus. And those two things are just good enough that they're genuinely useful when they (randomly) work out.

I'm not sure calling it the "best" Totem in the game would be accurate (if nothing else, Colette has her godless Doves,) but he's definitely up there in terms of "fun" and utility.

[Wormstrum]

I agree. Usually I don't get much out of the bunny other than him being a distraction to waste enemy action points. That being said it was really just a hail mary last ditch pot shot kind of deal as I was about to get tabled anyway.

If I hadn't gotten super lucky on the damage flips the game would have gone 8-6 Perdita instead. However, I did get lucky, and now Perdita hangs her head in shame at the mention of bunny rabbits

Edited October 7, 2011 by Wormstrum

[Chrisgossett]

Hello Team Marcus,

I have been using this thread for sometime now to grab pieces of information play test and theory craft with a few of my friends, and it has been very helpful. While I am still loyal to Marcus I think the overall goal is to be strong as a faction, for tournaments etc... I propose that a "team (insert Arcanist Master Name) thread" be created for each Arcanist Master as there is a serious lack of theory crafting activity out there for our faction's other masters. I do not have to much personal experience with the other masters so I was hoping one of Team Marcus player's will have some insight on these masters. I was simply going to get the ball rolling by creating a team thread for some of them. I wanted to ask permission to do this from the community because Team Marcus is more then one person. =)

Thanks

[Nephalumps]

Hello Team Marcus,

I have been using this thread for sometime now to grab pieces of information play test and theory craft with a few of my friends, and it has been very helpful. While I am still loyal to Marcus I think the overall goal is to be strong as a faction, for tournaments etc... I propose that a "team (insert Arcanist Master Name) thread" be created for each Arcanist Master as there is a serious lack of theory crafting activity out there for our faction's other masters. I do not have to much personal experience with the other masters so I was hoping one of Team Marcus player's will have some insight on these masters. I was simply going to get the ball rolling by creating a team thread for some of them. I wanted to ask permission to do this from the community because Team Marcus is more then one person. =)

Thanks

Just a note: there is actually a "Team Rasputina" thread, but it's been buried a bit.

I think Master (and probably Henchman as well,) specific threads would be very helpful, especially if we could get them stickied. For newer players, or players branching out, having a "one stop shop" for beginning discussions on a Master would be very, very helpful; I know the Team Marcus thread has given me a lot of insight I may not have had otherwise.

The "Pull My Finger" wiki is also a great source of information for each Master, though I think something like that is best used in tandem with active discussion. That way, you get a solid factual base of what the model is capable of, and then you can build upon that with experience.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Nephalumps

[Nephalumps]

Double posting because I totally forgot the game I played with with Marcus this weekend. 35 SS against my buddy who was using Sonnia Criid for the first time.

Me:

Strat and Schemes: Plant Evidence, w/Hold Out and Kill Protege (Samael Hopkins)

Crew: Marcus, Avatar, Jackalope (slight brain fart here, as I added the Avatar in later but forgot it'd knock out the Jackalope,) Myranda, Rogue Necromancy, Night Terror (x2), Waldgeist; 7 SS Cache

Him:

Strat and Schemes:Slaughter (), w/Raid and Kill Protege (Rogue Necromancy)

Crew: Sonnia Criid, Samael Hopkins, Guild Hound (x2), Witchling Handler, Witchling Stalker (x2), Guild Austringer; 6 SS Cache

1st Turn - Sonnia has initiative. This turn is all jockeying for position, with both our crews moving up behind cover, and my Night Terrors making a beeline for his half of the table to try and plant some evidence. The Waldgeist does the same, but brings a stand of trees with him.

2nd Turn - Marcus gains initiative. One of the Night Terrors plants evidence on a forest on Sonnia's half of the table, then moves to engage the two Guild Hounds. That Night Terror is promptly devoured by the two Guild Hounds, but it allows the other Night Terror to roam free.

Waldgeist shuffles up in his forest next to a wall on Sonnia's half of the table, and plants more evidence. Samael sets his bullets on fire, and even with the :-fate on shooting the Waldgeist, he manages to land a shot for 3 damage (5 -2 Armor!) with Rapid Fire. Samael is not to be trifled with. Austringer tries to finish off the Waldgeist, but the for Perfect Camouflage forces two weak hits, which results in two more damage on the Waldgeist.

