Post by osiris on Feb 4, 2020 17:36:06 GMT -5
V1.091
This is a good posse for a player who wants a middle ground between the face-heavy posses and the swarm unit heavy posses. It has a VERY wide variety of unit types to fill its slots. As the posse bonus is not very strong, only allowing Brutes units to not have the Tasked rule. the strength of the posse comes from the variety of units that are permitted. Looking at the boss, the tactics of this posse can also be varied, including portal and compel based, as well as the enlightened ability to bring back destroyed units of constructs. Construct heavy builds are recommended, but then remember, disrupt weapons will be a very serious threat that you will need to deal with immediately.
Looking at the boss:
He is a boss that brings alot of special rules, and some good stats, but not alot of survivability. He's probably best used as a boss that hangs back, staying away from the main fighting, and supporting his posse while limiting his own vulnerabilities. Dark Council gives you a free Hexalith, and the ability to compel tainted units, Shrewd Strategist is one of the best of the card manipulation abilities, and of course, he comes with Carpathogen, to resurrect slain construct units near himself. He also comes with 4 fortune to share, but remember to keep at least 1 around for carpathogen use.
SLOT 1: Vlad(imir) Ursul OR Harmony Ratchet
This is a strangely specific set of units to choose from for this slot.
Vladimir Ursul - A bit more expensive of the two, he comes with counter intelligence to allow redeploys (very useful against angry mobs and booby traps) and he also has trapper, to allow you to bring an extra booby trap (and for him being essentially immune to traps himself) He has two decent shooting attacks, so he's a bit more combat oriented. One long ranged Juiced Rifle (with deadeyed), and one short ranged indirect blast attack that has tangle. He is more of a standalone unit that doesn't really have any synergies with the posse beyond his redeploy and trapper at the beginning of the game. He is also NOT a construct, Nor Tainted. He's also generally terrible at melee.
Harmony Ratchet - Want to play a list with constructs that not only come back after being destroyed, but are also hard to kill in the first place? Here's your first step. Sawbones is going to be giving grit rerolls to all those big nasties standing around her. she can also bring civilians and use rapport, but that wont be very useful unless you also choose to include other units with rapport, as she doesn't gain much advantage from it (a slight boost to melee) She's not much of a combatant though, with only a melee attack, and low fight score. She is also not a construct herself, but at least she is tainted. She will also need to rely on the usual Mettle, Quick and the Dead, and Target priority to keep her alive, because she's only grit 4 and can't use sawbones on herself. at least she's cheap.
SLOT 2: A unit of Brutes AND/OR an Enlightened Hands Unit.
Brutes are the flavor of this posse, and in certain combos can be quite effective.
Brutes - Technically a Support unit, they are Constructs (and tainted) and can be taken as individual model units, or in a unit of up to 6. This posse encourages you to field them in units, as they dont have the Tasked restriction. They are otherwise Grit-6 but because of creation, that's effectively got the Durable upgrade. If you keep them near a Sawbones or a Repair, these can be surprisingly difficult to kill. They come with a variety of weapons, the nearly useless failsafe implant as usual, a melee attack that comes with stun and brutal (and can waste an extra action point to go from pierce -1 to -2 if you have points to burn) and they come with a flamethrower which is a nice torrent engulf weapon that hands out hazardous. They ALSO have armoury access. Electrocoils are a fantastic choice, because they automatically have both disrupt AND stun at good range. and if you want to just add some serious shooting dice, the Juiced Gatling Gun brings 3 shots with linked and brutal. The free flamethrowers are always useful for ignoring quick and the dead or burning out buildings. other options are less useful, unless you want to do some indirect fire, in which case thermite grenades are expensive but VERY nasty (rocket pods are a little bit cheaper but MUCH harder to use, due to having the Heavy quality) One of the nastier tricks this posse can do with faces nearby using dark council, they can compel the brutes to attack again and again. Overall, these units can bring alot of pain for 60-65 points per model, and can be fairly difficult to bring down. Small groups of 2 are the same cost as some cheap faces, but bring much more firepower, and even 3 still is under 200 points. In small groups like this, they're also likely to be completely resurrected from carpathogen. These are a FANTASTIC unit in this posse.
The Enlightened Hands choices:
Abomination Seekers - A very fast fairly cheap model with skirmisher. They DO carry a very good pistol for such a cheap unit, but their aim isn't very good. At first glace these guys seem almost designed to be used as bombs. Failsafe implants on cheap fast hands are much easier to use (and not as costly) than on the faces. Just remember, they're shooting weapons so you have to stay out of engagement range (which is difficult for these because they have a reach of 1") Massed fire also does not seem to work, as the range is SELF, and anyone contributing RoA must be in range of the initial target (which is impossible in this case) Massed fire has been updated to not work with weapons of range Self in 1.091. So while you can use these as speedy little suicide bombers, honestly, for their cost, they're pretty good massed shooters, with the speed to get into position, and higher penetration than most hands of their cost. Honestly, these even make pretty good tacklers too, as they are fast and with massed melee and a 1" range with -1 and a parry, the only thing hampering them is a low fight attribute.
If you want to turn this posse into a swarm posse, these are a good choice.
Abomination Widowers - These appear to simply be inferior to the seekers. They do have 8 more inches of range on their shooting attack, which could make them specifically more useful as shooters (but at long range they're only aim-3) they come with trailfinder and agile instead of skirmisher, so they can get in position, although they are considerably slower than the seekers. Plus they are medium based instead of small. Which will help let them see over small terrain pieces for shooting, but increases their footprint on the table. They also lose nearly all melee ability, as they dont have neither the parry, reach, nor penetration of the seekers melee weapon, also they do not have close work like the seekers pistols.
Constructed Menials - Extremely cheap, and they can be taken in a HUGE swarm. You can only blow up one at a time(again thanks to massed fire), so as suicide bombers, you'd probably want minimum size 5 man units. as cheap buckets of dice from blades and pistols you'll want them in giant units (as up to 20 dice, even at aim-3 should still make quite a few hits) If you want to field a swarm, here's a great way to bulk up that swarm. Their fragility can be mitigated with sawbones/repair/forward echelon, and watch your opponent moan when small groups of them come back to life even after finally being destroyed due to carpathogen (or have them potentially spawn a hex beast upon death).
Constructed Henchmen - similar to the widowers above, these appear to trade away some abilities in order to gain a little bit of extra range. These dont trade away as much from their menials counterparts as the widowers do from the seekers though. As their stats, base sizes, and rules are the same. They are trading away the melee blades again, giving up the reach, parry, and penetration. and they give up close work and revolver fan, but gain 8"of range. A big block of these can potentially drop up to 20 dice of shooting at decent range, which again, even with their low aim, can land several good hits for a very cheap price in this swarm based unit.
