Warmachine Battle Report- Goreshade vs Arkadius

 In a bit of a throwback I decided to pull out my old Cryx for Warmachine to play with a friend, who has been printing and painting Farrow since they've been made available as part of Warmachine 3D. I brought out my old favourite Banes led by Goreshade, and faced a Warbeast-heavy list fueled by the mad Dr Arkadius. 

My initial advance was somewhat spread out, with Goreshade in the middle, a unit of Bane Knights either end with a Deathripper, and Tartarus, a unit of Warriors with command, a Desecrator and Deathwalker all around Goreshade. The goal was to get the arc nodes up so I could start slinging Hex Blasts into grouped units (which was successful in wiping the Bone Grinders turn 2) and try and get the units into position to do as much damage as possible early for a Goreshade Feat run at Arkadius.

As things advanced I was facing 2 Hogs on one flank, and Lytiersis on the other. I had hoped the Warriors could deal with Lytiersis while the Knights moved the other way to take both Hogs, but ultimately they dealt a little bit of damage before all getting killed by Lytiersis, who then had to deal with a Desecrator before he could reach Goreshade. 

With all the Knights moving over, Tartarus unfortunately was priority target and the first to die. The Knights ended up doing quite a lot to the War Hog, although they didn't quite get through the Road Hog. A few rounds of Gunfighter on the Flamethrower did work, putting damage onto Goreshade and killing Deathwalker although not doing much to the Banes in front of it.

Arkadius took an unlucky 11 damage hit from the Desecrator's gun, which was forced onto a lone Razor Boar looking down Goreshade. He then managed to Feat on Arkadius after a Psychic Surgery, sneak a slam onto the Desecrator from Lytiersis, knocking down Goreshade in the process, the Road Hog shooting to take Goreshade to 1 wound remaining before the Razor Boar finished him off and ending the game. It was a real hail mary of a turn as I had quite a lot of Banes remaining and had them within charge range of Arkadius the next turn, but unfortunately the gamble paid off and Goreshade got taken out. My first game of Warmachine since early Mk3 it's been a real experience coming back, but I had a lot of fun and I'm now looking at printing an all Monstrosity Cephalyx list for a bit of fun and to have some variety

Carnevale- Game Thoughts

 Carnevale is quickly becoming one of my preferred tabletop skirmish games, dripping with flavour and incentivising some really cool terrain layouts that I've been enjoying getting into a lot. I've owned models for the game for a few years now, but with the new MyMiniFactory Tribe a few friends have also gotten in and I've gotten a lot of terrain printed for the game, so we can play properly the past few weeks. You may have seen in my recent Trench Crusade Battle Report all the Venetian terrain I've been working on, as it works for that game as well and I've been getting a lot of use out of it.

The first thing I've come to notice about Carnevale is how unique it is, partly in terms of flavour and partly in terms of gameplay. The vibes of the game in terms of how it represents Venice really feels perfect, as the table itself is balanced around land, rooftops and the canals. Some factions favour the water, with extra speed and immunity to being drowned, while some hate getting wet (the armour of the Vatican knights in particular is a real liability in water, but a massive strength on land) and the ability to throw someone with a gun into a canal to stop them shooting is a really nice alternative to killing them outright. Other factions however much prefer being on the rooftops, with rooftop traversal being far easier for these factions and extra bonuses for attacking from above. All of this combined means immersive tables is best, and there's so many ways you can put things together in ways that are really cool and thematic. The focus on terrain is something that although it was the biggest barrier for entry on my part for a while (I was working on my table for a few months before it actually got put together and played on) once you have a core of terrain it's really easy to play around with and modify with a couple of other pieces to make something awesome.

The scenarios in Carnevale and how they work is also quite interesting, as unlike most games you don't write a list until after you know the scenario you're playing. This is somewhat similar to Malifaux, which I've played for a decade now and I've posted quite a lot about, but with the difference you don't know what your opponent is playing on paper (although in practice you often do based on the nature of people's collections). This lets a player with a bigger collection tailor their list to any given scenario, so you can't end up locking yourself out by taking things that can't climb rooftops when all the objectives are up there for example, or things that can't move far in water with water based objectives. This is a clever way to make sure players can both tailor to the scenario in ways that will benefit them, but also in a way that means someone doesn't accidentally show up with a list that is favoured in a scenario where there opponent is screwed because they built a different list type. The other thing with scenarios I really like about Carnevale is the linked campaign system, with most campaigns involving a series of 5 scenarios following on from each other. These campaigns don't actually care who wins the first 4 scenarios which stops someone from running away with a campaign early on, but the result of one game does affect the next one, giving the winner a slight bonus in the next scenario. This is similar to the campaign system from Fallout Wasteland Warfare, another game that I've really loved the scenario system from. 

I've really delved deep into the Rashaar as my faction of choice, as one of the things I tend to gravitate towards in miniatures is fish cultists and sea monsters, something Rashaar have in spades. I love the mix of alien monsters from another dimension with their cultists and I've collected quite a bit for the faction already. I'm tossing up between Patricians, Guild and Doctors at the moment for a 2nd faction but I can't settle on something I really love as much as Rashaar

Trench Crusade- My Thoughts

 Where else should I start other than by saying since I've started playing it during the Kickstarter period about 18 months ago, Trench Crusade has become my gaming love. There isn't any other game I'm enjoying anywhere near as much right now, and I recently flew down from Sydney to Melbourne to attend Arcfest for 2 days just to play Trench and meet Tuomas Pirinen, the mastermind behind it. This is to say that none of what I'm writing here is objective, and there is a lot of personal bias behind my thoughts as I really do love the game.

The key to the game is how simple it is- you roll 2d6 and need 7+ for successes, and 9+ on injuries to kill enemies. There's a lot more nuance when it comes down to modifiers and looking into scenarios, but at the heart of it the gameplay loop is incredibly simple and easy to pick up. Generally speaking every faction have basic troops with 0s for bonuses (some have negatives for real cheap chaff), some better troops with +1 in either melee or ranged and then proper Elite models that can have multiple bonuses to stats (Leaders always have +2 or even +3) and can gain experience in campaigns right off the bat. Elites are where your fun is going to be most of the time, but I've found a lot of the better basic troops to be the thing that really draws people in from a purely vibes based level. It's the War Wolves, Artillery Witches, Stigmatic Nuns, Brazen Bulls and Mechanised Infantry that draws people in more than anything. The thing is though that there really isn't any wrong way to do it, as most factions and most playstyles give a fairly rewarding experience and are definitely fun to play. 