I move my remaining Night Terror into evidence planting position for next turn. Sonnia tries to finish off the Waldgeist (my friend apparently really didn't want it hanging out on his half of the table,) but the 's combined with a really good hand keep it alive with 1 Wd.

I decide to push for some damage on his crew, and double walk the Rogue Necromancy up to Samael. Two bites later, and Samel is no more! Check off my "Kill Protege". The Witchling Handler buffs one of the Witchling's with super-crazy melee powah, pushes the buffed up Witchling 4" towards the RN, and then fades back a little.

Marcus casts Wild Heart and runs over to tag another piece of terrain with evidence. The buffed up Witchling charges the RN, and takes out half of it's health with a double Crit trigger. Goodbye "Three Headed."

Myranda moves up behind a building in preparation for evidence planting, but also to potentially heal and Companion the RN if I get lucky next turn.

The remaining Witchling charge Marcus, and comes up with air. My Jackalope is running around, doing nothing, because I forget all its good abilities.

3rd Turn - I draw the perfect hand for what I want to do: a 9:tomes for Myranda's Transformation, and a high :rams for Primal Flame on the RN!

Of course, my friend flips a 13 for Initiative. The Witchling Stalker finishes off the Rogue Necromancy. Check off his "Kill Protege". I try to keep my eye on the prize and activate my other Night Terror to plant evidence on another wall, completing my strat, and then it flies into combat with the Austringer.

The Austringer then does his little truffle shuffle out of combat, and tries to finish off the Waldgiest, but he misses the shot. Marcus activates, gets the triple buff on Wild Heart, and clubs the Witchling in front of him to death (completing his Primal Reaction Manifest requirement,) then charges the Witchling Handler as his other (0) Action, but whiffs. Marcus is now halfway to Manifesting, but slightly singed due to the Witchling's explosion.

Sonnia activates, cooks the Waldgeist in the forest, then charges the Night Terror and clobbers it right good; the only reason it lives is due to Hard to Kill. Myranda activates, moves into combat with the Witchling, transforms in a Slate Ridge Mauler, and punches the Witchling. Rip Throat triggers, and that, combined with the Mauler's high minimum damage and the fact that the Handler's buffing spell causes 1 Wd to the Witchling, makes the little guy explode, dealing 2 Dg to the Myrandabear.

Guild Hounds activate, and make a bum rush for my deployment zone, to deny me the 2 VP for Hold Out. Its a good play, because I have nothing left to stop 'em. I run the Jackalope over that way, in the hope he can charge and miracle up a Red Joker kill or something on one of them. The turn ends when the Witchling Handler tries to slice into Marcus twice, but misses both attacks.

4th Turn - Big initiative flip here - Myrandabear is close to Sonnia, who is at 1 SS, and I can shenanigan with Avatar Marcus. However, Sonnia is also close enough to blow some holes in my remaining models if I lose this flip.

Thankfully, I flip high on initiative, and my buddy doesn't want to risk his last SS on the reflip.

Marcus activates first, and I'm so frazzled by my many, many options that I sort of flub this activation. I'm greedy to kill the Witchling Handler, so I cast Wild Heart with a triple buff and surge on the flip, go with the attack and damage buffs and (0) action attack, and swing at her twice, using his other (0) action as one of the two attacks to save Marcus' last (1) action for Manifesting. In hindsight, not a great plan, as I would have needed two moderates to kill her.

Fate reinforces that it was a really not great plan, and I flip a Black Joker on the second attack. I then go ahead with the Manifestation with Marcus' last (1) action, and use his Fast action to cast Instinctual Behavior on the Myrandabear, thankfully having the :rams I need to cheat in.

Myrandabear charges Sonnia for the Instinctual Behavior action, and takes out 5 Wds with a Rip Throat minimum damage hit. Marcus concludes his activation, which then allows Myrandabear to immediately activate, and she finishes off Sonnia (this time with a Shred trigger, if she would have survived,) and then Myrandabear advances, and kills the Austringer with her Melee Expert attack with yet another Rip Throat trigger!