K9 Attack dogs - if you want to bring some machine/automata, these are the hands for you. They're fast, and with a little more survivability thanks to durable and moving target, these are good melee tacklers. In decent size groups they can bring alot of dice on a melee attack. Still Seekers are probably a better choice for this posse, however, if you chose to bring an automata support in your face slot (especially one with Sic'em) these can be a good addition to the horde of minions.
Hellions - UNRELEASED - So these aren't legal yet, but they appear to be a fantastic tactical tool once they become available. A bit more on the expensive side when brought in a big group. but they have alot of advantages. first and foremost, they dont have massed fire/melee so they can all take actions independently. Looking at their weapons, sure, they can fight in melee, but these appear to be the ultimate suicide bomber unit. They can use flight to drop in on an enemy (remember though, drop at least 1" away so you dont engage in melee, but still within range of the blast template) and trigger some auto RoA 2 shred blast -1 hits! even a minimum size unit of only 3, costing 90 points, will dish out 6 automatic hits, that are not dodgeable with quick and the dead. This can be an excellent tactic to finish off an opponent who survived a previous attack, but no longer has mettle/tough to rely on. for now though, you can't bring these.
SLOT 3: Any enlightened Face Unit AND/OR a Non-vehicle Enlightened Support
Here's the first of your three Face slots (in addition to either Vlad or Harmony above) There's lots to pick from:
Jedediah Smith - While he himself is not a construct (but he is tainted), he's an excellent face to support this list. He comes with Carpathogen to walk around near a squad of brutes, he can bring some K9 automatas (and has sic'em) and I recommend if you do bring this character, bring a cheap squad of menials or henchmen (or even the attack dogs) near him as it will make him nearly invincible (passing off failed grit checks to the cheap henchmen) He comes with disrupt on his melee weapon (and can get it with a crit on his pistol) for added firepower against machines or constructs.
John Younger - Creation XI - this one IS a construct, and moderately resilient with Grit-6 (durable from creation), and mettle. His juiced pistols can dish out some good firepower (especially when combined with the free shot that might come from the mousegun an Backup Pistol), and he's not bad in melee either. This is an all around good combat unit, that will even get to make a Dying Breath usually.
Donovan - A relatively inexpensive face, but not of great use. he has some melee capability but little else of value. He has a little bit of added resilience, but unless you really want a cheap face with some melee, look elsewhere.
Unger - Creation VI - another good, inexpensive combat construct. His melee has a big -4 pierce (with creation) and he's carrying a juiced gatling gun, so he can do it all. He comes with tough, and is Grit-6 (again durable due to creation). He can even make ram attacks. He does have some limitations, no fortune and tasked makes it so he can't focus actions if he's too far away from the boss (but he should be near someone with carpathogen anyway...)
Bloody Bill Anderssen - Yet another good, inexpensive combat construct. Death-dealer and quick strike makes his fellblades have enough hit potential to be dangerous, and he's carrying both juiced pistols and ketchum grenades for a good indirect stun blast attack. he's even fairly mobile and durable, and he comes with his own chip of fortune.
Ross Mackeye - A very odd unit. He has rapport, but almost nothing to use it with, for the ladies could work, but you need to bring female humans (Like Harmony Ratchet) in the posse. He has a variety of basic weapons and sic'em for K9's. While cheap, he doesn't really do much for this posse.
Wendell Lee - Another Sawbones, and with full compel as well! he also has enervate, if you can get it to work. While he doesn't have a great melee, this indirect thermite grenades can be quite powerful (and effective for use from behind some brutes) his obvious value is in escorting brutes from this posse and giving them grit rerolls.
Mantis - another combat construct, this one is a little bit less powerful than many of the others. She has a variety of pierce -2 weapons and the gundown ability but otherwise unremarkable.
Virgil Earp - a very powerful combat construct. He wont die easy with Durable Grit-6 and Mettle and Quick and the dead even if Timan will be useless in this posse. his Hyper-V Rifle has a massive -4 pierce punch. He also has gundown and his own fortune chip.
Creation X - A melee only combat construct, and a quite limited one. It does have a -4 attack, but only at Fight-3. Its only real use is the meat cleavers, which it can use Creation to get up to -4 pierce, and hope for a crit in order to use frenzy. It is effectively Durable Grit-6 and does have mettle (but limit 2, will drop to 1 when disordered which also hurts) it is also tasked, so it can't focus too far away from the boss.
Creation XIII - yet another melee combat construct. again, durable(from creation) Grit-6 with mettle, but limit 2. Also tasked. This one has unstoppable for ram attacks. He has basically one of the most useful suicide weapons, but at 100 points, that's an expensive attack to use.
Ushi Yi - A human female. She can also use Meat Shields alongside a group of cheap friendlies (like menials or henchmen) to help keep her alive (and she'll need it at Grit-4) She's harder to hit due to shrouded, and parry in melee. and she does have teamwork. She has a variety of decent attacks, with a powerful melee strike, and multiple medium range shooting attacks. Leeched Ability may help her get higher grit, but Gene link will only work if another model in her force also has that ability. Bounding strike is situationally useful at best.
Tenshi Yi - A simply better choice than Ushi. She's got identical stats and weapons and abilities with the only exception is she trades Bounding Strike for Death-dealer, which will likely be far more useful in combat. Plus she's 5 points less!
Dieter Kaufmann - Like the Yi sisters, this is another face with Gene-link, in fact they're very similar. The Kaufmann brothers lose Shrouded, Meat shields, and any melee-enhancing special rules. They also lose a point of fight and a point of quick, and their melee attack loses 1" of range and is 1 point of pierce weaker. In return for all this, they gain one point of grit, and they come with a fortune chip, and they are tainted. Dieter costs 5 points less than his brother, but has a mediocre pistol because of it. These guys give up alot from the Yi sisters and in general, are strictly worse.
Schultz Kaufmann - This Kaufmann at least comes with a good shooting attack, as the plasma six-shooter is one of the better guns, he could be worth including WITH one of the Yi sisters (tenshi) as a shooter version who can also use gene-link, and has his own fortune.
