Strike Force: Lucius army list tactics

Being relatively new Lucius player I remember playing Lucius for the first time though my list was rather rubbish on second glance and even though I won my match I saw the great potential in Lucius. Here goes a leader that makes his crew run like a welled oiled machine but only BETTER, manipulating his crew to higher feats.

With that goal in mind I looked at his very short list of available minions at his disposable:

Ryle, Guild Guard, Guild Guard Captain, Austringer, Guild Hounds and the Lawyer. With the limited selection (at the time) I went with the following:

Guild Crew - 35 - Scrap

Lucius -- 4 Cache

Governor's Proxy [2ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Austringer [5ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard [4ss]

Guild Guard Captain [7ss]

Ryle, Guild Pawn [8ss]

Lucius- you usually run up Lucius first turn and cast "Reinforcements" to move any model 4" in front of him. My two favorites are either the Captain (since he is slow) or the Austringer for positioning. "Advanced Training" to give all models in the 8" aura +2 cb, followed by an "Issue Command" on your Austringer makes it a healthy 9cb strike... Let that sink in.. how many non master models can dodge a 9cb strike BEFORE any flips?

With Lucius you should be get into a good position and start spamming out "Issue Command" as many times as possible. Hopefully to make strikes just so you get more mileage out of "Advanced Training", all else fails use it to get better positioning on an enemy by moving around your models who have not yet activated.

Governors Proxy- I use this model solely because its higher CA of 5 with suited ram, that means he casts Lucius' signature spell "Issue Command" on a 9+. An added bonus is the +2wp he gives friendly Guild models, yes it does come with a downside... Do not fail a morale duel while within line of sight of this model. Honestly I have only ever lost a total of one model due to this, smart positioning can largely avoid this. If you see a terrifying enemy and you do not want to waste high cards passing the duel, simply walk your proxy out of line of sight.

Austringers- I will admit when they first were introduced I looked at their damage spread and thought nothing of t hem... But after playing Guild for a while I noticed their other skills which make them worth their weight in gold. Their best skill is their attack which ignores line of sight AND cover... this is VERY big in a game like malifaux where more terrain is encouraged.

I can't hammer in the fact enough to cast "Issue Command" on the Austringers of all the models in your crew. Just hide them in a building that only has one entrance and start harassing enemy models. Regardless of actual damage caused your enemy will be so frustrated he will go out of his way JUST to get rid of them. Park them close to an objective where they cannot be attacked directly and the enemy HAS to go after them or lose his crew one way or another..

Did I mention how useful "Deliver Orders" is? It is a 24" set up for an alpha strike and it is the Austringers only 0 action so don't feel bad about using it just to "burn" a card. If it actually goes through you keep going with your momentum. I tend to "Deliver Orders" to another Austringer who is hiding in same room.

Guild Guard- Tend to be the fodder I send to actually get the objectives, one always stays next to Lucius so that he benefits from his "Secret Service" rule. Also the Guardsmen hit harder under "Issue Command/Advanced Training" in addition they have critical strike. Armor tends to keep them around longer annoying your opponent to no end.

Guild Guard Captain- he has companion (master) to even further your alpha strike if that is a valid option during the turn. I never actually use his pistol as most times I rather move/protect Lucius at all costs. He is actually pretty hand in a melee fight with "Hard to Wound:1" and armor he can withstand quite a few hits. In addition he has access to critical strike with a ghosted ram, which means when he hits the enemy with a ram suited card he will do minimum 4 damage.

He has two decent 0 actions, one of them lending the idea of alpha striking even more so and the other giving all friendly nearby Guild models a bonus to their morale duels. I tend to use his alpha strike set up more than I use the morale duels 0 action but that is more personal preference than anything else.

Ryle- the beast from the east... or from somewhere else equally imposing! Ryle has always been a great model to have, yes even if I cannot "Issue Command"! His gatling gun has made swiss cheese out of just about everything I point it at without even intending to kill the victim. I tend to "cheat down" just to tie things up and pull off the "fully automatic" trigger, which tends to work in my favor most times. His close combat abilities are nothing to be scoffed at, just because his ranged weapon is a great doesn't mean he can't hold his own in close combat. In fact his damage output in close combat is VERY high. If he catches an enemy with a ram suit card and hits them for severe damage, say hello to 8 damage.