Expanding a bit on what I said earlier, the modifiers for success and injury rolls are where the game really comes into its own in terms of the gameplay loop. Whether or not to spend Blood Markers (Trench Crusade's mechanic instead of having wounds on any models- everything is as easy to kill as any other for the most part) on an enemy's success rolls to make things harder for them to achieve, or save them to try and kill them easier is a real choice, although usually it is better to make your opponent fail actions as that is where scoring will come out. The Risky Action mechanic is something to note here as well, as failing a regular action simply means you fail and can continue the activation, while if you fail a Risky Action then your activation immediately ends. This can often end up being incredibly punishing (failing a Dash is likely the biggest gamble in Trench Crusade) but what it usually means is you save Risky Actions until last, so you can do as much as possible.

In a really unique thing compared to most other skirmish games, Trench Crusade doesn't have models with a lot of wounds so that your warband sticks around longer. If you roll a 9+ on a damage roll then the target is dead, end of discussion. Armour plays a factor in this, as well as a few other less-common rules that give negatives to injury rolls, but for the most part killing something is as easy as rolling a 7+ then a 9+. This does mean armour is an absolute must on important models, but even things that are super hard to kill will usually get stacked with Blood Markers that can be used in their own mini-game as I mentioned earlier. Even if you aren't killing something outright, you're almost always putting down Blood Markers or even knocking enemies prone, both of which are important debuffs that you can also use to benefit yourself to achieve victory.

Something I've noticed a lot of people question is the lack of trenches in Trench Crusade. To this I'll say that the game and the world isn't entirely made out of trench lines (just like the 40k universe isn't made up entirely of L-shapes) and there is a ton of scope for tables of all varieties. The game rules specify 3 different setups, all of which are able to be mixed but also built entirely separate to make really immersive tables-

• No Man's land (where most scenarios should be played) with a mix of trenches, ruins, hills and broken natural features
• Decimated Ruins in the ruins of towns and villages. These tables will be the most evocative of Mordheim styles of terrain, and indeed Mordheim terrain is perfect for these boards
• Trench Lines are the table most people expect, with the board being criss-crossed with trench lines and barbed wire, dotted with ruined tanks and bunkers.

The variety in scenarios for Trench Crusade is also something I really appreciate. Although not as massive in scope as some of the other games I've been playing recently, there are still a lot of scenarios and each one operates pretty differently. From simple claiming buildings and looting objectives, killing the foe (or hunting heroes specifically) to hunting a rampaging dragon or storming a beach there are a lot of different ways to express the medieval crusader/WW1 mix of vibes that Trench Crusade has. I haven't played every scenario because I'm missing a couple of the more unique models that I need, but I'm working on getting those done so I can play everything and adapt them into my campaigns.

The campaign system is also a ton of fun, and I really like the way that things end up working out in terms of a narrative. My last campaign for example I had a Trench Cleric become possessed from an injury while fighting a Trench Ghost warband, which I felt was incredibly thematic, and the possession got him facing more injuries as he was forced into danger. He then got a skill while at 2/3 injuries to increase his limit before death, only to get injured again the next game and survive as a result. It's those little things that help in creating your own narrative behind the games and what happens in them that really make campaigns great I think, and the exploration options are really flavourful and often quite useful in what they give. I did have a campaign where almost everyone found a Book of Golems, which was quite funny to see all of them running around afterwards!

I've played and have warbands for every faction currently, and some factions multiple. My real loves though are Red Brigade New Antioch and Heretic Naval Raiders, as they really gel with the style of play I like. Close ranged, high speed and hard hitting but somewhat fragile, it's a playstyle that I lean towards in almost every game and will likely continue to. Plus Red Brigade lets me take a bunch of dogs and that's a huge plus for any wargame. 

Blood in the Canals - Trench Crusade Battle Report

 Hello again everyone, after a long hiatus! I've come back to writing to put my thoughts out there again, starting with a battle report of a game I had last night of Trench Crusade

Battle lines drawn up, using my new Venice terrain and the heretic submarine from Diceverse. Reading the Trench Crusade lore and seeing Venice is newly taken by the forces of hell, and building up a table to play Carnevale (more on that later) I decided to make a heretical dockyard table, with the submarine being an amazing centrepiece

I brought along my Defenders of the Iron Wall to play against Andrew's Highland Wolves Assault Cadre, with the forces of the Kingdom of Alba bringing a lot of Machine Armour and some heavy-duty weaponry. A significant part of my forces were invested into the Captain and the Brazen Bull, both of which I wanted to try out some of the recent rule changes to see how they went. I have a notoriously bad track record with Sultanate outside of Assassins, but I really love the idea behind Defenders so I keep trying to make them work for me. 

Firing positions secured, the Sniper Priest looks from his rooftop perch while across the battlefield, a Siege Jezzail team mobilises

Something very representative of this game- we both failed almost every single dash attempt!

Round 1 and 2 was mostly advancing, with some pot shots made across the table plinking off each other's heavy armour (Andrew's Machine Armour and my Captain and Mamluk all in -3 armour). The Scots did manage to get into quite an advantageous position on top of the submarine though, and that MG on top of the sub had a great firing spot to rain hell onto my poor Azebs. The Janissaries took more punishment, but the MG still got one of them before the game was up.

In some incredibly bad luck (and sensationally poor tactics on my part, but also cinematic) my Captain shot into a combat between the Scottish Lieutenant and my Brazen Bull, both of which had already lost tough, and managed to kill my own Bull before not doing any further damage the rest of the game. The Bull's tough got stripped by a brave Shocktrooper, who unfortunately managed to scatter his own Satchel Charge onto himself and was slain in the process, but hurting the beast was a worthy sacrifice. 