Apex Hellion - A cheap combat construct. This time with flight for superior mobility. Unfortnately, mobility is this unit's only real strength. The weapons are mostly average on this unit, but it does bring a few useful special rules. It's a construct, which is of course useful in this posse. and it has trailfinder. it also has teamwork for chaining activations. Death Dealer helps add some hits to its melee attacks. Sadly, it's extremely fragile, with only Grit-4, and a quick of only 4 means it wont even be able to reliably use quick and the dead. at least it has mettle. This unit will hopefully get revised soon, as it has a special rule that gives it +1 fight and the Teamwork rule if it is within 3" of the (Unreleased) Hellion Unit.... but it already has Teamwork on its card... so... Just better to avoid this unit for now.
Misty Mimms - All jokes about a Tainted Soiled Dove aside, this is another Human Female unit (but not a construct). Undercover while it forces you to start in reserve, allows you to pop her in to the battle nearly anywhere. It also provides a little bit of protection from shooting, at least as long as your opponents are human. He's also a rabble rouser, which can help with bringing angry mobs (See the Lynch Mob posse analysis in lawmen for more about these guys) She has two very good attacks, the plasma six shooter is always nasty, and even though the shiv shanker is only slightly above average, frenzy when combined with refined means she's got a good chance of dealing out extra attacks. (36% each strike) while she is a good killer, unless you take a unit with For the Ladies, she doesn't really offer much synergy to the posse though.
Ben Hamilton - He's a human, male, and he isn't even tainted, but he's still an EXCELLENT choice for this posse. Why? he has Repair. which works on constructs. His crossbow is also a very good shooting attack, even if you dont use the beacon ability. He's got shrouded to help keep him alive and average face-level resilience with Grit-5, Mettle, and Quick and the dead. He also has override automata, and more importantly, Jury rig-automata, which he can use on his own K9's that he brings with Sic'em if you want. on top of all this, he has Rapport, and plenty of weapons that will actually benefit from it. And he has his own fortune chip. He's a great addition to this posse that can do alot, and really enhance the survivability of your brutes squads.
Frank H-Bot 44 Mclaury - anotehr cheap combat construct with tainted. Frenzy is not really that useful on his as he only has a RoA1 melee attack, and split personality makes it hard to predict how many action points he will actually have, although it can be used to get rid of 1 Action Point draws. He also has a one time use only hazardous engulf flamethrower. For his points costs, he's not a bad little unit. But as you can only bring three faces in this posse (well four, technically, but one is a fixed choice), he's kind of a waste, since you can bring units of constructs that will be just as effective, if not moreso, for cheaper.
Francis Tumblety - This is an absolute must-have unit for this posse. He comes with Dark Council, for a 2nd hexalith (the boss brings one), sure he has enervate and rabble rouser, which could potentially be useful, but much more importantly, he has both Sawbones AND Carpathogen. Keeping him near one of your Brutes units (or more!) makes them reroll grit AND come back when destroyed (as long as he has a fortune to spend, remember he can spend his own or the boss') He has only average defenses though, so keep him behind some constructs and out of direct enemy fire. His own attacks aren't bad either, but he should mostly avoid combat and use his special abilities as much as possible. Remember, you can use Dark Council to compel your OWN tainted units into taking more actions...
Mina Edeson (sic) - Another combat construct, this one not quite as cheap. She wont be able to use her Frenzied attack (or automatic bodyguard ability) because she only does those when she's within 4" of Thomas Edeson (sic) who is a different boss. while she is an efficient little melee murder machine, she's not really the best choice for this posse.
Opie - Creation VIII - A Legendary unit, he's immune to compel, but also wont listen to your own compels. He's a construct, and a quite tough one indeed. Durable(from creation) Grit-7 with Tough, and Hardy. He's going to be difficult to bring down, and if someone with carpathogen is nearby, he'll even come back once. He's quite fast and with a variety of good attacks. Creation (to double the pierce) and Frenzy make his already good melee attacks into great melee attacks. And his acid spray isn't bad either, despite being only Aim-4. Its a bigger combat Construct.
Erin Meltzer - Now we get into the soul hunters. Meltzer has a decent template shooting attack, as it comes with tangle and is pierce -4 when it crits on a focused attack. This is one unit that does ALOT strategically for any posse. She has Treasure Hunter, which is phenomenal by itself. Shrewd Strategist, which is one of the better card manipulation abilities. and she's a portal master, for opening (and closing) portals for your posse. She also has sic'em and of course soul hunter. She's not a construct, nor tainted, and has average resilience, but she also brings her own fortune chip. Oh she IS a Human Female, if you brought someone with For the Ladies.
Ernesto Volk - The more combat-oriented version of Meltzer. he has NONE of the strategic abilities that she brings, and his tangle torrent, while still a good weapon, is only pierce -3 when he focus crits. He does have much better melee, but just isn't worth taking in this posse.
Hans Spelmann - A combat human male. He has a good shooting attack, ok, a very good shooting attack. But honestly, that's it. and your brutes are already probably going to have firepower for days, so unless you are specifically wanting a shooty soul hunter, there's not much of a reason to include him in this posse.
Jocasta Tobin - The spectral summoner of the soul hunters, her shooting attack isn't any where near as good as Hans, but at least she brings smoke grenades with controlled scatter, if that's something you think you'd use.
Katherine Holst - Another soul hunter, this one could be useful to the posse because she has Repair (to give your nearby constructs rerolls), she's a bit harder to kill with Quick and the Dead and Surefoot combo, plus a Xenoshield. She Also has For the Ladies (but can't trigger it on herself, obviously) She can also bring back destroyed Automata units, should you have brought any. And has gambler to help get rid of 1 action point draws. Her shooting attack is ok, being pierce -3 when focused and can potentially drag opponents. A reason to pick Holst or Meltzer, even though they're not constructs nor tainted, is exactly that. If you opponent is expecting LOTS of constructs, and brings lots of disrupt (fortunately that's not easy to do), bringing some humans can help make you less vulnerable. Again, it all breaks down to playstyle, and who your opponent is.
That's it for the Faces (No team players amongst the enlightened) This slot can ALSO choose from non-vehicle enlightened support IN ADDITION to the pace you bring in the slot. There are quite a few choices there as well. Lets look at those:
Abomination Monocav - WOW, this is a fantastic unit. You can take a single one at only 60 points, and it is Grit-6 with mettle. It is quite fast, and it has an AMAZING shooting attack. TWO shots at 18" range with Shred and a Pierce of -4.... The Aim-4 stat hurts, but you can focus it up to 6, which hit 70% of the time. incredible for the cost. Now you can also take them in units of 2 or 3, to increase the number of shots... Dont forget they're also constructs, so they can reroll grit if close enough to someone who supports them, and even if they die, they can be brought back once with carpathogen. With Grit-6 and Mettle, they're not even so fragile. These are incredible choices for this posse to bring some powerful ranged shooting to the table.
