Drill Sergeant or Governor's Proxy?

[SteelSaxon]

Howdy,

I'm new to Malifaux and am starting a Lucius crew and am looking to expand beyond the starter. So far I've grabbed a Guard blister and an Austringer. I'm pretty happy with my crew option for low SS games while I learn, but I want to get a totem to increase my Crew's effectiveness while not changing its playstyle.

Most places I've seen suggest a Drill Sergeant and I can definitely see the advantages there, but I do not want to rule out the Governor's Proxy right away.

The Drill Sergeant seems quite beneficial to boosting other Guardsman, and can also hang back with Lucius to act as Secret Service and be there to be sacrificed. But what worries me is his lesser casting ability whereas the Proxy is as effective as Lucius at casting and is also cheaper.

Has anyone compared these totems by battlefield testing before?

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Also here are my potential 25 SS lists:

Guild Crew - 25 - Scrap

Lucius -- 2 Pool/3 Pool

Drill Sergeant [3ss] or Governor's Proxy [2ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard Captain [7ss]

(available models to add: Ryle or Lawyer)

[MisterSparkles]

Hey! Great pick with Lucius as a crew!

I'll start off and just say that Drill Sarge is the way to go. His ability might not seem like much, but after a few games with him you will absolutely love him, trust me.

I think if you break down what they offer the choice becomes much more clear.

The proxy does have a better CA, however there is nothing really that useful to do with it. You can only use "issue orders" once a turn using him, making him very limited in his ability. Where as anyone near the Sarge is getting a bonus flip, making not only their flips good, but Lucius's "issue orders" all the better.

Example:

Lets Look at the Austringer, he gets two Cb 7 attacks normally, and is usually the workhorse of my crew. Add Governors proxy, the austringer has the potential to have one more CB 7 attack, but you have to get a 9+ on the cast.

Now lets add the Sarge. Those two CB 7 attacks are all getting a positive flips and lucius can now give him up to three CB 9 attacks with a positive flip. Another advantage to this, is now your don't have to worry about using your hand for attack flips and can concentrate on getting the Issue orders goes off.

That positive flip on ranged attacks makes even the guild guard something to contend with; positive damage and attack flip.

So the proxy can also give +2 wp... At the the risk of killing off your troops....I'd rather have Lucius kill off my own crew and get to do more shenanigans.

Finally, the proxy could be used to possibly kill whoever killed him. If this is the reason you are running the proxy, you have a defeatist attitude so have fun with that. I'd rather bring it to the enemy, than hope their big guy goes for a totem.

For some more lucius chat you can check out this thread http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?39474-Can-I-start-with-Lucius/page2

As far as the crew goes, I generally run the same thing in 25 SS games, and have had some great success with it!

Good luck!

Edited April 30, 2013 by MisterSparkles

[i_was_like_you]

The fastest way to up Lucius' crew to the next tier of soulstones is to just run a master with him, having to pay the extra for Lucius himself. So once you get familiarized with him, pick a master you like, and use it as your cleanup batter to take care of anything the rest of the Guardsmen fail to eliminate.

[Adran]

The models do different things and so it depends on what you are liekly to face as to what you want.

The Drill sergent boosts shooting (which some boards are not good for) and melee of 1 model. I quite like linking him to Ryle for that purpose (and the presence of a living model lets me move ryle where I want).

The Proxy is very useful if you are facing crews that attack willpower alot. As you said he is also cheaper and better at casting. His decree spell can annoy modles that rely on triggers or spells. He is also a lot more durable due to the threat of Govonors Influence.

It is largely a playstyle/mission thing. I don't have much sucess with a Lucius Gunline, so I don't find the Shooting range ability on the Drill sergent as amazing as others find it. Its much more likely to only affect 1 or 2 of my models each time. Which can still be good. I get better use from the melee boost he gives. Proxy is much more defensive. Against a Kirai crew I think he is amazing, but he does come with his own risks.

If you were only going to own 1, I would say the Drill sergent, but I would probably prefer the Proxy of the sergent in about 30% of the games with Lucius.

[Therril_83]

So the proxy can also give +2 wp... At the the risk of killing off your troops....

Just wanted to point out that this risk is pretty low. There aren't that many morale duels in this game after all, most of them are terrifying of 12. An austringer has a Wp of 7, so 9 with the proxy. He takes the Terrifying->12 on a 3+. A guildguard has 5, so he needs a 5 with the proxy. Those are good odds imo.

I wouldn't take the proxy against Pandora though, as her trigger makes it count as you lost a morale duel. But any other time you think you will face many Wp duels but not so many morale duels, I'd atleast consider him an option.

edit: also there is the trick when playing an obey-crew, to obey an opponent big-hitter to kill your proxy and then make it fail the duel and be killed itself. But that's not really a discussion for Lucius since he can't hire any obey-models when leading.

Edited April 30, 2013 by DaemonChild

[Druso]

I played Lucius a few games when i started Malifaux, my choice is Drill, i like them with Lucius and guardsmen, and I think Governor´s proxy its a big risk because can kill our troops.

[SteelSaxon]

Thanks for the advice everyone! Guess I got to pick up a Drill Sergeant now, he is definitely the better option after all that advice and comparing the two again.

I've only played one game with Lucius, and reflecting on it I think having a sarge would have helped a lot at how I was trying to play, and also that cost isn't much of an issue. I had 4 SS and it was clear that having another model on the table would have been more useful than those SS with Lucius.

Thanks!

[cerealkiller195]

a little late on this thread but I tend to favor the Gov Proxy only because he has the suit and higher CA to spam out Issue Command from Lucius to the rest of his crew. The Drill Sarge will help them in shooting but the additional command can be used in melee or ranged (which the guild captain is not too shabby at..).

In addition the Gov Proxy makes a great suicide missile to toss at the most expensive thing on the other side of the board.