Lady Justice and Problems with Von Schill

[faxonlighthawk]

Hi, I just started playing Malifaux and bought the Lady Justice starter box. After a few games, I am having trouble in dealing with ranged crews like Von Schill. Are there any suggestions to what I can add to Lady Justice's crew in place of the death marshals? Also, I'm not sure if I like to keep Judge or no. Lastly, is there a way I can view stat cards of models? I'm low on money, so I would like to know what they can do before I buy them. Thanks

[Mantis840]

Ok i'ma anwser things in backwards order: you can find pdf's of V2 cards from book 1 for free on internet, for others you either need to find/look in Book 2 n 3, buy just the card, find a friend who has the model n card, or find an illegal torrent to download, the latter is not recommended.

For Justice vs. Von Schill i've had quite a bit of experience, Ole Double D is my main master and there's two people in my league who regularly run Von Schill crews so a few pointers are :

Smart VS players will run VS as far away from Justice as possible, using jump boots and other "neverborn like" tricks to keep their distance, less experienced ones will put a little distance but then try to fire off a shot. Even if justice takes 10 wounds and then gets into melee, it's most the time still end of the road for VS

Focus on the minions, taking out convict gunslingers, specialists, and the rest will most the time leave just the trapper and VS , who are usually across the board from each other

After that just make sure your schemes are fulfilled and dont leave weak minions out in the open for the trapper to pop off.

Ok now for your first question having a death marshal or two is still nice for there defensive capabilities but I have 3 cheap options to add:

1: Guild hounds= they work exceptionally well in Justice crews, they can gain melee expert and +2 cb potentially from synergy with Justice.

2: Her totem the Scales of Justice= basically use this for two reasons, to discard a card then draw one, and to cast Justice melee expert on the dogs, freeing up Justices AP for better used options( like walking and killing things)

3: For major range support bring in the Austringers, CB7, can hit once a turn up to 18" or twice at 12" and they ignore los and cover= shove them behind the biggest, longest wall you can find and commence bombardment

Optional 4: ONLY IF running 2 austringer you could switch out the scales totem for the drill sergent, the difference would be instead of the card change in and melee expert, you can now give both your austringers ranged attack a + flip

I don't recommend except for ideal schemes and strategies using a lucius bomb for VS, most the time sure youll be able to fling Justice and her sword right into VS's arms, but Lucius is way to expensive with hardly any Dmg output while away from his guardsmen/special forces theme list

The Judge is fine to use, hes the half way point between death marshals and justice. He has less wnds but better defenses then Justice AND one thing i've been doing is if hes near the dogs and I flip a ram for the cast, then both dogs and Judge are getting melee expert.

I would recommend staying away from the executioner, buy one to paint if ya want, but he really holds no place in an army that is already a bit on the light side for defenses. Plus him and Judge are sharing the same role. I'd suggest for 1 more SS bringing in Sam Hopkins in place of the executioner, Sam's defenses lie in his use of terrain and he punches high wound and stalwart enemies in the face with his colt .45, hes not the longest range but flaming bullets and free power up vs. CA 6+ opponents is nice, he has arrest like the judge but he also has snare and snare is hilarious when it goes off vs. all those goofy moving enemies. Pulling, linking, and MOST the tricks used for pulling models away will be affected by Snare. I was actually able to snare VS one game which held him up just enough for Justice to get into range and with the help of Onslaught and her melee expert, brought VS down in one AP!!

Hope this help somes and have fun!!!

[faxonlighthawk]

Thanks so much! That definitely helps me out in figuring out what to add to Lady J's crew.

[osoi]

Okay theres a few things here:

1. Austringers help with range as does Nino both having great range themselves. Otherwise look at 'tanky' models like the guardian and peacekeeper.

Lucius is another model that helps out but in a different manner with being able to 'slingshot' you own models across the board.

2. You can view the stats of the models released after book 1 only in Twisting Fates and Rising Powers books. In addition many of the original release models have v2 cards that are downlaodable from malifaux.com

Edited June 26, 2012 by osoi

[Therril_83]

I'd not holeheartedly reckomend using guardians and peacekeepers against von Schill tbh, since the specialist ignores armor, as does von Schill in melee (sure, his melee dmg isn't the greatest, but neither of those models are very durable if you remove their armor) and he can also slow constructs with a pulse.