"Socially Repressed" is a great movement ability for Ryle, need to escape combat? Attack enemies who thought they were safe from your gun? The applications for this ability are great, simply because its "closest living model". If you are facing undead or constructs just move one of YOUR models in a way where the push away is favorable to you. This ability gives Ryle a 28" threat range with his gatling gun.. yup you just did that.

This post will be edited heavily in the next coming weeks as I go even more depth of all the tricks you can do with Lucius and his minions. Till then good sirs.

last edited: 08/20/11

A glance at the humble Guild Guard...

This is a response to someone on the Wyrd Miniatures forum for the game Malifaux asking on opinions of the minions in disposal of the Guild faction. Thought it was a fair assessment of the model and did not want it buried under a bunch of non helpful topics. So I decided to post it here on my blog, I am going to attempt to have a running series of thoughts on each model so stay tuned..

Cost- In the battle for 3-4 soul stone range of models the humble guardsmen has no abilities that stick out at first glance. But after playing almost exclusively with them in lists I noticed quite a few things...

Melee- Has a nice cb of 6 for his melee attack and has the ability to critical strike (the guild 'calling card' in my eyes). Though the damage output is about average for a model of his cost before critical strike at 2/3/4. On average he will have a +1-2 to hit his enemies so something must be said about being consistent.

Shooting- the pistol is on the barely average at cb 4, the trigger "halt" isn't all that great but is a nice bonus since its free due to ghosted suit. The real advantage of the guard pistol is the positive flip for damage. Meaning on a hit you will usually be at a neutral flip that you can cheat, at the worst will just be at just a negative 1 flip after hard to to wound.

Spells- Menace/Cordon I honestly don't use these that often, not that I don't think they are great spells rather I always find my Guard can do better things. With that said feel free to correct my theoryfaux.

Menace- the objective is to pin an enemy in place so they cannot engage you in hand to hand. Bonus you get a walk towards them but hopefully out of their melee range. The reality... unless you are picking on low WP models you are going to have to keep a high card in your hand. Risky at best it is still a gamble, never try on a master unless they have no cards/stones.

Cordon- a nice ability to keep non flying/floating models away from objectives or important models. At the very least it will make the lead guardsmen the first model he HAS to kill to get past/break up cordon. As a bonus it is not an opposed duel so you don't need to worry about what your opponent is holding for this spell.

Talents- Raise Alarm and Patrol again mind the theoryfaux as I do not generally use these abilities though I am always tempted to use Raise Alarm...

Raise Alarm- useful if you have a lead guardsmen that needs help and he isn't doing anything better. In theory you could catapult a guardsmen using Lucius' reinforcements spell then use this ability to give most of your crew a free 3" movement.

Patrol- it might as well ALSO be a an (all) action because the guardsmen do not have any 0 abilities. It doesn't seem as useful to me seeing as guild has plenty of other ways to gain companion without sacrificing actions. It can be useful but there are more effective ways of doing this so I usually do not use patrol.

Armor 1- at first armor 1 doesn't seem like much. But in reality this is the small but important difference when it comes to this model and his other 3-4ss buddies.The ability to take just 1 more hit or take some of the strongest (not insane) hits out there and still keep kickin' is great.

For example he gets slugged for 6 damage armor knocks one off so he is barely hanging in there ready for next round. This forces your opponent into some tough decisions. Does he want to take the strikes from the guild guard in order to activate something else first? OR is he going to waste an AP or more trying to clear out the threat of a model on it's last leg?

Either way its a win because it forces the opponent to rearrange the order of his operations. Since I main Sonnia having that 1 wound left means that the guild guard gets turned into Witchling Stalkers more than my enemies. Free models are always a good thing (not withstanding slaughter scheme) so it doubles versatility. In fact I always start with Guardsmen over Witchling Stalkers purely for this reason unless the board is covered in terrain in which Scout is king.

Verdict- a surprisingly versatile and survivable model, the Guild Guard is a staple in my crew regardless if I use Sonnia or Lucius. Whether he pulls duty as the front line against the terrors of Malifaux or as a sacrificial lamb the Guild Guard is not afraid (most times) of doing his duty.

Road to Power Gencon Tournament! Game 4

The fourth and final game of the tournament was in sight as I drew Yamizero from the Wyrd Boards. Really nice guy so I ask him if he would rather fight Sonnia or Lucius as I only had two masters on me. He said "whichever is fine" to which I responded "it's late and I don't feel like thinking I will play Lucius".