The game devolved at this point into a scrum at the edge of the canal, with 2 Mechanised Heavy Infantry jumping into the Captain (one with a diving charge off the submarine!) and none of them doing any damage whatsoever. There were a lot of 11s rolled, but with -3 armour and not a single 12 to be seen nobody actually died here. However, the rest of the Scots managed to thin me down to 3 models by the end of the game with the only casualty their brave Shocktrooper, making it a fairly decisive victory for the forces of New Antioch. Not enough to reclaim Venice it seems, but the loss for the Sultanate will surely be felt.

Freikorps- Malifaux Von Schill Tactica

For the next Malifaux tactica I'm sticking with Outcasts and talking about the crew I've been playing lately with the Freikorps. Von Schill's keyword is incredibly versatile and can adapt to almost any situation they're dealt with, which is really great from a gameplay perspective and makes for fun games. 

 Keyword abilities-

Armour- Fairly simple, but almost the entire keyword (thanks Metallurgist!) have Armour 1 or 2. This is important because it keeps them alive longer, but is something that can be easily teched to if you declare Von Schill. 

Equipment Upgrades- A fairly big and important part of how Freikorps work is based around their Equipment. Both versions of Von Schill and the Steam Trunk all hand them out, and all of them are useful in a lot of situations

Grenade Belt- The least useful one I feel like, but Burnt to a Crisp is always a nice trigger to have to counter scheming and Distracted can be nice as well

Land Mines- Useful for janky reasons, Hazardous terrain is nice but the best part is being able to set up Research Mission and Death Beds for very little resources

Reinforced Assault Shield- My favourite upgrade in general, Shielded 2 is fantastic. Being able to put it on models that are already tanky it becomes ridiculously good

Rocket Boots- Leap and Charge Through are both great, not much else to say. It works for scheming and fighting

Rocket Launcher- Not particularly high damage unless you have the trigger (which is also pretty reliable to get in a few ways) but it does spread out tons of small damage across a lot of things which is really useful. 

Keyword models-

Von Schill- I always intended to finish this, and Schill was the only thing I never wrote. With it being almost 18 months since I've played Malifaux now I'm resigning myself to not getting it done, and publishing the rest of the article as it was

Steam Trunk- The keyword's Totem, the Trunk purely exists to support other models and will almost never directly impact a game. It hands out Equipment for a 6 which isn't bad for a Totem and can help other models cycle Equipment as well, and it has a few different bonus actions to help out friendly models. Emergency Syrette is the most useful IMO because it's a heal, but also removing Poison is great to have for a 5, while the other option to remove Burning is free but a lot more situational. With a 2" range on all its actions and a 3" range on Armory for Equipment cycling you want it to be close to your crew which tends to be right on the front line, but anything that can ignore Armour can and will kill it quite easily so look out for that (especially because Explosive +2 as a Demise can hurt your own models)

Arik Schottemer- the single most important hire in the crew IMO, Arik does a lot to shut down opponents in a few ways. Whether just by taking hits and protecting your crew that way or through Gravity Well shutting down Place effects Arik is useful, and otherwise he's just a pretty simple beater for 10SS with a little bit of versatility. His Shockwaves are ok, and being able to boost them makes Lazarus a bit more enticing as a 2nd take under Schill2 as well, but the main show is his melee which you can boost to fairly reliably spike for 7 damage with Puncture or just ignore Armour with likely negatives. Either way he punches very effectively, but you need to remember to use Charge Up any time you don't need to use Leap to get somewhere which is honestly most times for Arik. Kinetic Amplifier is really great when it's relevant although costing cards is a bit of a downside, and the Metallurgist brings a slight nonbo here as most of these kinds of damage will get reduced to 0 and thus no possible Focus. Diving Charge is amazing for mobility too because nothing can get in his way of the target even without Leap (and Rocket Boots for Charge Through is actually a good use here, especially with Puncture)

Hannah Lovelace- going into writing this I knew I'd be saying some controversial things about Hannah, and while I think she's an important piece in the crew and quite good she isn't the first thing I take and is often the one I remove. While she gives a great bonus in Arcane Reservoir and the things she does are consistent she is very expensive at 10SS and taking 20SS in 2 models is something to weigh up whenever you play Schill. The min 4 combo with Arik is ok but it's still jumping through hoops and Freikorps don't exactly struggle for damage anyway, plus she can also just be doing bonus actions from Equipment which will have their own benefits. Both her attacks are good and have good triggers (which you can guarantee) as does Adaptive Tactics with being able to clear conditions if needed. In general she brings a good toolkit, but it's a toolkit that I'm deciding game by game whether I'll actually need it or not because I've often skipped her and not felt like I was missing out on anything. 

Lazarus- A model that I really love but just never end up taking, mainly because he doesn't do a huge amount that synergises with the rest of the crew that can't be done elsewhere. He's decently tanky for 9SS but not hugely so, and Unyielding combined with Bodyguard let him be a defensive pin for the crew but he is very slow and won't keep up with the rest of the crew as easily. Both his attacks are ok, but the Grenade Launcher is a Shockwave in a crew that using Shockwaves cuts into their efficiency in other ways isn't fantastic, although it will drain the hand of opponents ideally to stop them taking big chunks of damage (or just doing the damage itself). Juggernaut for healing is great but at the cost of a card, and Assimilate is good depending on what Constructs you're using (mainly Arik). His ability through Assimilate and Elimination Protocols to get effectively 3AP for not much work is also nice and you can hurt the opponent a lot, but at 9SS and not being Arik or Hannah he's the 3rd expensive model I look at in a list, and I tend to grab cheaper models instead to bump up activations at that point. 

