Fellow Guildee thoughts

[Palmerdoc13]

I've recently become addicted to Malifaux and chose Hoff and Lady J as starting points for my guild building experience. I have a few questions I was hoping to clear up that I couldn't find conclusive answers to on this forum or Pullmyfinger.

Ryle- I have him because I felt he was a natural choice in my hoffman crew. Everyone suggests that he's a range monster but more often than not he ends up doing 1-2 damage. I actually tend to tag opponents way better in melee with this model. I dont have any intention of replacing my peacekeeper (or in rare situations my Steamborg) but I was wondering if you guys could clear up the whole "ryle is a range monster" thing for me. I see other models (samael/santiago/nino) that seem to pack a way better punch. In fact, 2 death marshalls seem like a better choice of points, especially outside of a hoffman crew.

Austringers-I grabbed 2 of these and I like them in theory, but are these an obvious "no go" against ressers? I dont think my austringer has ever hit for over 1 dmg in at least 15 attempts, but my most common opponent fields resser teams. Are these more typically utilized with lucius or against a SUPER squishy opponent?

Judge vs. Executioner- I play VERY aggressive. I love the Judge fluff and model, and I have seen some clever ideas you can pull with him (posted in this forum), but are there circumstances where the executioner stands head and shoulders above him? I am tryin to limit expenses and would like to find ways to best manage my judge. I don't love the idea of dumping 17pts worth of lucius/SoC/DS into him every game so is there a 25ss or 30ss "poor-mans" judge emphasis crew?

Any answers are much appreciated, and I should have prefaced this with saying that I actually hold my own very nicely as guild. I would just like some input from the community:)

[fuselage]

I've never really thought of a crew focusing on the use of the judge, despite some of the silly things you can pull off with him when you set up properly. Hes more of a great all around piece, with his good melee and ranged, decent defenses and great point cost.

Austringers are a hard take sometimes against ressers, as you said a lot of the time they will end up doing only 1 damage a attack. However they are a marvelous way to hinder and annoy Nicodem crews, seeing how hes going to have to spend a soul stone pretty much every attack you do or get hit. McMourning and Seamus tend to have way too much armor or hard to wound in their crews and are prime targets for how fast McMourning is or being lured in by a belle. Kirai I've found they're even worse, although recently I've heard you added critical strike damage after the spirit 1/2 damage, which could make them slightly more usefull(especially with a Drill Sargent to help get those rams)

[Akujie]

Fransico to me has always been a poor mans Judge. Great combat stats (for shooting and slicing) flurry to make him a little Melee potent, not paying for melee expert (so LJ can give it to him in the above mentioned combo). He is a lot less survivable then the Judge, but you gotta lose something for 2 points and with the SOC/Luc/DS combo your hope is to send him in end of activation so he won't be taking to much damage that round.

[micahwc]

Two austringers combined with a drill sergent and lucius gives you up to 7 los ingoring attacks with a positive twist to attack and critical strike. They seem to work fine against ressers this way. Granted, thats like 21 points, but...

I agree with your assessment of Ryle. Most of the time he has not worked out really well for me. My last game with him though he shined really well. He did massive damage to most of my opponents crew in two turns of shooting. I had lucius and hoffman in a large game, and Ryle had an open field of fire with a lot of targets.

Ryle would take the place of a peacekeeper for me only in non-hoffman lists as other guild masters don't have a way to overcome the peacekeepers disadvantages. Even then I don't know.

In a large game I supplement the peacekeeper with Ryle.

[nilus]

I think Austigers strength lies not in raw damage potential but the fact that you can do damage but still me almost 100% safe from retaliation. Austigers in any crew other then Lucius rarely win the game, but they cause your enemy no end of pain.

[micahwc]

Using austringers to snipe models without retaliation makes them worth their cost. Taking out important yet vunerable models is what they excell at. They are great for killing off things like totems, seishin, etc.

