How do I use Gupps?

[Hateful Darkblack]

Okay, so I get Silurid: They're incredibly fast objective-grabbers, they travel in packs, they've got awesome cover, and they can overload an enemy with multiple attacks.

And I think I get the Spawn Mother: She can create water terrain, cancel out Unstable Evolution to help other Silurid, she's got a promising poisonous ranged attack, and she can use corpse counters to make Gupps.

I don't get Gupps. Why make them? How to use them?

Gupps seem pretty slow compared to Silurid (but still reasonable mobile), and they don't have a lot of combat ability. They can draw other Silurid to them with Juvenile's Wail, and if they die the Spawn Mother can retaliate quickly. They don't have any Terror Tots-style Grow to become full-scale Silurid. If they die, a Silurid can carry their body back to the Spawning Pool and make another Gupps, which is kinda neat.

What they seem good at is resilience. They've got a lot of wounds for a 3 Soulstone model, Regeneration, and they can gain Armor when they're near water. That's pretty resilient! What's more, they can pull other units to help them if attacked. This seems like they'd be great for holding objectives and the like...

...except they're also Insignificant, so they can't do that either.

How do you use them? They seem comparable Mole-men, but Insignificant and therefore not useful for most Strategies and Schemes.

Why would I want to make more Gupps?

[Thatguy]

The only real use I saw for them was to use another model to torture them to death then just drag them back and have them re-spawn.

They might be useful for picking up Eye counters and blood tokens. Since they're only 3ss, it might be worthwhile to feed one to the Widow Weaver in order to bring out a Teddy.

[magicpockets]

They're awesome in a Hamelin crew for things like deliver the message and destroy the evidence - but I'm guessing that doesn't help you much

[Oshova]

They're awesome in a Hamelin crew for things like deliver the message and destroy the evidence - but I'm guessing that doesn't help you much

Can Insignificant models do those? =O

If so, that makes Alps cool again right? =p

[Dumb Luck]

Can Insignificant models do those? =O

If so, that makes Alps cool again right? =p

Hamelin removes the Insignificant rule.

On Alps, maybe yse them as paperweights?

[Hateful Darkblack]

Oh yeah, for Hamelin, they go back to being objective-grabbers because they lose Insignificant. Which would be nice, except they lose all Silurid synergy since Hamelin can't hire Silurids or Spawn Mothers. And they're not nearly as good for objective-grabbing as Night Terrors.

[Darios]

hmm that's rather bad... i reaally was bent on building a silurid crew with Gupps, sils and the mother plus either big Z or marcus as master...

[Hateful Darkblack]

Darios, do! I would love to hear how it goes!

[Darios]

Darios, do! I would love to hear how it goes!

when they are all out and my "government" says okay to raise the contingent of hobbymoney i will ^^

[Math Mathonwy]

Howabout using them in Destroy the Evidence to defend the evidence markers on your side of the board? They are cheap, resilient and can call in reinforcements - sounds like it might work?

[ironskullbo]

this week i played Zoraida with a spawn mother and three silurids. this is wat i came up with.

1- Spawn mother needs a corpse token to make the spawning pool. so first turn i would suggest moving your "free" gupps up and then charging them with the spawn mother to get two corpse tokens. hopefully they are near an objective of some sort so you can make a spawning pool next turn and start making gupps again. the silurids are crazy fast with a spawn mother around and i beleive the gupps can carry corpse tokens as well making them a bit faster too. the gupps ended up just getting in the way of my opponent once or twice (or so i thought) they have no real combat ability and only serve to help move a silurid an extra time each turn.

2- with the spawn mother you need more than the free base of gupps. i have also been told that a raptors base would be an easy way to get the corpse tokens for the spawn mother. which in turn means more gupps. in all honestly they wont do much and the spawn mother will end up in the back trying not to get killed while spitting at things and defending the pool which is hopefully by an objective of some sort.

[EnternalVoid]

@Ironskullbo

Another way to speed up that process if you are going that way with Zoraida is to use Obey. She or her Voodoo Doll can obey the Spawn Mother to charge the gupp, you can cheat as needs be, and kill the gupps thus getting the corpses. That way the Spawn Mother has not activated yet, activate, and then use its all action to spawn the pool right there. If you can get the gupps into position and kill them off with the Obeyed charge turn 2 it should speed up the process. Zoraida would not take much to obey it, as she has casting expert but her Voodoo Doll can do it as long as you have a 10 card to burn. Remember you can also obey the spawn mother to get an extra shot or two off a turn with her spit if something starts making a break for her. Her poison on makes its actual damage a bit better then it at first appears.

The Raptors likely help Marcus more then they help Zoraida if only because Marcus gets them for 2ss and she gets them for 3ss.

[graeme27uk]

So would you consider Spawn Mother / Gupps a worthy investment or are there better option?

[EnternalVoid]

They are options. The fact that unlike other games you can build your crew and pick your master after finding out Strategy and seeing the table means alot of the game is building the right crew based off of knowing your opponents faction, the table, and the Strategy.

They are not auto include, but Malifaux tries to avoid having those anyway. Just how useful they are I am not entirely sure. I can see uses but then again I can see uses for those points in other regards as well. I think more than anything it will depend on those three factors and what combinations you end up with to determine how useful they might be.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Thanks, EternalVoid!

When specifically do you think you would use them? Like, what strategies and schemes? Or what situations?

[EnternalVoid]

Well the more water features you have on the table, the more worth they give you. Extra movement for your creatures and armor for the gupps. With armor gupps can actually take an extra hit or two *as long as they don't ignore them*. Sadly right now our group plays almost bone dry tables, partially lack of good swampy pieces. Something I might try to fix here at some point *currently working on more fences*.

Supply wagon springs to mind here as the wagon is trying to get to the middle of the board, a well placed spawning bed there can possible lead to several gupps working to insure your wagon is protected while other elements of your force attempt to either fulfill schemes or stop your opponents Vps.

The spawn mother can also make the Reclaim Malifaux scheme easier. Her Rain Dance thing allows the Silurids to spread out more to reclaim sections faster. With Leap it will not take much for the Silurids to get around and if the enemy tries to get in their way a self preservation 0 action can only add to your speed. In a case like this you can keep the gupps close to the spawn mother so when they do die or get hurt you can use their wail or corpse tokens to your benefit.

Mind you I have not picked the spawn mother or gupps up yet as I am currently monitoring my buying.

[Hateful Darkblack]

EternalVoid, thanks! Supply Wagon is a great example of a strategy that would be assisted by Insignificant models with weak attack.

I totally get that Gupps are fast and resilient. It's just: what do they do after they survive and get where they're going?