Metallurgist- The newest piece for Freikorps and almost pure support, but I really love it for what it does passively in a lot of matchups. No Armour is unique for Freikorps, but it does have native Arcane Shield 2 for some protection and Evasive to completely remove Blasts, Pulses and Shockwaves as a threat. Power Tokens in Freikorps won't do much often, but Enchanted Steel makes your already tanky models an absolute slog to take out unless you ignore Armour (which at least some things likely will as tech picks against Freikorps) and is mostly a huge benefit with Hazardous Terrain- your own Land Mines can't even affect your stuff as long as the Metallurgist is nearby. Her attack is nice but low damage, and Vent Steam helps keep her safe and hurts the opponent a lot but as far as actions go its her bonus actions that are the reason for using her and her actual actions are mostly just going to be done as needed for damage or protection. Command Construct in Freikorps is good but not fantastic (Hannah and Arik are what you'll do it on the most) and built in Temper Steel is very nice although the action itself still needs a 9 of Tomes to be successful. Like Clockwork is slightly less limited in use as it doesn't need to target a Construct (although it still needs one in play) and moves the target 3" towards any Construct or Scrap marker (even enemy), with Power token gain for Augmented on a Tome (in Freikorps only useful on the Metallurgist herself) and on a Mask for Freikorps the ability to attach Equipment at the cost of a card which is just another way to pick things up and it always welcome. 

Drachen Trooper- what is really the biggest finesse piece of the keyword and often not very useful in comparison to other models, the Drachen shines based on what your opponent is using. Clearing Distracted, Slow and Staggered is their main reason to be taken with a huge range and only needing a 4 (and with the Metallurgist doing no damage to Freikorps for the full benefit) and removing markers is also very useful to have in the right matchup (but only Corpse, Scrap and Destructible so still not a lot of the things you want marker removal for). The Flamethrower is pretty good at dealing damage to a lot of models and 6 vs Mv is good, but at 8SS compared to other options in keyword its very tough competition and means you won't really see the Drachen Trooper very often. 

Freikorps Librarian- honestly my favourite minion in keyword (and there's a lot of competition) because they can pivot so easily into almost any role and have really great synergy with a bunch of the Equipment. Arcane Shield on top of Assault Shields and Rocket Launchers with Siphon Power are both great options, Consolidate Power with your Minions is a nice option to have (but not so great that you won't want to flex into bonus actions from Equipment) and their actions are all great. Ancient Words is a good ranged option and the triggers are both very useful (although the Rocket Launcher makes for a better blaster) and Healing Words is the real reason to take them in the crew. They have tons of ways to reduce damage in keyword but with ranged healing it becomes so much more punishing for the opponent and you can make sure you're staying around for a very long time

Freikorps Scout- The sniper of the keyword, Scouts have some good rules on their own and some really great interactions with Equipment (mainly the Rocket Launcher). From the Shadows is great for early shots and with a 14" gun they can easily achieve this, while ignoring Concealment and Friendly Fire on the front of card (meaning it makes Rocket Launchers ignore it) is also very good in the right situations. Stat wise there's not much to say other than they're very average with nothing excelling, although Pursue helps with duels against models that have already activated so offensively they are fairly reliable (stat 7 Rocket Launcher for example). Their own attacks aren't especially better than Freikorpsmenn for the extra cost, but their bonus action to get out of engagement is nice and they do have good triggers on both actions as well.

Freikorps Engineer- Engineers are a weird support/close range model that will be useful in a scrum, but really exists to make sure other things are harder to kill. Their stats are standard for Freikorps and they have Armour 1 like almost everyone else, but Tools for the Job makes their triggers a lot more reliable and gives you some good card cycling, and although Sabotage won't always be useful it will be handy when it is and could potentially allow some sneaky scoring setups for later in a turn. Their melee is actually not too bad, with stat 5 2/3/5 being on the low end but having 2 great triggers. Severe Injury is always useful but being able to set up attacks later in the turn from your big hitters (or Scouts shooting rockets for reliable blasts) and Armour Piercing is pretty self explanatory (plus synergy with Sabotage. Their big thing though is their bonus action Strengthen Armour, which gives the target Shielded 2 (great for keeping Assault Shields active) and if they're a Construct they heal 1. At the cost of a card you won't see it super often outside of Freikorps where it becomes a cycle, but also being able to hand out Focus or put Concealment on the target is very nice and you can keep things in a fight for a very long time this way (especially because most of the value models are Constructs). I personally prefer the Librarian for 1 extra stone, but ultimately both have good tools and can be used well so it really depends what you need in any given situation like most of Freikorps

Freikorpsmenn are the cheapest keyword minion, but they do a ton of work for 5SS. Armour and Survivalist together make for a far more survivable model than they deserve to be for 5SS, although 5s in all their stats is squarely average so they will fairly often need to rely on extra defences over their native stats (Assault Shield here is fantastic). They can choose to take a damage to keep any Equipment they'd otherwise discard which is great for Rocket Launchers and Boots to get more efficiency out of them, and Ruthless is always amazing to get around a bunch of defensive tech. Their actions aren't amazing, although Crit Strike on both attacks is nice for sure, and Reference the Field Guide also enables the damage boosts via Crit Strike if you have the right cards. In general Freikorpsmenn are great budget minions and I find they always do work

Upgrades-

Servant of Dark Powers- On either version of Von Schill I find this autotake because he wants to be killing models anyway, and you can use it to make sure you're healing while you do so (and Schill 1 gets the extra +1 this way) while Herald is also excellent

Wanted Criminal- It's really just janky in Freikorps, although on Freikorpsmenn for scheming it's not a bad take. Outflank for example you can threaten from turn 2

Soldier for Hire- Hard to Kill on anything in the keyword is excellent, but the rest of it is more just meh

Deployments- With Freikorps having lots of ways to move in weird ways and out of activations the deployments don't really matter to them outside of how they affect Schemes and Strategies. 

Strategies-

Reckoning- The best strat for Freikorps IMO, because they're sturdy and can also dish out damage. It's really simple

Turf War- Being able to both survive to avoid flipping your markers and jump into the opponent's half to challenge their markers this is a good option 

Corrupted Idols- Spend wounds to chuck Idols, then use your Librarians to heal them back up. Freikorpsmenn especially are great here because of Survivalist, and you can use Leap and cheating initiative to make sure you can reach the Idols as well

Plant Explosives- I like this strat, but it isn't as great as Reckoning or Turf War for Freikorps

Schemes- 

Detonate Charges- I wouldn't take this purely because it isn't reliable enough and you can't get scheme markers in without interacting

Breakthrough- Not something I'd recommend, I tend to prefer mid-board schemes or things that need you to get into the opponent

Harness the Ley Line- With how you want to scrum and semi-bubble this one can be great, but it can also potentially be difficult. 