I do like using Nino against him though. If Nino can draw a bead on VS himself and manages to land In My Sights, even with a few low masks (for Trigger Happy), you're gonna drain either his hand or even better his SS on Slow to Die-heals.

As previously mentioned, dogs are ace. They are quick and cheap, and with LJ they can get melee expert. Just be wary of the trappers, they can drop the little buggars fast with their to dmg against beasts (at range, so throw them against the trapper if you can, with 18" move and still able to strike....). Also be aware that if you take 3 or more dogs, you're setting your opponent up for using Exterminate (Beasts) as a scheme against you, and those dogs aren't that durable (by Guild standards their Df is rather good though, but they tend to drop fast anyway)

[faxonlighthawk]

Interesting about the guardians. I was trying to figure out a way to get Lady J in close to Von Scill's army wit out getting shot down and thought the guardian could help me do that. Is there a way to use her well against Von Schill? My friend made the mistake of assaulting her and have since kept his distance and shot her down. I've been mainly using her as a decoy since I haven't figured out a way to get her in close (if I do, she's just about dead by the time she gets there).

[osoi]

Lady J is a great beatstick but as she is also so lethal you can use her as board control as well, you can project a no go zone. Just because she isnt hacking everything up doesnt mean she isnt doing her job. Dont rush into things as well.

[Mantis840]

Hey osoi where on malifaux.com do you find the stat cards from twisting fate and rising powers, from what i've seen there is only the V2 from book 1. I dont see the Exorcist, witchling handler, abuela, or avatars on malifaux.com.

[edonil]

The Twisting Fate and Rising Power models' rules are only available in the books. I think the phrasing was a bit ambiguous there, but you'll have to either buy the models or the books to see the stats. The V2 stat cards are available for viewing on malifaux.com

[Mantis840]

ahk so it was like what i originally posted lol

[osoi]

Yeah my nbad with awkward phrasing, you can noly get the stats from book 2 and 3 models in book 2 and 3 respectively. That will teach me to type in a rush while at work.

[Mantis840]

i got a mini question from this post= is there any way in the game to give lucius an instinctual type ability or something, ive used him a couple times for the bombing runs and was just wondering if theres anyway to get him to pull and allow him to reactivate, so far the only thing even remotely upgraded ive done is bring a student of conflict so Justice can fly 19" instead of 14"

[Adran]

Sorry, I don't think there is any way for him to gain instinctual, so the only way to get 2 0 actions is for the first to be re-activate.

Fast and melee expert are the only two I think he can gain

[faxonlighthawk]

Does Lucius allow Justice to fly 14"? If so how? Also, what does the student of conflict do to give Justice fly 19"? Just curious, because giving Justice some extra mobility is nice

[Mantis840]

basically lucius has a 0 spell with an 18" range that can push a model from the deployment zone to 4" of him, he has a WK 5 so normally hes moved 10" and casts that, now with the student of conflict, it can use an All action to give someone within 3" fast, so you can either add a fast to lucius or Justice( both have WK5 ) and essentially get 5" more out of it.....

.... the question i was thinking about is since his reactivate is also a 0 spell, he cant cast both, so I was trying to figure out how to get something like that off so he could bring Justice and then something like a peacekeeper up together. I highly doubt it but maybe there is a cheap neverborn that can instinctual or maybe even a cheap construct that could reactivate others, who knows but i'll post if i find anything.

[faxonlighthawk]

Most of Von Schill's crew (if not all) have armor 1. If I were to attack with the guild's Austringers and deal 1 damage, would the austringer still do one damage since armor reduces damage "down to a minimum of 1"?

[osoi]

Yes

[Mantis840]

I just Played against a VS list for this weeks local league and happy to say that even though Justice died( ya can only take so much punishment when charging into 4 models i guess lol) i'm proud to say at the end of the game he had a lone trapper retreated in the back corner being ran down by a hunter, 2 austringers, and the last hound that was left lol

[faxonlighthawk]

Good report!