After that bear frenzy, my friend calls the game, because he's extremely doubtful that he'll be able to close the SS gap to give him the win.

Final score: 6 VP for Marcus, 2 VP for Sonnia.

Overall, a crazy game. The Rogue Necromancy probably wasn't the best choice for the scenario, but I really wanted to try it out. I've been looking for a "beat stick" model for Marcus, and the RN seems to fulfill that nicely. It would have done much more damage in the mid-game (and been overall safer) if I wasn't fighting so much Magic Resistance/Reflection/Counterspell stuff.

Similarly, Myranda had probably her ideal game. She was in a clutch position to heal up the RN and have it immediately rampage if I was able to win initiative that turn, and her turning into the Mauler late game enabled some serious beatdown when combined with Marcus' Avatar abilities.

Likewise, for as much as Marcus' Avatar befuddles me, it definitely allows for a powerful late game push if you have the models left for it. Winning initiative that turn allowed me to cause a lot of damage to the opposing crew, and that combination of events and the power of it (Myrandabear had Cb 7 claws with double 's to attack, and a to damage!) was devastating at that point in the game.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Nephalumps

[Adran]

Just thought.

Jackalope is removed from play by manifesting.

Multiply says

"...If this model was previously removed from play and is currently not in play its controller may place it in base contact with the beast before it is removed from play"

Result

You don't lose the jackalope for ever when you manifest.

[Lucidicide]

Nice bat rep! Thanks for sharing.

[Issalbotproto]

Agreed I have a friend that plays the sonnia list so it's nice to know the rogue could stand toe to toe with it for a bit

[Geckilian]

Just thought.

Jackalope is removed from play by manifesting.

Multiply says

"...If this model was previously removed from play and is currently not in play its controller may place it in base contact with the beast before it is removed from play"

Result

You don't lose the jackalope for ever when you manifest.

Not quite I'm afraid. You 'Remove from the game all totems attached to Marcus.' emphasis mine.

As it's game and not play, the totem disappears. In a similar vein, it stops Dreamer just burying all 3 first.

[Nephalumps]

Agreed I have a friend that plays the sonnia list so it's nice to know the rogue could stand toe to toe with it for a bit

In fairness, the only reason the Rogue Necromancy wasn't ventilated long before I could get it into combat was because I made it my mission to keep it skulking behind or in cover as much as possible.

The Rogue Necromancy in general is in some ways less than ideal vs. Guild: they do all their damage with Critical Strike triggers, so Hard to Wound doesn't help so much (Armor is much more valuable for durability in that case,) and against Sonnia's crew I couldn't really use Acid Breath to any gain (too much Magic Resistance floating around to make it worth it.)

However, there's an upside: Guild has a large portion of models that are susceptible to Morale! For once!

So, Terrifying and True Form can come into play to make the RN more of a menace. Add in Marcus' Howl, and you can set up some really rough Wp situations for them.

Marcus also has a synergy with the RN that can work really well against strong melee threats, regardless of faction: if Marcus can Feral a target, it will then be affected by the RN's Scent of Death (0) Action. Making your opponent take more Wp checks is always a good thing, and you can make it even harder on them with the aforementioned Howl, and/or Stare Down.

Granted, Guild is much more likely to shoot you full of holes instead of punch you, but its a good thing to bear in mind.

EDIT to add: One thing to remember with the RN: at the end of the day, its still a combat monster. Between the accurate claws, and the high damage bites, there isn't much you can't take down with it (or heavily maim.)

So, even if you find yourself up against a crew that negates its other attributes (and Sonnia's crew does a good job of that,) you still have a model that can charge in or double walk and destroy something. So long as you make that worth the expenditure of effort (great to sic on a "Kill Protege" target,) I think the RN will rarely disappoint.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Nephalumps

[Orboros]

I have an idea for a nice little meele overkill tactic with AMarcus but i'm not sure if it is legal:

The situation is in meele and you want something to die (or want to charge something)

AMarkus activates, attacks , attacks and casts instinctive behavior on one of his meele beatsticks, let's say a rouge necromancy.

The RN hits/charges something with a +flip and +1 cb because of mark of instinct.