Search the Ruins- I don't hate this scheme but I also don't love it with Freikorps. Depending on the table setup I'll take it

Dig Their Graves- I don't really rate it honestly, but it can be achievable in a lot of ways

Hold Up Their Forces- Freikorpsmenn are great here because they're both cheap and tanky, especially with Assault Shields and healing. 

Take Prisoner- Depends entirely on the opponent, but even then I don't really like it

Power Ritual- Corner or Flank only, as usual

Outflank- Not bad, and I do like doing this with Freikorpsmenn or Scouts but you also need to make sure you aren't just handing over 2 of your models for no gain

Assassinate- This one is difficult for either version of Schill for different reasons, but Schill 1 with the right setup is almost unkillable for a lot of reasons. Play Schill to deny it, but also depending on how easily you can kill the enemy Master I'd take it as well

Deliver a Message- 1st point is very doable but then I'm not a huge fan of the 2nd point because it can be countered in a lot of ways

Claim Jump- Not bad, but not fantastic either

Vendetta- Being able to punch up with cheap models makes this a pretty great option, especially because you can then do as much as you can to keep said model alive the rest of the game after they kill their target

GG1

Strategies- 

Symbols of Authority- Sending things far enough up the table to grab Symbols is fairly easy, and protecting yours with a scrum of Freikorps is also easy enough to do

Recover Evidence- Not a terrible scheme, slap Intel on your most tanky models and watch as your opponent struggles to collect more than a couple of points

Corrupted Ley Lines- Although they have a lot of movement, it's mostly placing so it isn't hugely reliable like other crews are. 

Public Enemies- Same as Reckoning, you have tankiness and damage to make sure you can both deny and score this which is great

Schemes- 

Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Vendetta, Assassinate, Claim Jump- Nothing changed here, so my points from above are still my opinion on them. 

Hidden Martyrs- With almost anything in the keyword being tough as nails for their cost you can fairly reliably get points from this, although it does become more obvious when you come to let opponents kill your models and they can just choose to stop attacking you (which in turn lets you dictate the terms of the game)

Sabotage- I really don't like this one with Schill simply cause it means you have to push really deep into the opponent's half and you're better suited to other schemes

Catch and Release- Freikorpsmenn (for cheap) or Librarians (for tankier) with Shield and Rocket Boots are a pretty funny, if not entirely guaranteed, option for this and I'd do it just for the fun of it but like a lot of things there are probably better options. 

Let Them Bleed- You have a lot of damage reduction, a lot of healing and good damage. All of these added up make your crew great for this scheme

Leave Your Mark- Not a bad option because you can scrum in the middle and block out the opponent from scoring, but also not guaranteed so dependent on what the opponent is playing and table setup

Research Mission- Drop Landmines for it and you can do it pretty self-sufficiently wherever you need to

Spread Them Out- It's very doable but I'd also not want to risk getting things out of ranges from other models so you can keep overlapping abilities and making sure you can pass things around where you want to. It makes a bit of a pivot in terms of Schill's lifestyle so you have to consider what other schemes you have. 

Runic Binding- Leaps make it less difficult, and in a scrum situation I'd consider this an alright (if not perfect) take

GG2

Strategies-

Symbols of Authority, Corrupted Ley Lines- Same as in GG1, my thoughts are the same.

Turf War- Same as it used to be, same opinion as before

Break the Line- All I'd suggest is push hard onto 2 markers and shove them up as quickly as possible, because you can also quite easily double Interact on them in single activations with Rocket Boots

Schemes-

Breakthrough, Vendetta, Assassinate, Hidden Martyrs, Research Mission, Let Them Bleed, Catch and Release, Spread Them Out- These are all very much the same as before and I wouldn't change how I play them now.

Detonate Charges, Claim Jump- They’re the same as GG0, same as my thoughts there.

Death Beds- With Land Mines you can pull it off pretty well, I actually like this scheme with Freikorps because you can score it and you're also tanky enough to try and deny it hard. 

Update- The Future and the Past

 Hi all, I've been away from the blog for quite a while (10 months since my last post, and 9 since I've even actually written anything) and as a way to track my hobby more I'm planning on writing some things again.

When it comes to Malifaux and Batman, long the mainstays of the blog in terms of content, I just don't have the motivation to write for them and I've been playing both games far less recently. In fact most of the games I've had on here I haven't played as much lately as I've moved over to playing Horus Heresy with the new edition which I love, but its taken a lot of my hobby and especially gaming time so I'll likely write a lot more about it in the near future. 

In terms of actual tactica and the kind of posts I've done in the past they'll likely not be seen much any more, as they are quite a large undertaking for full keyword/faction tactica and need frequent updating to be actually useful. At this point it's probably a bit obvious that I won't be updating my Malifaux posts for further Gaining Grounds unless the inspiration really strikes me, but I will be finishing and posting the last tactica for Malifaux I had in progress, as the Freikorps is almost finished and should be done in the coming days. 

I am planning to be putting up some hobby progress posts in terms of what I've been working on in batches, with a big focus being on my Dark Angels for Horus Heresy and the Eldar I've painted for 40k (although still haven't used yet). There's a bit of Malifaux and Batman as well, but GW has been the main focus recently. 

I'd like to thank anyone who's still reading this (you're definitely appreciated!) and hopefully the next stage of the blog isn't just for my own hobby tracking

Plagued- Malifaux Hamelin Tactica

Next up for Malifaux I'm writing about another one of the Outcasts I've had a bit of a different experience with in Hamelin. I've never been a fan of the whole Rat Engine style of play in any edition, but I love the Blight Bomb builds he can do and so my personal preferences for him are based entirely around what facilitates this style (and the only times I've played him have been when this build is possible)

 Keyword abilities-

Blight Tokens- The crew revolves around Blight, but being tokens they don’t natively do anything on their own. The crew has so many ways to both apply and use them that if you don’t see Blight on enemy models start to snowball you’re almost certainly not playing the crew correctly.

