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