Constructed Uhlans - The enlightened version of the iron horse cavalry, these have some intriguing uses in certain configurations. of course, cheap fast gatling guns are never a bad thing to have, and putting them on a construct unit in this posse has obvious added bonus benefits. BUT this can be configured for multiple roles. Want to dish out hazard tokens, or hit everyone in a building? Flamethrowers are an option here, Want to use your speed to stay hidden out of LoS and lob indirect blast templates around? grenade launchers (as machine they can ignore heavy), an perhaps one of the most lethal, especially if facing other machines or constructs, electrocoils, with automatic disrupt and stun! These are mobile fire-support. A bit of the fragile side, sure, but they can bring lots of tactical attack options to this posse.
Brutes - These are the flavor of this posse. We discussed them at the top of this analysis.
Creation V - a unique choice. He's got Durable(again from creation) Grit-7 AND tough and tainted. He's a construct (for rerolls and resurrection), he's got incredible melee power, and even though low aim, also a very good shooting attack as well. This is probably a very good choice to include in this posse, especially to keep near important units like the boss, for using Take one for the Team.
Nazombu Snake - a somewhat fast melee construct, it's on an XL base if that's what you're looking for. It does have Creation(for durable-like) Grit-6 with Mettle though, and is a construct with tainted. Just depends on what you like.
With a mind of 1, it's easy to use Dark Council to compel this thing to make attack after attack
Creation VII - While I am not a fan of split personality, because you cannot plan on having a certain number of action points ever. it CAN be used as a sort of Gambler-like ability, ditching low AP cards and trying for a better random draw. This thing is quite hard to kill, with Creation giving Durable-like Grit-7 and hardy allowing rerolls even if you aren't near anyone with Repair or Sawbones, Tough, plus Indomitable, although with his low mind will make it unlikely to remove stun tokens to re-use tough in a single turn, it COULD work that way. He does have a variety of decent attacks to choose from as well.
Phonic Blaster Menials - These can be quite good near units with Meat-shield, as they are cheap enough to sacrifice. They're still constructs with tainted, so your abilities like repair/sawbones, Carpathogen, and Dark Council are all useful on them. Their weapon is slightly above average, with a couple options for firing, but their low aim stat hurts a bit. Still a small squad of these near one of your main boss/face master units can be a good idea for tossing hits onto (with Take one for the Team, if they don't have Meat-shield)
K9 Gun Dogs - These are the bigger support size dogs, I probably wouldn't waste a support slot on them, especially with the amount of unit choices that can bring Sic'em. However, bringing automata instead of constructs, mostly hurts your tactical choices, as only repair can give them rerolls, carpathogen and sawbones doesn't work on them, and they're still affected by disrupt weapons, so, you aren't gaining much. Brutes are a better choice for this posse and can bring just as many weapons, more even.
Spirit Apparition - As I've stated before, I'm not a fan of these. They're just too fragile, and split personality and ghost armour makes them too random. If you spent a face slot taking someone like Jocasta Tobin, with spectral summoning, you can summon them in the face of your enemy and use their powerful attacks before they get eliminated. but it's just not worth it in this posse.
Plus they're not thematic to this posse, as they aren't Constructs.
Drum - An automata, but not a construct, so for this posse, probably not necessarily the best choice. He's also not cheap, and doesn't bring much in the way of utility or synergies, but he's a tanky combat character. He is very difficult to kill, which can be nice for holding objectives. While he has some added benefit for staying still, His primary ranged attack has good RoA and pierce, however, with an aim of only 4, it wont hit very reliably without focus. His fight stat is much better, and with two not-bad attacks to choose from, either getting intrinsic stun, or a slightly improved pierce of -2. As both have brutal, the RoA of 1 isn't as much of a concern. and with forceful strike, they can both deliver quite a punch. so he's actually probably better as a melee unit.
SLOT 4 : Exactly the same as Slot 2, see above.
SLOT 5 : Two more enlightened face units. See your choices above.
SLOT 6 : Up to two enlightened Hands OR Enlightened Support units.
As this is an OR slot, I'd probably go with the support units. This is the only slot that allows vehicles.
The three vehicle choices are as follows:
Domesdei Wagon - Tough, Durable Grit-8 and machine (which can give it rerolls from repair) along with a 50/50 indomitable makes this thing hard to crack. It also has carrying capacity and firing platform, allowing you to put some of your shooters on board and give them some protection. plus a 5 shot -2 brutal gun with 15" range is rather nasty itself, although it is only Aim 4. This is the more defense based transport.
Ironhide - a tiny bit faster than the wagon, but not as resilient with one less grit and no indomitable. This is cheaper though, comes with slightly more carrying capacity, and a much more accurate version of the gun (it's linked for rerolls) This is probably the more offense based transport choice for this posse.
Haupt Heavy Borer - Tough and Durable Grit-8 again, with capacity and a deadly ram attack. units inside are totally protected from attack due to enclosed transport, but can't shoot out. It comes with a napalm gun, but you can swap it for something in the armoury. This is a very cool transport, and can deliver its payload nearly anywhere on the baord using unexpected arrival. However, it's quite big, so placing it at least 1" away from ANY unit, the edge of the play area, or impassable terrain, can get tricky, if it scatters into such a location, it is automatically destroyed.
This is still a very cool transport that can deliver a pair of brutes, a small face(with support abilities for the brutes), and one other small based unit right in the middle of the board, and it can continue to wreak havoc with its deadly ram attack after that!
HOW would I play this posse?
I'd probably take Harmony ratchet in teh first slot, definitely a couple units of 2 or 3 man brutes, and faces, I'd be inclined to take Francis Tumblety Erin Meltzer (I love Treasure Hunter), and some combat face like Unger or Virgil Earp, Some Monocavs, and then in the 6th slot it would be a wildcard. I like the haupt borer, and mabye more brutes. Form two main packs, one around the boss with Burson, Nurse Ratchet some brutes and the monocavs, and another around tumblety (or frankly any other face with repair/sawbones if you dont like tumblety) with more brutes. I'd go shooting heavy, and spread my two hexaliths out to the left and right. using their fortun as necessary and teleporting away with portal moves from any melee units that get too close.
Thing is, you can play this posse VERY differently, and JUST as effectively. You can bring more combat constructs, and use wendell lee to keep them alive and compel them around. you can bring more swarm capability with the hands slots, and then Jedediah is amazing, due to him having Meat-shield as well as Carpathogen (and with Harmony Ratchet near him, any swarm of constructs around them will be very hard to completely kill.