Nihilism- Hamelin and Nix both have this, and at the cost of a card discard you can choose to not gain any condition. When it will likely be beneficial for you not to have it (eg against Tara on Hamelin or an already activated Nix) you can just deny it entirely, although without much card draw you’ll have to be a bit careful about when you do it

Bleeding Disease- The big use for Blight offensively, it deals damage to the target equal to how many Blight Tokens they have. Because of how Blight stacks up so quickly by mid-game you will have a ton of ways to throw out tons of damage onto the opponent and you will often be one-shotting lower wound models which is really effective in terms of thinning them out. 12" range is also excellent because it keeps you safer as well. 

Taint- a common Crow trigger, it gives Blight equal to how many Crows are in the duel total. Good to have and you'll do it fairly often but there really isn't much else to say about it

Source of the Contagion/Diseased- Passive Auras to spread Blight, Diseased is a 3" on most of the crew and Source of the Contagion is a 6" Aura on Hamelin himself. They both stack, and both of them give an enemy Blight when they activate within range so you can stack it up really quickly. 

Covered in Rats- The defensive ability of Benny Wolcomb and Rat Catchers, it just gives them Shielded +1 for each Malifaux Rat they end their activation within 1" of. It's simple but it works well enough

Demise (Agony)- Both Hamelins have this, and it lets them kill a Stolen in 6" to heal 5 when he dies. Nice way to keep him alive if needed, but usually it'll be more of a deterrent than anything. 

Keyword models-

Hamelin- The more front-line version of the Plague, this Hamelin is built to be very much stuck in instead of trying to block out opponents and keep them at arms length. His stats are very defensible, and Nihilism is great to have in this regard as well, while Coughing Fit helps not only Hamelin but any trigger an enemy does within 6" which shuts down a lot provided you can build up Blight (which you should be able to pretty well). Voracious Rats is a nice incidental summon, but otherwise there isn't much to the front of his card that hasn't already been touched upon. 
Bleeding Disease is as expected, but Siphon Life on it is quite great to have because it increases damage even more which can help get through high wound counts (and healing on your Master is always welcome). Lure at stat 7 and with Taint built in is very good and is useful for forcing opponents into your range to mess with them as best as possible, while Skittering Vermin can be useful as well to move things like Rat Kings or Winged Plague into positions where they can score for you. The Black Staff is surprisingly good melee at 6 vs Df (and with a trigger for built in Injured which will stack up really quickly) although 2/3/4 damage and a Blight isn't super high. Free Rats on a Tome is nice, and Skittering Vermin as mentioned before helps too, but in general I would only really be attacking in melee with Hamelin if he really has to because he definitely has better actions otherwise. 
Pustulent Tumours for exploding Rats is quite hilarious and actually a really good action being a pseudo-shockwave with no resist, and with Quick Reflexes you can turn an abundance of Rats into huge amounts of damage for the opponent for very little card resources from you which will always be surprising to see and still very effective. Unclean Influence as his bonus action is also very useful, as making all Vermin move 3" and take free actions is great to have and it can be used really aggressively to either form Rat Kings or move things into position for bombing via Pustulent Tumours. For a 4, and with a trigger to give all Rats in range free Focused there's really no reason to not use it unless you have no Vermin within 6" of him, in which case you're probably already struggling

Hamelin, The Piper- My preferred version of Hamelin, I really love the playstyle of The Piper and he does so much. What I'll get out of the way first is that I really dislike the idea of taking him as just an enabler for a bunch of out of keyword models, and I see his Obey as a way to mess with your opponent in huge ways and spread Blight across enemy models while also having the versatility of spreading AP where you need it among your own crew to push for scoring. Decent enough stats although easier to kill than non-Title Hamelin with 1 less wound and Df, although forcing discards to make Charges within 6" (which is also the Blight Zone) is really nice to drain resources and can help to keep him alive. The ability to spread Blight from killed models when they die is especially nice, because Bleeding Disease becomes a very quick way to rip through enemies later in the game, plus Spray of Filth built in with this Hamelin increases it even more. He also has counters to card draw crews which is especially nice control, as if they have Blight and draw cards within 6" you can discard said Blight to instead draw a card yourself and deny them one, which is a huge resource swing and can make a real difference in a lot of ways. 
In terms of actions, 2 of his 3 attacks have Tainted Chorus on a Crow to straight up give the target 2 Blight Tokens which is always very useful, and Music in the Air on a Tome to immediately push the target (which has to be an enemy) 2" in any direction. Not really useful on Bleeding Disease I feel, but on Obey is quite good to get enemies into better positions for you (meaning worse for them). Obey is pretty self explanatory and amazing on its own, but with the Mask built in and stat 7 its even better and the triggers are both good as mentioned above. Bleeding Disease is Bleeding Disease, your best damage action after very little investment. The Piper's Influence is one of the only ways in Outcasts to give Stunned, and giving your own models built in suits against the target is even better because of all the huge amounts of ways it can pay off (built-in Onslaught with Rat Kings, Taint on tons of stuff). Infestation for a free Rat is nice but you really want Tainted Chorus for the most results I feel like. Eyes in the Walls is Marker removal which is always welcome (it works on anything non-Strategy, so a great way to deal with non-Destructible Markers) and the pulse for Blight on enemies (Wp13 so likely burning decent cards) plus a free Rat is nice to have for an 8. Alone each benefit would probably be slightly high, but when you get all 3 every time it's really great and 6" pulses can mean you can hit crews a lot for those 8s if you do it multiple times a turn (Titania, Kaeris, Reva and Rasputina for example)

Stolen- As far as totems go they are very average, but they do a decent amount to support the crew. Giving Vermin Fast is expensive needing 10s (or 6s on Rats) but when you do get it its definitely worth it, plus being able to kill them for cards and rats is an ok choice if you're running low. Vomiting Disease is also an ok attack for a 1SS totem but nothing to write home about. 

