Is Ryle OP?

[karn987]

Any tips for an opponent in coping with Ryle in a Hoffman crew being protected by a guardian?

What Master/Crew? Ther are a bunch of ways to deal with it.

[Stonedog-7]

Well, personally i run Rezzers, primarily McMourning & Seamus but do have a Kirai crew (and yes, i'm well aware that with Kirai i should have few problems dismantling a hoffman crew, ignoring armour ftw)

But locally we also have a Lady J/Rasputina player (bossman who commented earlier) and a marcus player and all of us will have to face Hoffman & Ryle at some point

[huntroll]

Well, personally i run Rezzers, primarily McMourning & Seamus but do have a Kirai crew (and yes, i'm well aware that with Kirai i should have few problems dismantling a hoffman crew, ignoring armour ftw)

But locally we also have a Lady J/Rasputina player (bossman who commented earlier) and a marcus player and all of us will have to face Hoffman & Ryle at some point

McMourning eats Hoffman for breakfast, especially if you add some Ronins or Von Schill (who is awesome with McM, though a "bit" unfluffy), you just have to make sure you won't overextend with him.

I have played Ryle a few times with Lucius, and he is not OP. He might be good with Hoffman, but he is still not Neverborn-broken

[Stonedog-7]

I can see how McMourning with Precise could cause a world of hurt to hoffman, but what i'm not wrapping my head round currently is how he'd do it personally without either getting pegged by Ryle on the way in or getting hammered by the counter-attack

Any suggestions for any of the other masters or for minions in general beyond "hug cover"

I'm also guessing that Seamus would be a massively sub-par choice with the constructs having Immune to Influence

[huntroll]

I can see how McMourning with Precise could cause a world of hurt to hoffman, but what i'm not wrapping my head round currently is how he'd do it personally without either getting pegged by Ryle on the way in or getting hammered by the counter-attack

Any suggestions for any of the other masters or for minions in general beyond "hug cover"

I'm also guessing that Seamus would be a massively sub-par choice with the constructs having Immune to Influence

Getting McMourning into melee is not that hard in my experience. With the potential to get Fast and Scalpel Slinging he has pretty good threat range, and he can even be Lured forward by a Belle if necessary. And considering that Hoffman usually has much smaller crew size than McMourning, he can even get Lured back into cover after he killed Ryle if you do that after you out-activated him.

In 30 SS I'd take a crew like this:

McM - 8 SS cache

Von Schill - 10 SS

Zombie Chihuahua - 1 SS

Grave Spirit - 1 SS

4 Canine Remains - 8 SS

2 Rotten Belles - 8 SS

Thats a lot of sacrificable models to get Body Part counters from, some great hit-and-run potential, two models which ignore Armor, 10 activations, more than enough to out-activate Hoff's crew and an almost guaranteed 2 VP for Bodyguard on Schill. You won't be able to summon a Rogue Necromancy until VS is alive though, but it's just a big fire magnet made of glass, which doesn't ignore Armor anyway, so it's not such a huge loss.

But if you really want to summon a RN, you can switch VS and the Grave Spirit for 2 Ronins, who also ignore Armor and can get into melee easily, but I'd rather take Schill.

From our other masters, I have very little experience with Kirai, but if I remember correctly her Spirits have a lot of armor-ignoring abilites and her crew is really fast, so Hoffman shouldn't be an issue.

You are right about Seamus, Hoffman is basically his hard-counter, but with Ronins, and some Spirits borrowed from Kirai he might stand a chance. I won't recommend using him though.

Nico could also take Ronins, and his Fog can protect you from Ryle's shooting. Also, Punk Zombies can bypass Armor with Self-Mutilate and Slice and Dice, and Nico can always summon more of them, so if you got some high crows on your summons, you will most likely win the attrition battle vs. Hoffman.