Taking on McMourning with Guild

[Ulfarr]

Had my first game against McMourning yesterday, and all I can say is *ouch*. Although in fairness it was more to do with my lack of knowing anything about him.

How do you folks generally deal with him? (Preferred masters, schemes,minions etcetera) Any tips/tricks would be welcome!

[Jonas Albrecht]

Ranged Critical Strike doesn't care at all about no Hard to Wound 2.

[Fetid Strumpet]

Wait till McMorning activates, once he does kill him.

[CannonFodder]

Witching stalkers are the best cheap model to take. With effectively a 3 dmg on a weak (after trigger) you still do decent damage with a weak hit on Hard to Wound models. Also our LGS ruled that the 2 damage from them blowing up happens before you heal which with Mcmourning, which had made a difference in a couple games(His ability sais "after". Also if he is playing Bette Noire the aura makes it really hard for her to do her slow to die trick.

[underdog6750]

Sonnia is a great master being able to target him without line of sight is a big help. Alternatively throw blast damge onto him from enemy or friendly models. Also a trio of riflemen will reduce him to a corpse counter with 9 shots and being able to ignore the hsrd to wound

Hope this helps? Just pretty generic answers for a generic question. Any specific details you need answering feel happy to ask

[Ulfarr]

Yeah I though the same with the Riflemen, but those damn Belles went all kinds of lure crazy on 'em. He was running McMourning, 2 Belles, 4 canine remains, Nurse and 2 Desperate Mercs. It was pretty awkward to kill anything, 'cus the damn dogs kept hoovering up all the body parts . Are there some ways to take belles out reliably?

[EnternalVoid]

This sort of McMourning list is built around a particular weakness of the good doctor, namely the one two punch. Like many models in the game McMourning will go down to contrentrated fire, but for him it is more so than some masters. While he has Hard to Wound 1 he lacks any other defensive measured and his defense is less then stellar like many Resser masters. Lets be honest with Defense 4, Hard to Wound 1, and 12 wounds, he is actually softer then some of the 9 and 10 point models running around. It is his ability to heal and his Soulstones that protect him from dying. Meaning the more time between his activations for you to pummel him, the more likely you are to run him out of stones and kill him.

Take for example a Witchling stalker getting two swings on him, if both you and McMourning are willing to throw down the same value of cards, then McMourning should walk away with 6 wounds due to weak damage and critical strike. Depending on what other sort of damage he might have taken or threats are present this might mean that he had to eat two soulstones, to insure you miss or to reduce damage. Concentration is more dangerous to McMourning then it is to someone like Lilith, Ramos, or Perdita, Zoraida. Each has some defensive measure that will reduce the threat more than McMourning might have.

As such McMourning like several masters, like out activiting their opponent for the turn they go in. He also has the belles to move you into the position he wants rather than being forced to use that extra AP or positioning to get into position himself. They like being able to launch the doctor and destroy their initial target and be in position. That way if you win initiative they can take some damage, then activate the doctor when they feel endangered and hopefully deal damage back and heal, and then you have to do the damage again. McMourning does not like you activing after him, hitting him with your attacks, then winning initiative and hitting him some more. I recently killed him with Misaki working in union with a 10T brother and a Ronin thanks to a companion chain letting all three of them wail on him in turn, draining his soulstones and wounds before he could activate and start recovering.

Against this particular list, I really feel you need to try and drop chunks of his list. In this list the only real heavy lifter is McMourning. If he goes down, they are having an uphill if he did not take out enough before dropping. If you can't then taking enough out of his grunts that it forces the doctor to stretch thing is the next option. Losing the belles or carpet bombing the dogs will quickly make him have to make tougher calls.

Rather than Riflemen I would consider Austringers. The Higher Cb and not needing LOS I think will do more for you. They can pick away at his grunts if McMourning ties to hang back and wait for an opening, while not being exposed to Lure or McMourning's rush unless he is willing to spend the AP walking to get LOS and range to scaplel sling them. This forces him to take the initiative. Also unless you have to move for Vp purposes, you can always take a defensive stance and move 2-3" on an early turn to help against Lure. Being moved up to your Walk when it is at a -2 reduces the amount of ground they can make you cover with lure. Makes it harder for them to use 1-2 Lures to get you into position.

I think Lady J gives McMourning something to worry about. She is nasty enough she can put the doctor down in only a few hits, and with her Sword Style getting her up to 9 or 11 Cb reasonably makes him worried if she ever gets more then one or two swings. With a 5-7 advantage before card flips means McMourning's chance of making her miss are slim, and with her positive flip to damage she cancels out his Hard to Wound. Add into this a 4+ damage spread due to built in Critical strike. If she can ever get two rounds of beating on him before he can activate and he will have a hard time standing by the end. On top of it, if you save a high Mask just in case, you can possible catch him with a reposte when he tries to attack back to heal the damage you dealt him. In addition Lady J can pretty easily give out Melee Expert to 2 models a turn if she is playing support, making charging Guild Hounds or Stalkers that much scarier. If you can set it up a Death Marshal can even give Lady J a weak damage of 5 due to her crit strike and the Death Marshal's Finish the Job. Give up a ram in the Death Marshal's spell and it becomes a weak damage of 6, Moderate of 7, and Severe of 9.

[Mehter]

Perdita gives me the most trouble with him. But I don't usually take Doug against Guild because of Lady J/Perdita/Criid.

It's not insurmountable, but it normally feels like an uphill battle.