Nix- As far as survivable henchmen go, Nix is the gold standard. Between Incorporeal, only being able to do Moderate or Weak damage to him (or any friendly within 3") and Soulstones he is very hard to actually damage, and then any duel failed by enemies within 3" also heals him which turns it up to 11. Nihilism is great to have as well when it matters, but its his survivability combined with the back of his card that makes him an autotake in any Hamelin crew. Loose Bowels is ok in scheming pools, and very low investment to straight up lock the opponent from doing things they want in many ways, but Drink Spirit is the more useful bonus action IMO because it can throw out huge amounts of Blight and also heals Nix a good amount of the time to make sure he's topped up. Bleeding Disease is fairly self explanatory, and Spectral Bite is ok damage but built in Taint is the main reason you'll be using it, because Nix wants to be in the middle of a scrum tanking and dealing damage as much as possible to actively screw with the opponent's plans.

Benny Wolcomb- A model I've very much spoken negatively about in the past with Bandit, but in Hamelin there's a lot more useful synergy and even though Benny is still weird, he has his uses. Using him to convert a bunch of scheme markers turn 1 into Rats, which then turn into Rat Kings, is his best use but he often becomes a bit less useful after the fact and tries to pivot into a schemer/runner killer where he's ok but not fantastic (unless there are scheme markers nearby and he becomes Fast). I like Benny, and he's important for getting Rat Kings onto the table, but he won't be putting in huge amounts of work all game directly. 

Disease Containment Unit- The new Enforcer, shared with Guard, this model is definitely more suited towards Guard in terms of kit but it still has some very nice Blight synergies with it. Armour 1 with the ability to not be affected by Hazardous Terrain, Injured or Poison is all really nice, as is +1 to duels against models that have already activated (making those blasts more reliable) but the explosion when it dies is a huge thing to look out for in Plague because it will delete any Rats you have and do huge chunks of damage to things in your crew. Rapid Response for working against markers is excellent, being able to get things out of bad situations (against Pyres? Time to get everyone back to safety) and the possible heals or Rat summons (because this is a Plague tactica after all, Hounds are a footnote at best) are great to have in the toolkit. Its Hidden Axe is ok but not fantastic, Diseased Limb reduces your Blight to make it do fairly mediocre damage for a 7SS model, but the Flamethrower is what does work in Hamelin crews. Resisting Mv is always good but even greater with Pursue, and although it isn't super high damage it gives out high Burning or optionally Blight tokens via the trigger which means you'll be tuning up the rest of your crew in some big ways. I really like the DCU for this reason alone, and the Flamethrower paints a huge target on it that the opponent can't ignore early game for the sheer threat of being covered in Blight far quicker. 

Obedient Wretch- What is basically a better Stolen, the Wretch is actually one of the better pieces in the crew I think because it is ridiculously survivable for its cost between Manipulative, Stealth and Tummy Aches (which I'll come back to soon) and having Bleeding Disease. It can kill itself like Stolen although here it is an absolute last resort, and Tossed Rat is best mainly for the triggers which are both great. Analyze Weakness and Bleeding Disease are both the main reasons you want the Wretch because it allows you to tech against Armour (with Skittering Vermin as well, so you can ignore Armour and put your Rat King into charge range). The big reason these are so great is through Tummy Aches, because not being able to cheat if they had Blight (which they pretty reliably will) means you can cheat to win with total impunity and make sure your attacks land (or you survive)

Rat King- My favourite minions in the keyword, these things are nuts. They don't look especially fantastic in any way, but they have so many ways to go above and beyond expectations so I love putting them on the table. I don't hire them, instead summoning with Benny, but having 2 by the end of turn 1 is something I'll always shoot for because trading up from hiring a Rat or 2 is just value. They can remove scheme markers from range, giving them great counter-scheming threat, force duels on things to give out Slow which is great and with pluses to damage flips they can reliably spike damage to hit the 4 or 5 damage on their melee. On that point, Onslaught is amazing as can be expected and the built in Blight explosion is great for spreading things around into the enemy crew (and with Piper Hamelin you can spread even more which gets insane). In general they're great mid-tier beaters that can punch up when needed, and even if they die they either get you a Rat Catcher (if you kill it yourself) or draw a card which is still good to have. 

Rat Catcher- A pretty good close-up scheming piece, but honestly I find myself not really taking them because of the wealth of other options in keyword and I prefer sticking with Rat Kings instead of summoning in Catchers. They can do a lot of work in pools with Detonate Charges or Death Beds and even things like Symbols and Break the Line where Don't Mind Me is very useful, I just personally don't click with them a whole lot. They are another vector to hand out Fast on your Vermin though which is really nice to have (and on a better stat than Stolen), and help a huge amount in getting Rats on the table which leads to even more Rat King possibilities. Rat Snack is useful, with some sneaky card draw in it (2 cards from a Rat) and they have a lot of good tricks on their melee as well although they aren't super amazing combat models (free Rat, Slow or quite easy min 4 are all great to have). 

Winged Plague- They're very squishy, but for 4SS scheme runners they do the job. Turn 1 will often be used to feed Benny and make up Rat Kings, but after that I find they're great ways to score points through Interacts while most of the crew wants to be gumming things up and spiking damage with Blight. The end of turn pushes on them are also really great to have too, because it speeds up already fast models early in the game. 

Malifaux Rat- They're basically glorified markers, but being able to build into Rat Kings is a serious threat and they can also put out Blight if they get into annoying positions (and they can just block off areas by existing so even with no engagement they can be annoying in terms of board control) 

OOK/Versatile models-

Emissary- As far as support pieces go this is close to the gold standard. Healing and bonus scheming are what you want it for, but it is expensive and doesn't play much into synergies with the rest of the crew. I like it a lot but it's also one of the first things I'll go to drop

Big Jake- This is what you take for aggressive scheming options that can bring itself back if/when he does die. Not essential (I certainly get enough success out of Winged Plague most of the time) but also very useful if your opponent can clear out models quicker. 

Hans- The option here is for having ranged shooting options early in the game to force engagements with the opponent and punish them for staying away from your bubble. 

