A Humble Appearance

[TheoryMachine]

Hello Community,

I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster. I wanted to begin doing what I could to add to the discourse of the game through my contributions to the forums. I've been playing Malifaux for about 4 months and have crews for Ramos, Marcus, Sonnia and Seamus (besides Ramos the other crews are on the small side). Ramos is my first and favorite master and I really want to step up my game with how to really get into his nuts and bolts. I play mostly 30-35 SS games and my main opponents are the Dreamer, Ortegas, Viks, Kirai and Von Schill.

Right now, I can deal with the Viks and Von Badass pretty well, Kirai I can handle kinda, the Dreamer is sort of nasty but I usually do pretty well against him too. I find the Ortegas kinda over-the-top and while my playgroup does use a lot of terrain (most of it I made myself, trying to expand the hobbyist side as well) I find I can't deal with Nino and Perdita herself seems just ridiculous. I've been experimenting with Ramos' avatar but I'm not sure when to really manifest for full effect.

The models at my disposal:

Ramos, aRamos, EC, Brass Arachnid, MTK

Steamborg, Kaeris (usually with an SoC, but I want to experiment using an EoP), Joss

Spider Swarm x3, SPA x6, LSPA x2, Gunsmith x2, Fire Gamin x3

SoC, Johan, Convict Gunslinger

Normally I try to have 6-8 SS caches. I can't figure out how to pace games against Perdita, the Dreamer or Kirai enough to really use my crew effectively beyond, "I did so much damage he couldn't really recover", what are your thoughts on how to control the tempo of a game with a relatively slower, more resource-dependent crew (SS, Scrap) vs. crews that have more speed and placement right away?

[Ebonstar]

For me it depends on strategy mix.

I tend to categorize strategies in terms of "score now" versus "score later" mentalities. For example, Destroy the Evidence might be a score now setup, while claim jump is a score later scenario.

In terms of manifesting I consider this along with my opponent's crew and their schemes. With faster crews that are looking to gain the upper hand quickly in a score-now situation, I tend to manifest early so my constructs gain +1 Wk/Cg and I can start pumping out more things in a hurry. If I'm against a slower crew looking to score later I will hold off a turn or so, and let my force build a little extra strength, or use Kaeris to take out their vanguard.

[TheoryMachine]

Thank you for responding. I always looked at strategies as, "Get it done, NOW!", so I tend to rush things in order to get my heavy hitters and speedier elements up the board more quickly to gain ground. The issue is that normally, I either-overextend or die to a faster alpha-strike. What would you recommend as a means of mitigating an opponent's initial wave of assaults? I find that with armor stacking and high wounds I can attrition if I get to melee. How would you mitigate the Ortegas just gunning you down?

On another note, what do people think of Kaeris with an EoP as opposed to the SoC?

[His Fattness]

I find giving Kaeris fast to be much more useful than the extra flip on damage. It gives her the ability to bounce out shoot a target to get a burning counter on it and then hit it with an immolate. Then bounce back under cover to avoid being gunned down.

I see you don't have any Soul Stone Miners in your list. I would pick those up as soon as possible. They'll let you get at an enemy's back line and take out their fragile pieces very easily. I can't count how many times I've taken out Nino or Samael with the miner.