Mostly you're looking to overlap abilities on units with Construct. Remember, like anyone fighting as enlightened, Disrupt weapons on your opponents are a PRIORITY. kill them fast, or watch your units melt.
Good luck!
This is a good posse for a player who wants a middle ground between the face-heavy posses and the swarm unit heavy posses. It has a VERY wide variety of unit types to fill its slots. As the posse bonus is not very strong, only allowing Brutes units to not have the Tasked rule. the strength of the posse comes from the variety of units that are permitted. Looking at the boss, the tactics of this posse can also be varied, including portal and compel based, as well as the enlightened ability to bring back destroyed units of constructs. Construct heavy builds are recommended, but then remember, disrupt weapons will be a very serious threat that you will need to deal with immediately.
Looking at the boss:
He is a boss that brings alot of special rules, and some good stats, but not alot of survivability. He's probably best used as a boss that hangs back, staying away from the main fighting, and supporting his posse while limiting his own vulnerabilities. Dark Council gives you a free Hexalith, and the ability to compel tainted units, Shrewd Strategist is one of the best of the card manipulation abilities, and of course, he comes with Carpathogen, to resurrect slain construct units near himself. He also comes with 4 fortune to share, but remember to keep at least 1 around for carpathogen use.
SLOT 1: Vlad(imir) Ursul OR Harmony Ratchet
This is a strangely specific set of units to choose from for this slot.
Vladimir Ursul - A bit more expensive of the two, he comes with counter intelligence to allow redeploys (very useful against angry mobs and booby traps) and he also has trapper, to allow you to bring an extra booby trap (and for him being essentially immune to traps himself) He has two decent shooting attacks, so he's a bit more combat oriented. One long ranged Juiced Rifle (with deadeyed), and one short ranged indirect blast attack that has tangle. He is more of a standalone unit that doesn't really have any synergies with the posse beyond his redeploy and trapper at the beginning of the game. He is also NOT a construct, Nor Tainted. He's also generally terrible at melee.
Harmony Ratchet - Want to play a list with constructs that not only come back after being destroyed, but are also hard to kill in the first place? Here's your first step. Sawbones is going to be giving grit rerolls to all those big nasties standing around her. she can also bring civilians and use rapport, but that wont be very useful unless you also choose to include other units with rapport, as she doesn't gain much advantage from it (a slight boost to melee) She's not much of a combatant though, with only a melee attack, and low fight score. She is also not a construct herself, but at least she is tainted. She will also need to rely on the usual Mettle, Quick and the Dead, and Target priority to keep her alive, because she's only grit 4 and can't use sawbones on herself. at least she's cheap.
SLOT 2: A unit of Brutes AND/OR an Enlightened Hands Unit.
Brutes are the flavor of this posse, and in certain combos can be quite effective.
Brutes - Technically a Support unit, they are Constructs (and tainted) and can be taken as individual model units, or in a unit of up to 6. This posse encourages you to field them in units, as they dont have the Tasked restriction. They are otherwise Grit-6 but because of creation, that's effectively got the Durable upgrade. If you keep them near a Sawbones or a Repair, these can be surprisingly difficult to kill. They come with a variety of weapons, the nearly useless failsafe implant as usual, a melee attack that comes with stun and brutal (and can waste an extra action point to go from pierce -1 to -2 if you have points to burn) and they come with a flamethrower which is a nice torrent engulf weapon that hands out hazardous. They ALSO have armoury access. Electrocoils are a fantastic choice, because they automatically have both disrupt AND stun at good range. and if you want to just add some serious shooting dice, the Juiced Gatling Gun brings 3 shots with linked and brutal. The free flamethrowers are always useful for ignoring quick and the dead or burning out buildings. other options are less useful, unless you want to do some indirect fire, in which case thermite grenades are expensive but VERY nasty (rocket pods are a little bit cheaper but MUCH harder to use, due to having the Heavy quality) One of the nastier tricks this posse can do with faces nearby using dark council, they can compel the brutes to attack again and again. Overall, these units can bring alot of pain for 60-65 points per model, and can be fairly difficult to bring down. Small groups of 2 are the same cost as some cheap faces, but bring much more firepower, and even 3 still is under 200 points. In small groups like this, they're also likely to be completely resurrected from carpathogen. These are a FANTASTIC unit in this posse.
The Enlightened Hands choices:
Abomination Seekers - A very fast fairly cheap model with skirmisher. They DO carry a very good pistol for such a cheap unit, but their aim isn't very good. At first glace these guys seem almost designed to be used as bombs. Failsafe implants on cheap fast hands are much easier to use (and not as costly) than on the faces. Just remember, they're shooting weapons so you have to stay out of engagement range (which is difficult for these because they have a reach of 1")
If you want to turn this posse into a swarm posse, these are a good choice.
Abomination Widowers - These appear to simply be inferior to the seekers. They do have 8 more inches of range on their shooting attack, which could make them specifically more useful as shooters (but at long range they're only aim-3) they come with trailfinder and agile instead of skirmisher, so they can get in position, although they are considerably slower than the seekers. Plus they are medium based instead of small. Which will help let them see over small terrain pieces for shooting, but increases their footprint on the table. They also lose nearly all melee ability, as they dont have neither the parry, reach, nor penetration of the seekers melee weapon, also they do not have close work like the seekers pistols.
Constructed Menials - Extremely cheap, and they can be taken in a HUGE swarm. You can only blow up one at a time(again thanks to massed fire), so as suicide bombers, you'd probably want minimum size 5 man units. as cheap buckets of dice from blades and pistols you'll want them in giant units (as up to 20 dice, even at aim-3 should still make quite a few hits) If you want to field a swarm, here's a great way to bulk up that swarm. Their fragility can be mitigated with sawbones/repair/forward echelon, and watch your opponent moan when small groups of them come back to life even after finally being destroyed due to carpathogen (or have them potentially spawn a hex beast upon death).
Constructed Henchmen - similar to the widowers above, these appear to trade away some abilities in order to gain a little bit of extra range. These dont trade away as much from their menials counterparts as the widowers do from the seekers though. As their stats, base sizes, and rules are the same. They are trading away the melee blades again, giving up the reach, parry, and penetration. and they give up close work and revolver fan, but gain 8"of range. A big block of these can potentially drop up to 20 dice of shooting at decent range, which again, even with their low aim, can land several good hits for a very cheap price in this swarm based unit.