The mission was shared Contain Power

His list:
Lady Justice -- 8 Cache
Scales of Justice [2ss]
Lucius [10ss]
Death Marshal [4ss]
Death Marshal [4ss]
Death Marshal [4ss]
Judge [7ss]

his schemes were: bodyguard? and eye for an eye
I took: eye for an eye and something else I couldn't remember from the top of my head

Going into the game I know that Lady Justice is ALL types of beat stick and the Judge can also tear everything in my crew except for the Captain if he manages to get off "blades and bullets" on anyone.



There was a general advance on both sides I moved up an Austringer and tried to see the range between us with a "fake strike". See that I need an additional move which I believe either Governors Proxy or Lucius issue commands the Austringer to get closer so that his issue command strikes WOULD be in range. I believe I either softened up Judge or a random Death Marshal on my right flank.



Second turn I found perfect ranging for my Austringers between general AP/issue command I got lucky against the judge (I believe I got a red joker + severe/moderate) along with weakening a right most left Death Marshal. On the left Ryle was in charge of taking care of two Death Marshals.



Lady Justice makes the assassination run on Lucius even with my "highest authority" ability Lady Justice was consistently hitting Lucius due to his "sword style" and a few stones. I knew that attempting to dodge the attacks using soul stones would be a wash so I gambled that I could "slow to die/heal" Lucius. The gambling part came in because my deck was relatively thin and I still hadn't drawn the black joker. Luckily for me it worked out and Lucius survived the onslaught.

Forgot the order of things but I remember having the Guild Guard Captain hitting Lady Justice a few times bringing her to low life before Lucius took care of her himself when she ran out of stones. Ryle pulped one of the Death Marshals in hand to hand (red joker damage here) and shot the other one to death.

At this point around turn 5-6? he only had Lucius left who was holding up an Austringer and Guild Guard. I sent over Lucius to personally fight the imposter Lucius. Which was actually very hard to do seeing as "highest authority" kept most of my attacks missed and I was out of stones. But eventually the true Lucius prevailed it was at this point I noticed I had most of my crew.

Before I started slaughtering my crew Yami and I did some quick math and figured that all of my models could just slaughter each other to get "eye for an eye" so we shaved a few mins and said "I accomplished it". So in the end the the game scored 8-2 win for me, Yami getting points for ALSO taking eye for an eye.

All in all I think I did pretty well in this tournament, if it wasn't domination I probably would of scored "higher" due to getting a total of 26 or so scheme points with 2 wins 1 tie and 1 loss. I'd like to thank all my opponents for keeping things fast (finished all 6 turns in all but 1 game) and being very friendly. Met a lot of the people from the Wyrd boards so all in all a great experience. My only "complaint" was I had wished there were "terrain/table features" I feel it adds that little extra to every game.

With the tournament done I picked up Perdita and her totem just to see what they would play like. I have also realized that I would really like to start Ramos as I always thought he was a cool master but never had the chance to play with him. Guild will always be my "tournament" faction seeing as I have the most models for them but I also wanted a fun master to play with.

More pictures of randomness later this week, till then folks!

Road to Power Gencon Tournament! Game 3

Rolling into my third game the mission was Shared Supply Wagon, due to our table we asked the TO what would the Supply Wagon do. He said it would go around terrain and squeeze through the two very narrow doors to reach the center of the table. Looking at the set up of the table I knew I just had to take my Lucius list. With some much line of sight blocking terrain the Austringers would carry the day for me (even more so than usual).

I took my Lucius list that I took in the first match while my opponent took Neverborn.. Pandora to be exact:

Pandora -- 5 Cache
Primordial Magic [2ss]
Candy [8ss]
Coppelius [9ss]
Insidious Madness [4ss]
Sorrow [3ss]
Sorrow [3ss]
Sorrow [3ss]
Sorrow [3ss]

His schemes were: Kill Protege (Ryle) and Grudge (Guild Guard Captain)
my schemes: Hold Out and Raid?



Following the scheme that has been going on all tournament my hands were largely garbage except for a card. On the other hand because my hand was full of low cards my deck was chock full of great cards. Starting the match I knew of the nasty things that Pandora was fully capable of so taking a cue from all the anti-tactica on Pandora I started picking off her totems/sorrows first.