Upgrades-

Servant of Dark Powers- If you're hiring Rat Kings this is great, but it also does good work on Nix if you spare the stones for it (although 2 stones to reduce damage is also good to have for Nix)

Wanted Criminal- Although the new version of the upgrade as of 2021 is a lot better, I don't think there's really a great use for it in Hamelin crews except maybe Benny. Even there though it isn't fantastic

Soldier for Hire- Hard to Kill is always good, but for 2SS on the models you want it on you may as well just bank the stones for more versatility

Deployments-

Corner- while the crew isn’t necessarily fast it isn’t slow either, although Corner means you won’t really be getting into the game in a big way until turn 3 and it makes it a lot harder to start the snowball of Blight

Wedge- this only really exists as a way to spearhead Nix into the enemy crew and shoot out Blight as much as possible, but with such an awkward deployment zone and trending towards higher model count Wedge is a big pain for Plague crews

Flank- unlike Corner, you have close enough deployment zones that you can effectively get into the enemy crew earlier and get Blight onto things when you need to early/mid game

Standard- fairly average, not much else to say

Strategies-

Reckoning- I don't think you could give away points easier if you tried. Nothing in the crew other than Nix and Hamelin are particularly tough to kill and they also don't have huge amounts of damage until later in the game

Turf War- My main take for Hamelin in the GG0/Rulebook pool, Turf War is somewhere you can do a decent amount of scoring provided you get your placement right. Early game you will easily take both markers in your half, then you can push up and make sure the centre one stays in your control while you annoy the opponent as much as you can and dish out damage to make sure you can hold 3 points on the table which in turn denies your opponent. 

Corrupted Idols- This would be my 2nd pick for Hamelin, but it needs a bit of management to pull off. You can get totally screwed by initiative flips here even if you try and make sure you can get 2-3 markers covered and the fact you want to bubble is somewhat detrimental to the strategy. You can however all but lock out the opponent putting them back over your half with Blight so the denial game and playing for 2-3VP isn't a bad take

Plant Explosives- Not bad, but not great either. Kings and Winged Plague can get into awkward spots to place bombs down but you really need to push into the opponent's half to benefit and Hamelin doesn't really like doing that in general

Schemes- 

Detonate Charges- With how Hamelin likes to play a scrum style of game and the many ways you can get scheme markers onto the table Detonate is one I like to take with him, because he can lock down an enemy model with some degree of reliability

Breakthrough- Not bad with Winged Plague or even Rat Kings, but its risky so you have to be a bit careful with how you play it

Harness the Ley Line- Not a bad option, but not fantastic either. That's about all I can say really it depends on what other schemes there are and if you can accomplish both easily

Search the Ruins- Not terrible but you don't want to be pushing too deep into the opponent's half because it has diminishing returns very quickly, so it depends on board state

Dig Their Graves- With no non-scheme marker placement in the crew outside of dying (and your most expendable models don't drop corpses) the 2nd point isn't very reliable, but the first is ok enough given you can pull things into the bubble and make sure it dies where you want to with some reliability

Hold Up Their Forces- This is fairly easy to achieve and not a bad take for Hamelin in general, I like it a lot

Take Prisoner- Any model you choose for this is either too important to the crew (Obedient Wretch), fragile (Winged Plague) or rewarding to the opponent to kill (Rat Kings/Catchers) that you don't want to be putting them into a position where they will also be denying your scoring as well. It's good for a fakeout if you can get other schemes but I would recommend not choosing it. 

Power Ritual- Corner or Flank only, and even then you shouldn't be splitting up with Hamelin to do it

Outflank- You don't want to do this. Keep as one otherwise the crew is easily picked apart

Assassinate- Hamelin is tanky enough and you can get big spikes from Blight in the late game (especially when other things die with Piper and you can shove all their Blight onto the enemy leader for Bleeding Disease damage) so Assassinate isn't a bad option if you can lock down the enemy leader in your bubble

Deliver a Message- First point is easy, 2nd is almost impossible. Playing for 1 isn't bad though with Hamelin 

Claim Jump- You can almost guarantee this with careful play, using ablative models to crowd out the zones and keep the centre blocked off

Vendetta- If you can get Nix on anything 8+ cost you can do some good work here because you hit it a couple times early to get point 1, Nix should survive and you throw Bleeding Disease at the target until it dies (and it should pretty reliably)

GG1

Strategies- 

None of them are especially fantastic for Hamelin, mainly because they incentivise non-place speed which he doesn't have much of, although he can play hardcore denial and grind the opponent out on attrition while he scores 1-2 points from the strat

Schemes- 

Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Vendetta, Assassinate, Claim Jump- Nothing changed here, so my points from above are still my opinion on them. 

Hidden Martyrs- some excellent choices in Hamelin's keyword, chief among them the Obedient Wretch, I really like this scheme for Plague

Sabotage- depends entirely on the deployment. Flank and Wedge it's a lot easier, Standard it's OK and Corner I would never pick it

Catch and Release- of the options you have for keyword minions, all of them are going to be high enough priority while not being super survivable that you'll likely not score both points, but you can body block Hamelin and Nix well enough (Benny is more difficult) to deny the opponent

Let Them Bleed- you don't have high enough damage outputs outside of spike damage and this scheme is very difficult to pull off

Leave Your Mark- I don't mind this option because you can block off the area pretty safely and pull things away from it as well, and Hamelin likes to operate around the centre of the table anyway

Research Mission- no special markers in keyword, I wouldn't bother with it

Spread Them Out- it's possible with Winged Plague shooting off to the flanks, but you have to make sure they're safe or you just give away the VP

Runic Binding- not a bad option, but not especially an amazing one either

GG2

Strategies-

Symbols of Authority, Corrupted Ley Lines- Same as in GG1, my thoughts are the same. Mainly playing a denial game here while getting 1-2 VP yourself

Turf War- Same as it used to be, same opinion as before

Break the Line- Between the amounts of movement and free actions both versions of Hamelin can give this isn't a bad option, especially because you can get quite a lot out of most keyword models this way. Winged Plague have the most effective double-tap being Vermin and can benefit from a ton of extra ways to do things in the keyword

Schemes-

Breakthrough, Vendetta, Assassinate, Hidden Martyrs, Research Mission, Let Them Bleed, Catch and Release, Spread Them Out- These are all very much the same as before and I wouldn't change how I play them now.

Detonate Charges, Claim Jump- They’re the same as GG0, same as my thoughts there.

Death Beds-  With no marker placement in the crew (and your victim models not dropping corpses either so you can't just kill Rats to make it easy) this isn't a great scheme to take