K9 Attack dogs - if you want to bring some machine/automata, these are the hands for you. They're fast, and with a little more survivability thanks to durable and moving target, these are good melee tacklers. In decent size groups they can bring alot of dice on a melee attack. Still Seekers are probably a better choice for this posse, however, if you chose to bring an automata support in your face slot (especially one with Sic'em) these can be a good addition to the horde of minions.
Hellions - UNRELEASED - So these aren't legal yet, but they appear to be a fantastic tactical tool once they become available. A bit more on the expensive side when brought in a big group. but they have alot of advantages. first and foremost, they dont have massed fire/melee so they can all take actions independently. Looking at their weapons, sure, they can fight in melee, but these appear to be the ultimate suicide bomber unit. They can use flight to drop in on an enemy (remember though, drop at least 1" away so you dont engage in melee, but still within range of the blast template) and trigger some auto RoA 2 shred blast -1 hits! even a minimum size unit of only 3, costing 90 points, will dish out 6 automatic hits, that are not dodgeable with quick and the dead. This can be an excellent tactic to finish off an opponent who survived a previous attack, but no longer has mettle/tough to rely on. for now though, you can't bring these.
SLOT 3: Any enlightened Face Unit AND/OR a Non-vehicle Enlightened Support
Here's the first of your three Face slots (in addition to either Vlad or Harmony above) There's lots to pick from:
Jedediah Smith - While he himself is not a construct (but he is tainted), he's an excellent face to support this list. He comes with Carpathogen to walk around near a squad of brutes, he can bring some K9 automatas (and has sic'em) and I recommend if you do bring this character, bring a cheap squad of menials or henchmen (or even the attack dogs) near him as it will make him nearly invincible (passing off failed grit checks to the cheap henchmen) He comes with disrupt on his melee weapon (and can get it with a crit on his pistol) for added firepower against machines or constructs.
John Younger - Creation XI - this one IS a construct, and moderately resilient with Grit-6 (durable from creation), and mettle. His juiced pistols can dish out some good firepower (especially when combined with the free shot that might come from the mousegun an Backup Pistol), and he's not bad in melee either. This is an all around good combat unit, that will even get to make a Dying Breath usually.
Donovan - A relatively inexpensive face, but not of great use. he has some melee capability but little else of value. He has a little bit of added resilience, but unless you really want a cheap face with some melee, look elsewhere.
Unger - Creation VI - another good, inexpensive combat construct. His melee has a big -4 pierce (with creation) and he's carrying a juiced gatling gun, so he can do it all. He comes with tough, and is Grit-6 (again durable due to creation). He can even make ram attacks. He does have some limitations, no fortune and tasked makes it so he can't focus actions if he's too far away from the boss (but he should be near someone with carpathogen anyway...)
Bloody Bill Anderssen - Yet another good, inexpensive combat construct. Death-dealer and quick strike makes his fellblades have enough hit potential to be dangerous, and he's carrying both juiced pistols and ketchum grenades for a good indirect stun blast attack. he's even fairly mobile and durable, and he comes with his own chip of fortune.
Ross Mackeye - A very odd unit. He has rapport, but almost nothing to use it with, for the ladies could work, but you need to bring female humans (Like Harmony Ratchet) in the posse. He has a variety of basic weapons and sic'em for K9's. While cheap, he doesn't really do much for this posse.
Wendell Lee - Another Sawbones, and with full compel as well! he also has enervate, if you can get it to work. While he doesn't have a great melee, this indirect thermite grenades can be quite powerful (and effective for use from behind some brutes) his obvious value is in escorting brutes from this posse and giving them grit rerolls.
Mantis - another combat construct, this one is a little bit less powerful than many of the others. She has a variety of pierce -2 weapons and the gundown ability but otherwise unremarkable.
Virgil Earp - a very powerful combat construct. He wont die easy with Durable Grit-6 and Mettle and Quick and the dead even if Timan will be useless in this posse. his Hyper-V Rifle has a massive -4 pierce punch. He also has gundown and his own fortune chip.
Creation X - A melee only combat construct, and a quite limited one. It does have a -4 attack, but only at Fight-3. Its only real use is the meat cleavers, which it can use Creation to get up to -4 pierce, and hope for a crit in order to use frenzy. It is effectively Durable Grit-6 and does have mettle (but limit 2, will drop to 1 when disordered which also hurts) it is also tasked, so it can't focus too far away from the boss.
Creation XIII - yet another melee combat construct. again, durable(from creation) Grit-6 with mettle, but limit 2. Also tasked. This one has unstoppable for ram attacks. He has basically one of the most useful suicide weapons, but at 100 points, that's an expensive attack to use.
Ushi Yi - A human female. She can also use Meat Shields alongside a group of cheap friendlies (like menials or henchmen) to help keep her alive (and she'll need it at Grit-4) She's harder to hit due to shrouded, and parry in melee. and she does have teamwork. She has a variety of decent attacks, with a powerful melee strike, and multiple medium range shooting attacks. Leeched Ability may help her get higher grit, but Gene link will only work if another model in her force also has that ability. Bounding strike is situationally useful at best.
Tenshi Yi - A simply better choice than Ushi. She's got identical stats and weapons and abilities with the only exception is she trades Bounding Strike for Death-dealer, which will likely be far more useful in combat. Plus she's 5 points less!
Dieter Kaufmann - Like the Yi sisters, this is another face with Gene-link, in fact they're very similar. The Kaufmann brothers lose Shrouded, Meat shields, and any melee-enhancing special rules. They also lose a point of fight and a point of quick, and their melee attack loses 1" of range and is 1 point of pierce weaker. In return for all this, they gain one point of grit, and they come with a fortune chip, and they are tainted. Dieter costs 5 points less than his brother, but has a mediocre pistol because of it. These guys give up alot from the Yi sisters and in general, are strictly worse.
Schultz Kaufmann - This Kaufmann at least comes with a good shooting attack, as the plasma six-shooter is one of the better guns, he could be worth including WITH one of the Yi sisters (tenshi) as a shooter version who can also use gene-link, and has his own fortune.
Apex Hellion - A cheap combat construct. This time with flight for superior mobility. Unfortnately, mobility is this unit's only real strength. The weapons are mostly average on this unit, but it does bring a few useful special rules. It's a construct, which is of course useful in this posse. and it has trailfinder. it also has teamwork for chaining activations. Death Dealer helps add some hits to its melee attacks. Sadly, it's extremely fragile, with only Grit-4, and a quick of only 4 means it wont even be able to reliably use quick and the dead. at least it has mettle. This unit will hopefully get revised soon, as it has a special rule that gives it +1 fight and the Teamwork rule if it is within 3" of the (Unreleased) Hellion Unit.... but it already has Teamwork on its card... so... Just better to avoid this unit for now.
