So I'm wanting to come up with ideas for articles to write and this has been floating around for some time. Malifaux experiences is a series where I talk about my experiences from playing, versing and even watching others use certain models in Malifaux. Please note, this is not a guide to play them nor is it meant to be a tactics guide, it's just my views on how the models play from my experiences. To start us off, let's talk about the one crew I have yet to beat, that from the Dark Debts box set.
Jakob Lynch
I must admit, I have had very little in the way of experiences with this Master. What I have learned is that this character is great for dishing out the Brilliance characteristic with his Pay for Blood attack and the Hungering Darkness really benefits from his upgrades of The Rising Sun (if killed he is buried and when an enemy model with the Brilliance characteristic is killedwithin 6", old HD is placed back next to that model good as new before they are removed) and Endless Hunger (HD's Terrifying now counts as All and he gets a bonus Action Point to use a Ca action).
Shifting Loyalties: Even though a Master can only be hired halfway through the campaign, one benefit that Lynch has is his Ace in the Hole ability, where if an ace is drawn during a friendly models phase, then he may place it in his hand after the actions resolved. This can be useful cause when a model dies, you need to flip a two or less in order to avoid flipping on the injury chart and so by having an ace you can cheat that in. Avoiding injuries can prove very useful in the later parts of the campaign.
Hungering Darkness
Don't be fooled by his DF 3, it is very misleading if you are not prepared. It might be easier to hit him, but if you use the wrong model then you might be surprised at how well he can do. His Incorporeal ability means he takes half damage from MI and Sh attacks and you quickly find that he can take a lot of hits to remove him. Magical attacks or Ca attacks are your best bet to take him down quickly. At Terrifying (Living) 12, one must need to
Healing is another factor with HD, as he has two means to do it. The first is his tactical action called Consume Brilliance in which he heals one wound for each model with the Brilliance characteristic within 6" aura of him, but those models must take a TN 13 horror duel. Given that the base WP of your crew with that characteristic will be 6, this is a little risky, but can prove very useful in small games where he is the crew leader. The second is his Tendrils attack which has a built in mask. There are two triggers he can use, the first being to heal two wounds and the other to apply Brilliance. This can be difficult to decide as the attack does get positive flips to damage vs Brilliance and with the Addict upgrade gets a positive flip to attack and damage flips (so technically double positive to damage flips). Damage vs Healing is a hard one to decide, it all comes down to how positive you feel about the situation.
Oh yes, with that last attack, a rams gets you a 4/5/7 damage instead of 2/4/6. With those positive flips, you could deal some real damage, particularly against other Incorporeal models.
I have found that taking half damage from non-casting/non-magical attacks along with his constant healing makes it difficult to remove in smaller games. A real nascence when trying to assassinate him.
Shifting Loyalties: If you want him to lead your crew, remember that to hire a 0 cost character, they are thirteen minus their soul stone cache, so that brings HD to a cost of 8 Soul Stones to use. Since you now have to add the leaders cost to your crew hiring, it's important to remember this if you want to run a Brilliance crew.
The Illuminated
While not as horrifying as HD (they are living 10), there DF 5 is only slightly better, but they do get Armor +1. Just like HD, they do have the ability to heal, though somewhat differently. First off, they get to regenerate one wound when they activate, they also get a single cast of Brillshaper, a 0 action which gives a 1/2/3 heal flip and only needs a five or more to cast. This means they can heal between 1-4 wounds per turn (depending if you cast successfully and how much you heal on the flip). Given they are resilience and the free cost of healing, it can be difficult to remove them and without any real focus damage, they can prove to be a real headache to deal with.
They do have a decent melee and range attack, though against Brilliance is when they become deadly, as their 2/4/5 damage flip gets +2 damage against Brilliance. A second mask gets you the trigger to cheat damage flips, even if they are at a negative flip.
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