I caught an insanely great break when I moved Ryle to pull a flanking move. With my shooting expert I managed to tag Coppelius, cheating to a lower ram just to get my trigger off. It was tie so as I flipped the cards a red joker came up... needless to say it was a string of severe/moderate flips that finished Coppelius in one hit! Of course soon there after Candy, Pandora and a few Sorrows decided to play with Ryle and his two Guardsmen buddies... They didn't last very long under their less than tender caresses.



Towards turn 4 I remembered that I could attack the wagon, I proceeded to move up my Guild Guard Captain and attack it with multiple Issue Commands and his regular AP. By this point my opponent only had Candy and Pandora alive. While I still had both Austringers, Captain, Lucius and my totem. I soon took care of the Candy problem when Pandora decided to walk into the room and started doing damage to everyone via failed WP checks with the self mutilate spell.

Lucius went to have a friendly chat with Candy and put her to bed for good, used casting expert to run my Guard Captain away from Pandora. With that turn 6 rolled around and there was no way for Pandora to kill my Captain who was running as fast as his pudgy legs could take him. I believe maybe one of the Austringers died by this point, after I reminded my opponent that he could not hurt my wagon at all with just Pandora.

Match ended with an 8-2 victory for Lucius and his Austringers... uh I mean Guild!

Post Game Thoughts:
-Ryle it was more luck than anything else, getting the red joker for damage when I already triggered "fully automatic". That alone would of killed him but for that turn I used just about every severe on Coppelius... you know "just to be sure".
-Austringers + LOS block buildings = win. There was no real "tactic" here per se, I just moved my Austringers into the best position and pecked at his guys till they went away.
-Lucius for once actually got his gloves dirty and killed Candy with a red joker I believe. Yes it is a special moment seeing as Lucius usually doesn't attack things directly.
-My cards did great, like I said before the theme for this tournament was drawing MAYBE two cards of 10+ while the rest of my hand was garbage. Luckily for me all the right cards came out when I needed them to.
-Pandora + crew. I can see how Pandora is very nasty, the only real damage I sustained came from these two models and yes I feared them VERY much.

Road to Power Gencon Tournament! Game 2

For my second game in the tournament I was lucky/unlucky enough to draw one of my own group as an opponent. I have played against Jon's Ressers many times in particular Seamus and his belles so I was very familiar with the play style. I cut a break to Jon and I asked him if he wanted to face Sonnia over Lucius because I KNOW how much he hates Lucius.

The mission was Shared Turf War and the lists were:

Jon:
Seamus, The Mad-Hatter -- 6 Cache
Copycat Killer [2ss]
Canine Remains [2ss]
Canine Remains [2ss]
Datsue-Ba [7ss]
Madame Sybelle [6ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Schemes: Army of the dead and ?

Sonnia Criid -- 5 Cache
Governor's Proxy [2ss]
Convict Gunslinger [6ss]
Guild Guard [4ss]
Judge [7ss]
Nino Ortega [7ss]
Witchling Stalker [4ss]
Witchling Stalker [4ss]
Schemes: Subjugate and +2 soul stones (for a total of 7)

Since we were on a sewer board we said that the non tiled sewer parts were treated as severe terrain.



The game started out very cat and mouse style as all approaches were very cautious besides Nino taking residence by a small fence. Once I felt I had a good defensive line I started letting loose with every gun/spell at my disposal. This forced Jon and his ressers to take action. The Canine Remains were used to burn out my activation's followed by Datsue-Ba turning them into ghosts. Then he sent Datsue-Ba and an Onyro (from Canine Remains) towards Nino using the buildings on my left as cover.


A nice little close up of Jon's army as it shambles its way towards my troops... or just lures them to their death...

Never having used the Judge before I didn't want to commit him into an attack only to be chopped down for no real gain. So I looked over his card and noticed the "Judged" spell... the first thing I noticed is that it doesn't have the ranged icon for a spell. It was at this point that I made Jon's life hell as I spam cast it against his spirits and undead.

Nino did his best to severely injure any models that did not have cover and continued to get trigger happy off a few times reducing belles to a handful of wounds. When Nino's shenanigans were cut short due to getting jumped by Datsue-Ba and her Onryo friend. I cast "Judged" to get their health low enough for Sonnia to turn them into Witchling Stalkers... needless to say even after I killed a few of my own guys I still ran out of Witchling Stalker miniatures!