Misty Mimms - All jokes about a Tainted Soiled Dove aside, this is another Human Female unit (but not a construct). Undercover while it forces you to start in reserve, allows you to pop her in to the battle nearly anywhere. It also provides a little bit of protection from shooting, at least as long as your opponents are human. He's also a rabble rouser, which can help with bringing angry mobs (See the Lynch Mob posse analysis in lawmen for more about these guys) She has two very good attacks, the plasma six shooter is always nasty, and even though the shiv shanker is only slightly above average, frenzy when combined with refined means she's got a good chance of dealing out extra attacks. (36% each strike) while she is a good killer, unless you take a unit with For the Ladies, she doesn't really offer much synergy to the posse though.
Ben Hamilton - He's a human, male, and he isn't even tainted, but he's still an EXCELLENT choice for this posse. Why? he has Repair. which works on constructs. His crossbow is also a very good shooting attack, even if you dont use the beacon ability. He's got shrouded to help keep him alive and average face-level resilience with Grit-5, Mettle, and Quick and the dead. He also has override automata, and more importantly, Jury rig-automata, which he can use on his own K9's that he brings with Sic'em if you want. on top of all this, he has Rapport, and plenty of weapons that will actually benefit from it. And he has his own fortune chip. He's a great addition to this posse that can do alot, and really enhance the survivability of your brutes squads.
Frank H-Bot 44 Mclaury - anotehr cheap combat construct with tainted. Frenzy is not really that useful on his as he only has a RoA1 melee attack, and split personality makes it hard to predict how many action points he will actually have, although it can be used to get rid of 1 Action Point draws. He also has a one time use only hazardous engulf flamethrower. For his points costs, he's not a bad little unit. But as you can only bring three faces in this posse (well four, technically, but one is a fixed choice), he's kind of a waste, since you can bring units of constructs that will be just as effective, if not moreso, for cheaper.
Francis Tumblety - This is an absolute must-have unit for this posse. He comes with Dark Council, for a 2nd hexalith (the boss brings one), sure he has enervate and rabble rouser, which could potentially be useful, but much more importantly, he has both Sawbones AND Carpathogen. Keeping him near one of your Brutes units (or more!) makes them reroll grit AND come back when destroyed (as long as he has a fortune to spend, remember he can spend his own or the boss') He has only average defenses though, so keep him behind some constructs and out of direct enemy fire. His own attacks aren't bad either, but he should mostly avoid combat and use his special abilities as much as possible. Remember, you can use Dark Council to compel your OWN tainted units into taking more actions...
Mina Edeson (sic) - Another combat construct, this one not quite as cheap. She wont be able to use her Frenzied attack (or automatic bodyguard ability) because she only does those when she's within 4" of Thomas Edeson (sic) who is a different boss. while she is an efficient little melee murder machine, she's not really the best choice for this posse.
Opie - Creation VIII - A Legendary unit, he's immune to compel, but also wont listen to your own compels. He's a construct, and a quite tough one indeed. Durable(from creation) Grit-7 with Tough, and Hardy. He's going to be difficult to bring down, and if someone with carpathogen is nearby, he'll even come back once. He's quite fast and with a variety of good attacks. Creation (to double the pierce) and Frenzy make his already good melee attacks into great melee attacks. And his acid spray isn't bad either, despite being only Aim-4. Its a bigger combat Construct.
Erin Meltzer - Now we get into the soul hunters. Meltzer has a decent template shooting attack, as it comes with tangle and is pierce -4 when it crits on a focused attack. This is one unit that does ALOT strategically for any posse. She has Treasure Hunter, which is phenomenal by itself. Shrewd Strategist, which is one of the better card manipulation abilities. and she's a portal master, for opening (and closing) portals for your posse. She also has sic'em and of course soul hunter. She's not a construct, nor tainted, and has average resilience, but she also brings her own fortune chip. Oh she IS a Human Female, if you brought someone with For the Ladies.
Ernesto Volk - The more combat-oriented version of Meltzer. he has NONE of the strategic abilities that she brings, and his tangle torrent, while still a good weapon, is only pierce -3 when he focus crits. He does have much better melee, but just isn't worth taking in this posse.
Hans Spelmann - A combat human male. He has a good shooting attack, ok, a very good shooting attack. But honestly, that's it. and your brutes are already probably going to have firepower for days, so unless you are specifically wanting a shooty soul hunter, there's not much of a reason to include him in this posse.
Jocasta Tobin - The spectral summoner of the soul hunters, her shooting attack isn't any where near as good as Hans, but at least she brings smoke grenades with controlled scatter, if that's something you think you'd use.
Katherine Holst - Another soul hunter, this one could be useful to the posse because she has Repair (to give your nearby constructs rerolls), she's a bit harder to kill with Quick and the Dead and Surefoot combo, plus a Xenoshield. She Also has For the Ladies (but can't trigger it on herself, obviously) She can also bring back destroyed Automata units, should you have brought any. And has gambler to help get rid of 1 action point draws. Her shooting attack is ok, being pierce -3 when focused and can potentially drag opponents. A reason to pick Holst or Meltzer, even though they're not constructs nor tainted, is exactly that. If you opponent is expecting LOTS of constructs, and brings lots of disrupt (fortunately that's not easy to do), bringing some humans can help make you less vulnerable. Again, it all breaks down to playstyle, and who your opponent is.
That's it for the Faces (No team players amongst the enlightened) This slot can ALSO choose from non-vehicle enlightened support IN ADDITION to the pace you bring in the slot. There are quite a few choices there as well. Lets look at those:
Abomination Monocav - WOW, this is a fantastic unit. You can take a single one at only 60 points, and it is Grit-6 with mettle. It is quite fast, and it has an AMAZING shooting attack. TWO shots at 18" range with Shred and a Pierce of -4.... The Aim-4 stat hurts, but you can focus it up to 6, which hit 70% of the time. incredible for the cost. Now you can also take them in units of 2 or 3, to increase the number of shots... Dont forget they're also constructs, so they can reroll grit if close enough to someone who supports them, and even if they die, they can be brought back once with carpathogen. With Grit-6 and Mettle, they're not even so fragile. These are incredible choices for this posse to bring some powerful ranged shooting to the table.
