So something that I've noticed since taking up Malifaux is there are plenty of battle reports (if you know where to look), but very few of them have Gremlins as a played faction. So why is this? Having looked around on the Internet a bit, I have come to a few conclusions and so I'll give what I believe are some of the reasons that Gremlins aren't as popular and try to put a positive spin to help to give those looking at these crazy hillbillies as an option a better understanding (This may end up in multiple articles/parts).
The Risk vs Reward Issue
By this I don't mean the normal risk vs reward stuff, but the ones that are more unique to this faction. By this I am referring to Reckless, Triggers and Control. So lets start with Reckless.
Reckless for a number of Gremlin characters is the ability to take one wound in exchange for one extra action point. Now at face value this looks amazing....and it is. This only becomes a problem in that you have to know when to do it. One of the Gremlins biggest problems is it's lack of survivability (and I'll get more into that when we get to Triggers), so simply spamming this each turn is going to get those models killed. Worse still, the cheap Bayou Gremlins have Drunk & Reckless, which does two wounds for a single action point instead of one. With only four wounds, this is a big risk. With all that said, learning when to use this ability though playing games is the best way to master it. Sadly, this is one of those abilities that is difficult to come up with a solution for as this is very heavily situational. Just remember, the Reckless ability is very useful to help with last minute plans, which can make or break a game. Helpful tip, a Slop Hauler can also work well, taking a wound to move near a model so that they can spend their normal two action points to use their healing ability.
Now Triggers work a little differently. The one that I'm going to focus on here is Dumb Luck. Dumb Luck simplified, is when you deal double damage, but take half the damage dealt yourself.
Example: Gremlin hit a Silurid and got the Dumb Luck triggered, scoring four damage on him. That Gremlin would then take two damage in return.
This is a little risky, but it becomes even more so if you happen to do severe damage, which can range from six to eight damage, but the risk of taking half of that could remove a models health by half or even get them killed. As mentioned above, a Bayou Gremlin has four wounds and Drunk & Reckless can take two of them just for a single action point, but they also have to declare triggers, meaning a single Dumb Luck can also kill them. Now the upside to this is that this is very useful to finish off annoying models or even stopping full victory points for schemes like bodyguard (getting them under half health). This is also great if your guy is down to one wound and you know he's going to die, so you can sacrificing him and deal good damage or even kill and opponent.
Now Control is the last one and in some cases ties into the two above. This tends to focus more on the creatures like Pigs, whom if not within two inches of a Gremlin go out of control. Now a Ulix themed crew might have things like Old Major and Penelope who have good control auras, but in any other force you may need Hog Whisperers just for such auras, whom sadly have poor survivability. Not much more I can say on this (honestly, it's my fault for not writing down the ideas for this one, had a much better explanation for this), just remember to keep your control models withing control range at the end of the turn, so that at the start of the next one you can still maintain that control.
Shifting Loyalties Campaign
So the big worldwide campaign has come and gone, but the campaign rules in the Shifting Loyalties book are designed for any campaign. It was during this big event that Gremlins sort of fell away and this was partly due to lack of time for people, but for others it was because they felt their crew Henchman leaders couldn't compete with other factions. So here are a few suggestions for Gremlin Henchman leaders for campaign games:
McTravish: Well, he's more of a Human then a Gremlin, but one thing he isn't is a push over. I recommend getting a Bayou Gator just to keep near him for the bonus he gets for his Hunting Rifle and in return he can provide some cover for the Gator. He has both a great melee and range attack and can also remove scheme, scrap and corpse markers, which can screw over enemy crews.
Mancha Rojo: While he lacks range, Mancha is a melee monster and while he has a good defence and a nice set of wounds, his Hard to Wound ability means a negative flip on damage. Keep him near impassable terrain to give him a nice charge range.
Sparks: While his defence and wounds aren't as great, he does work well if you have some survivors and mechanized prokchops in the crew, even better if you know your opponents will be using constructs and scrape markers. Haven't seen much on this guy yet, so as yet I'd still put the above two over this guy (at least for now).
So that's this article for now. I'll try to update it or even rewrite it once I know more (like how to write article for startes).