It was toward the end of turn 4 that time was being called to finish the round, Seamus moved up to deal with a few things himself but other than that there was no clear winner. So we sent the only models available to try and tie up the objective which resulted in a tie. I believe he had Bodyguard? as his second scheme and I actually managed to get Subjugate off!

Post Game Thoughts:
Not sure what I would of done differently, maybe not waste a turn having Nino set up, since it meant one less turn he was shooting. But even with that minor set back he still did his job. Also at some point in the game I had two Witchling Stalkers who were hunting down the Copy Cat Killer, yes they killed him but they probably would of been better off just running around the objective till the end game... c'est la vie.

Much later on (about 5:30am) me and Jon talked about his performance in the tournament and our game in general. We came to the conclusion that he really needed to paint up another master with a few extra minions. The fact that he didn't have much variation in his lists and could not adapt to the mission hurt him somewhat. Coupled with the fact that he didn't read a lot of counter tactics for other forces meant he went into most games blind as to what his opponent could do.

Road to Power Gencon Tournament! Game 1

Hello everyone I am just about recovered from my Gen Con Indy trip so I will be logging my experiences from the best of my memory. There was a whole day where I thought I had lost my camera (that's what drinking and being out till 6am will do to you) but other than that I have a few pictures of every game.

I can't quite remember everyone's name so if anyone can remember contact me and I will give proper credit. Would like to take the chance to thank everyone that I met for being great. I know that I saw a ton of forum members and people that read my blog, it means a lot to me! so thanks everyone!

Onto the first game it was "Plant the Evidence" against Arcanist he took:
Rasputina w/ 8 soul stones
Essence of Power
Coryphee x2
Silent One
Cassandra
His Schemes: Sabotage and can't remember the second

I ran my usual Lucius list:
Lucius w/ 4 soul stones
Governor's Proxy
Guild Guard Captain
Guild Guard x2
Guild Austringer x2
Ryle

My schemes Stake a Claim and Raid I believe.

Going into the game I knew that my mobility will be helpful but his crew was also extremely mobile and hit very hard when it got where it needed to be. I had a good grasp on what Rasputina could do so as always it came down to my austringers to force him onto my terms.



First couple of turns Cassandra ran all over the table and tagged the left most building in my deployment for "Sabotage". I learned just how nasty Coryphee/Duet were when they carved up Ryle like he was not even there. Rasputina sent a few blasts around the corner using her totem as an ice mirror before it zipped back via link. I quickly learned to avoid the little corner peering trick but it did limit my options.

My Austringers yet again were king in this game, one hid in the top floor of the right building sending his raptor to do evil things. In one occasion I even took out Cassandra in one shot! As I cheated to a ram to trigger my critical strike, flipped red joker + severe = 9 damage in one hit to Cassandra. Needless to say her days as a show girl were no more after that!



Mid way through the game Rasputina kept creating ice walls to block me from my objective. But clever use of Lucius' "reinforcements" spell meant I just placed my models over the wall and looked through any gaps to "issue command". But it was too little to late and the game ended with my opponent being a point or two ahead of me.

Things that I learned:
Coryphees- ouch! Very resilient against shooting i'm starting to think I will include some in my Ramos crew when i start him up. Mobility plus all the tricks they bring can help out Ramos in my missions.
Cassandra- Very fast and she WOULD of survived the austringer (or maybe not get hit at all) but she used her other action to finish off Ryle. Her teleport like abilities with showgirls means she can come in "fresh" and do all sorts of nastiness to your crew.
Lucius- I don't believe I used ANY soul stones in this game or at the very least JUST one in order to have my totem successfully cast issue command. Since he never was in any immediate danger and all the initiative flips that I lost were all due to very high cards i'm not quite sure what I would of done differently.

Villains! Assemble!

Well maybe not villains really just aliens bent on conquering the planet earth... but hey who am I to judge? Sorry that I have not been able to post a lot guys I was busy painting miniatures for Gen Con which is a scant few days away, I didn't want to leave everyone high and dry so instead of resting on my laurels I am going to post a few quick pictures of everything I have done.

First up for today.. er tonight is my Ulthar Supremes (that is the term for all heros/villains) for Pulp City!



Sorry I didn't get a chance to take individual pictures of 1-2 guys but I didn't have the time. Promise if anyone asks for close ups I will snap some when I come back from Gen Con. Till then folks I have to make this entry quite short as I continue snapping pictures and packing stuff away!