Also, adding 1 or 2 wounds to a model before it can reach your lines can be very helpful. It makes some models that much easier to kill. I find they work well against masters because the austringers high combat makes your opponent choose between taking 1+ wounds, or using a soul stone before it has even engaged the enemy.

Just looking at Ryle's stats it is clear that he is much more deadly in close combat than at range; however, he can also shoot pretty well. There are only a few minions who can do both well.

[Palmerdoc13]

Two austringers combined with a drill sergent and lucius gives you up to 7 los ingoring attacks with a positive twist to attack and critical strike. They seem to work fine against ressers this way. Granted, thats like 21 points, but...

[fuselage]

I believe he meant that you have the chance of crit strike, adding a Drill Sergeant makings getting it that much easyier. Also cheating lower Rams isn't that bad of a idea a lot of the since they have 7cb(9cb with Lucius forcing them to attack)

[Akujie]

Its finding somewhat of a right balance for the combo, you need someone who can put enough hurt in with the Luc/DS combo and that can either withstand a little retaliation, or that you don't mind losing, ideally you will strike in and take out a couple models, or a really powerful peice. if you want cheap cheap models that work so you have extra activations, WS or guards could even potentially work, 6 CB on swords, WS has crit strike, and when he dies does even more damage (but 3" range of your strikes) Guard can get commanded by Lucious (for potential extra walk range in your strike.) but miss that extra damage output of WS...kinda theoryfaux though as I haven't tried these yet for the strat (problem is you want turn 1 or 2 LJ thrust to hopefully end their master, and after turn 2 or 3 you won't be slingshoting anyone up, so guards and WS won't make the impact that Judge/Exec/Frans will make.

[cerealkiller195]

@Palmer if they hit with a Rams suited card they will get the extra 1 point of damage on the enemy. Now if they had a built in Ram suit into their Cb they would automatically get +1 damage regardless of what they flip. In addition if they managed to flip another Ram it would go to +2 just in case you needed clarifying how Critical Strike works.

Austringers are great minions because though you may only do 1 damage at a time. It is 1 damage that in most cases is all but guaranteed in addition it is damage that your opponent cannot deal with right away as you will be hiding the Austringers all the time. So your opponent has to either go out of his way to take down the Austringer or go through the rest of your crew and terrain.

Now add Lucius and a Governors Proxy to the mix and you have "machine gun" Austringers. You could make a max of 8 Raptor Strikes a turn and trust me those add up. The psychological game you can run on your opponent as you slowly whittle down his minions and even master as they make the slow advance to your gun line is great.

Ryle is seen as a "shooting minion" due to his triggers and his gatling gun's ability. If you hit with a Rams suited card you automatically get an additional separate damage flip as part of his Trigger. If at any time you do Severe damage you get a separate damage flip.

I took out Copelius one time using just 1 action, took a ranged action he flipped a black joker I flipped higher but cheated down with a Rams suited card. Though I was at 3 negative flips pick the lowest on the last card I flipped the Red Joker. Did max damage + additional flip (for red joker), followed by TWO separate damage flips.. Copelius was dead.. so very dead after that.

In addition Ryle is quite mobile since he can push away from ANY living model that is close to him. You can use Lucius to advance up the field use Reinforcements on Ryle then when it is Ryle's acivation use Socially Repressed to push himself 4" forward away from Lucius. You have now gone through most of the table and Ryle STILL has 2 ap + 1 ranged expert.

[Palmerdoc13]

Thanks for the responses. It seems like ryle can become almost more viable in a Lucius team since he becomes significantly more mobile. I am yet to purchase lucius, but after reading everyone's thoughts, I may pick him up just for his strengths in certain Strategies. I think I'll primarily take Death Marshalls over austringers unless I'm rolling with lucius, as I feel they fit my style a bit better and pack a great punch from 10 inches out. I also haven't grabbed fransisco or the executioner yet. I know they both fill similar but different rolls, but does anyone have any over-riding evidence toward taking one over the other?

[Akujie]

if you have the two extra points to spend, take the executioner.