Constructed Uhlans - The enlightened version of the iron horse cavalry, these have some intriguing uses in certain configurations. of course, cheap fast gatling guns are never a bad thing to have, and putting them on a construct unit in this posse has obvious added bonus benefits. BUT this can be configured for multiple roles. Want to dish out hazard tokens, or hit everyone in a building? Flamethrowers are an option here, Want to use your speed to stay hidden out of LoS and lob indirect blast templates around? grenade launchers (as machine they can ignore heavy), an perhaps one of the most lethal, especially if facing other machines or constructs, electrocoils, with automatic disrupt and stun! These are mobile fire-support. A bit of the fragile side, sure, but they can bring lots of tactical attack options to this posse.
Brutes - These are the flavor of this posse. We discussed them at the top of this analysis.
Creation V - a unique choice. He's got Durable(again from creation) Grit-7 AND tough and tainted. He's a construct (for rerolls and resurrection), he's got incredible melee power, and even though low aim, also a very good shooting attack as well. This is probably a very good choice to include in this posse, especially to keep near important units like the boss, for using Take one for the Team.
Nazombu Snake - a somewhat fast melee construct, it's on an XL base if that's what you're looking for. It does have Creation(for durable-like) Grit-6 with Mettle though, and is a construct with tainted. Just depends on what you like.
With a mind of 1, it's easy to use Dark Council to compel this thing to make attack after attack
Creation VII - While I am not a fan of split personality, because you cannot plan on having a certain number of action points ever. it CAN be used as a sort of Gambler-like ability, ditching low AP cards and trying for a better random draw. This thing is quite hard to kill, with Creation giving Durable-like Grit-7 and hardy allowing rerolls even if you aren't near anyone with Repair or Sawbones, Tough, plus Indomitable, although with his low mind will make it unlikely to remove stun tokens to re-use tough in a single turn, it COULD work that way. He does have a variety of decent attacks to choose from as well.
Phonic Blaster Menials - These can be quite good near units with Meat-shield, as they are cheap enough to sacrifice. They're still constructs with tainted, so your abilities like repair/sawbones, Carpathogen, and Dark Council are all useful on them. Their weapon is slightly above average, with a couple options for firing, but their low aim stat hurts a bit. Still a small squad of these near one of your main boss/face master units can be a good idea for tossing hits onto (with Take one for the Team, if they don't have Meat-shield)
K9 Gun Dogs - These are the bigger support size dogs, I probably wouldn't waste a support slot on them, especially with the amount of unit choices that can bring Sic'em. However, bringing automata instead of constructs, mostly hurts your tactical choices, as only repair can give them rerolls, carpathogen and sawbones doesn't work on them, and they're still affected by disrupt weapons, so, you aren't gaining much. Brutes are a better choice for this posse and can bring just as many weapons, more even.
Spirit Apparition - As I've stated before, I'm not a fan of these. They're just too fragile, and split personality and ghost armour makes them too random. If you spent a face slot taking someone like Jocasta Tobin, with spectral summoning, you can summon them in the face of your enemy and use their powerful attacks before they get eliminated. but it's just not worth it in this posse.
Plus they're not thematic to this posse, as they aren't Constructs.
Drum - An automata, but not a construct, so for this posse, probably not necessarily the best choice. He's also not cheap, and doesn't bring much in the way of utility or synergies, but he's a tanky combat character. He is very difficult to kill, which can be nice for holding objectives. While he has some added benefit for staying still, His primary ranged attack has good RoA and pierce, however, with an aim of only 4, it wont hit very reliably without focus. His fight stat is much better, and with two not-bad attacks to choose from, either getting intrinsic stun, or a slightly improved pierce of -2. As both have brutal, the RoA of 1 isn't as much of a concern. and with forceful strike, they can both deliver quite a punch. so he's actually probably better as a melee unit.
SLOT 4 : Exactly the same as Slot 2, see above.
SLOT 5 : Two more enlightened face units. See your choices above.
SLOT 6 : Up to two enlightened Hands OR Enlightened Support units.
As this is an OR slot, I'd probably go with the support units. This is the only slot that allows vehicles.
The three vehicle choices are as follows:
Domesdei Wagon - Tough, Durable Grit-8 and machine (which can give it rerolls from repair) along with a 50/50 indomitable makes this thing hard to crack. It also has carrying capacity and firing platform, allowing you to put some of your shooters on board and give them some protection. plus a 5 shot -2 brutal gun with 15" range is rather nasty itself, although it is only Aim 4. This is the more defense based transport.
Ironhide - a tiny bit faster than the wagon, but not as resilient with one less grit and no indomitable. This is cheaper though, comes with slightly more carrying capacity, and a much more accurate version of the gun (it's linked for rerolls) This is probably the more offense based transport choice for this posse.
Haupt Heavy Borer - Tough and Durable Grit-8 again, with capacity and a deadly ram attack. units inside are totally protected from attack due to enclosed transport, but can't shoot out. It comes with a napalm gun, but you can swap it for something in the armoury. This is a very cool transport, and can deliver its payload nearly anywhere on the baord using unexpected arrival. However, it's quite big, so placing it at least 1" away from ANY unit, the edge of the play area, or impassable terrain, can get tricky, if it scatters into such a location, it is automatically destroyed.
This is still a very cool transport that can deliver a pair of brutes, a small face(with support abilities for the brutes), and one other small based unit right in the middle of the board, and it can continue to wreak havoc with its deadly ram attack after that!
HOW would I play this posse?
I'd probably take Harmony ratchet in teh first slot, definitely a couple units of 2 or 3 man brutes, and faces, I'd be inclined to take Francis Tumblety Erin Meltzer (I love Treasure Hunter), and some combat face like Unger or Virgil Earp, Some Monocavs, and then in the 6th slot it would be a wildcard. I like the haupt borer, and mabye more brutes. Form two main packs, one around the boss with Burson, Nurse Ratchet some brutes and the monocavs, and another around tumblety (or frankly any other face with repair/sawbones if you dont like tumblety) with more brutes. I'd go shooting heavy, and spread my two hexaliths out to the left and right. using their fortun as necessary and teleporting away with portal moves from any melee units that get too close.
Thing is, you can play this posse VERY differently, and JUST as effectively. You can bring more combat constructs, and use wendell lee to keep them alive and compel them around. you can bring more swarm capability with the hands slots, and then Jedediah is amazing, due to him having Meat-shield as well as Carpathogen (and with Harmony Ratchet near him, any swarm of constructs around them will be very hard to completely kill.
Mostly you're looking to overlap abilities on units with Construct. Remember, like anyone fighting as enlightened, Disrupt weapons on your opponents are a PRIORITY. kill them fast, or watch your units melt.
Good luck!