Then you use Rise of the beasts to activate myranda and (afterwards the RN), she copies instinctive behaviour and casts it again on the RN

RN hits something

Then myranda does stuff like healing or also hits something. (remember she also has +1 Cb and can dish out some dmg)

Now finally the RN activates and does what ever it wants to kill stuff.

With this nice little alpha strike you could kill a lot and if you do this to an enemy master/henchmen, i'm pretty sure he would also just explode in a fontain of blood an carnage.

[Nephalumps]

I have an idea for a nice little meele overkill tactic with AMarcus but i'm not sure if it is legal:

The situation is in meele and you want something to die (or want to charge something)

AMarkus activates, attacks , attacks and casts instinctive behavior on one of his meele beatsticks, let's say a rouge necromancy.

The RN hits/charges something with a +flip and +1 cb because of mark of instinct.

Then you use Rise of the beasts to activate myranda and (afterwards the RN), she copies instinctive behaviour and casts it again on the RN

RN hits something

Then myranda does stuff like healing or also hits something. (remember she also has +1 Cb and can dish out some dmg)

Now finally the RN activates and does what ever it wants to kill stuff.

I actually think this is perfectly legit. I believe Instinctual Behavior is written very similar to Obey, in that it can only be cast once per activation. However, much like the Ortega's "Chain 'o Obeys" tactic, if you have multiple models that can cast the spell, they can all do it once per activation.

For whatever reason, I had never thought to use Myranda to cast aMarcus' spells. I guess that's because by the time he manifests, everything of mine is usually dead. Something I'm working on.

A double Instinctual Behavior would be really sick; that's a good number of extra attacks, and potentially a lot of ground you can cover. The other part of this setup I like is that you can use Myranda's Beast Companion ability on the target model before casting Instinctual Behavior on it (again), so you can guarantee activating it after Myranda (so your beastie doesn't get bopped before he can take advantage of activating w/Instinctual Behavior's bonuses.)

While I think a double Instinctual Behavior is really nasty, I also think it may be difficult to pull off most of the time because you'll need two 7:rams+ in your hand to make it a bankable move. Not at all impossible, but sometimes the cards just don't cooperate, right?

However, what I do very much like about this general setup is that, so long as you get one good card for Instinctual Behavior, you have some good flexibility with how you go about it. One of the issues I have with IB (tired of typing it already!) is that if you're not careful you can have the beast charge right off out of Rise of the Beasts range, which is bad.

By using Myranda to cast IB (who, btw, has the exact same casting value as aMarcus,) you can guarantee that the model receiving the buffs will act after her with her (0) action, so you can charge off as far as you like. This also frees up one of aMarcus' general AP, which he can use to either charge in and stab something with his Chimeric Assault (potentially very nasty,) then retreat, or use Give In To It/Feral following by Dominion (right ability name?) to make it very difficult for your opponent to not be completely destroyed by whatever activates after aMarcus.

My god, Myranda now has actual synergy with two models that Marcus can use! Book 3 literally doubled her usefulness.

Also:

With this nice little alpha strike you could kill a lot and if you do this to an enemy master/henchmen, i'm pretty sure he would also just explode in a fontain of blood an carnage.

This is precisely what Myrandabear did in my game!

IB on anything with Paired weapons or weapons with good triggers is really, really nasty. RN and the Mauler are good targets because they have both, and I think the Blessed of December will do well with it also, due to her myriad number of attack triggers.

[Wormstrum]

So last night I had a rematch against the dreamer player from my earlier posts.

Strategy - Shared Distract

Me - Marcus, Jackalope, Shikome, Cerberus, 3x Silurid, Moleman

Assassinate: Dreamer, Sabotage

Opponent - Dreamer/LCB, 2x Stitched, 3x Daydream, 3x Alp, Coppelius

Assassinate: marcus, Kidnap: the Silurids (unannounced)

Turn 1 - Dreamer wins initiative and flies across the board then dumps his crew in front of my deployment zone. LCB takes some swings against Marcus and misses. Marcus activates and pack leaders the cerberus almost killing LCB between the 2 of them. Other models activate and beat each other up a bit. Last activation a silurid uses self preservation and pushes to LCB and manages to finish him off.

Turn 2 - Dreamer wins initiative and gives Marcus a on his defenses then fails to disengage from the models around him. The shikome activates next and takes him out. Coppelius eats a silurid and makes an alp to replace one I had killed earlier. The remaining 2 silurids break away from the main fight and go take care of the sabotage. Marcus gets poked to death by alps and stitched gambles. Sitting on 8 vp at the end of the turn I was confident thinking that with an unannounced scheme I had a win in the bag.

Turn 3 - Coppelius and the alps kill off most of my remaining minions, but the shikome and silurids return the favor by taking out a stitched and a couple more alps. At this point it turns into a game of tag with the silurids and shikome running away.

Turn 4 - More running, nothing dies, coppelius makes a replacement alp to get back up to 3.

Turn 5 - I run out of board space to keep out of range of the nightmares and have to try and make a stand. The silurids kill 2 of the 3 alps, the stitched loses his gamble duel and dies to his own ability. The shikome charges coppelius and hits him for 3 points. Coppelius activates and finishes off the shikome. The stitched using its does not die activation gambles both silurids to death.

Game ends in a draw at 8-8.

I feel this game went much better than last time. Reaching 8vp by turn 2 was nice, and reducing the dreamer crew down to just 2 models felt good. I still need to get more models so I can have better options against this crew, but at least I'm getting a better grip on how to use what I do have.

[Nephalumps]

Congrats on the game!

Definitely sounds like a much closer fight than last time, and an 8-8 game means it was one helluva fight on both sides. Sounds like it came right down to the wire, with the Stitched Gambling both of the Silurids to death to lock in Kidnap right before it re-died.

Getting the 8 VPs really early was definitely clutch as well. I'm learning that using Marcus' speed to achieve that kind of early lead is really important, for several key reasons.

----

For funsies, my friends and I did a 3 person Distract yesterday. A shameful day for Marcus, VP wise, as I ended the game with zilch - Perdita managed to hop into my DZ at the end of the game, and Marcus flipped the Black Joker for Feral Heart, which totally screwed me.

However, Marcus himself had an epic showing, clubbing to death two Shikomes (both summoned, one of which had him as its Prey,) two Onryos, and the Ikyro. He held the flank almost by himself, though the Hoarcat Pride on that side chipped in, and the Rattler totally bit one of the ghosts before it was stomped into a belt.

I wanted to use that game to test out the Hoarcat Prides, and at least I understand what they're supposed to be used for: they're great "second line" models, with Pass Through and Harmless. Unfortunately, Malifaux isn't really a game of "lines," and Marcus' crew is so fast/scattered that they don't really keep up well.

However, they're still kind of fun. The one Pride that ended up fighting Kirai's crew got whumped on before it could engage, but its adorableness saved it from a few attacks. Afterwards, it managed to kill one of the Onryo with its three one damage attacks, then I guess it ate her immortal soul or something (Eat Your Fill amusingly doesn't have any limit on the type of models you can trigger it after) to heal back to full.

Honestly, between Eat Your Fill, their high starting damage, Melee Expert, and their Rip Throat trigger, they're not terrible models for their cost. The biggest issue I ran into is that they're kind of slow, and that only becomes exacerbated when a) Marcus' crew is fast (this particular configuration wasn't, but he can run some really fast crews,) and/or your opponent's stuff is fast.

Still, I kind of want to try them in another game or two before I write them off. Marcus doesn't have a lot of "mid-card" melee models to choose from (its primarily the Soulstone Miner, Silurids, and the Hoarcats,) so I want to explore this option a bit more.

[Wormstrum]

Yeah, their speed is what deterred me from fielding them as well. For the same point cost I love the silurids. That being said if you built for a slow moving Marcus crew I think the kitties would fit in well. Its just unfortunate you can't keep stacking hoarcats to devour larger and larger targets. I want to see 4 hoarcats eat Nekima.

[Sartre]

@Wormstrum:

I love to hear from a Marcus-win, but it seems that your opponent isn´t playing the dreamer right. He makes absolutely no sense when you just drop your hole army in front of your opponent and then get beaten up.

When you play the dreamer wisely, you can move more than 24", kill any model and than flip back into your own deployment zone without giving an activation to the opponent.