Post by osiris on Feb 6, 2020 21:55:44 GMT -5
This posse is mostly beginner friendly, keeping the options fairly straightforward. Also, for the Enlightened, with Carpathogen, and Jury-Rig Automata, this is the best posse, as your reanimated units have limit 2 instead of only 1, which is fantastic (you do have to fill all 6 slots in this posse to gain the advantage). This posse can be EXTREMELY difficult to actually kill. (Unless your dice really hate you).
Lets start with the boss, Augusta herself. She's one of the best, easy to use bosses in the faction. She needs to be in the thick of her units, like many other Enlightened bosses, in order to make use of Carpathogen and sawbones, but Augusta is already extremely difficult to kill on her own, even without taking any bodyguard units to pass wounds off to. Creation effectively gives her durable to her Grit-7, and she's Hardy allowing rerolls. She also has both Quick and the Dead and Tough. Her shooting attack is absolutely fantastic, so try to keep her out of melee.
This posse essentially allows you to take up to 6 units with Creation (of which there are 9 to choose from, some of which are not unique) along with up to 3 Faces. You can take a 4th face if you take Mantis, and only select 5 other units with creation. So this is a flexible posse, but not one confused with taking hands, again, this is great for new players.
SLOT 1: Mantis, OR an Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
Here's the list of those units, they are spread out over both faces and support: John Younger, Unger, Creation X, Creation XIII, Opie, Brutes, Creation V, Nazombu Snakes, and Creation VII. Let's take a look at each one:
Mantis - She's quite cheap, with a variety of above average attacks, her main advantage is having Gundown, which is very useful if you have alot of melee based units (which can be easy to do with creations...) but her shooting attacks for use with it are not as good as her melee.
John Younger - A pretty darn good choice for this posse. he's a multirole combat creation with a good melee attack and a great shooting attack. He comes with his own fortune, and Dying Breath is nice (especially since it happens before carpathogen brings him back!) He's not very quick though.
Unger - Creation VI - Another decent multirole combat unit, he has a great gun, and with creation his melee attack can also be devastating. with two hits at pierce -4. Again, considering he should have grit rerolls and carpathogen resurrection as long as he's near some support. He should be very hard to eliminate, with Durable Grit-6 and Tough.
Creation X - The first of the melee only combat constructs in this list. Her industrial buzzsaw is actually pretty terrible, as it only hits on 7's and she's tasked to possibly prevent focusing (if she's too far away from the boss), however, this doesn't matter, because her meat cleavers are VERY good, swinging 3 times and with creation getting up to -4 pierce, WITH frenzy. Again durable grit-6, this time with mettle though, and she's already only limit 2 to begin with, so disordered can really hurt.
Creation XIII - A mediocre combat construct. This creation brings the only suicide weapon in the game that is easy to use (Not true anymore with the 1.091 beta rules of suicide weapons having close work!) being torrent engulf instead of just blast. but he's rather expensive to be a one shot explosion, and remember, carpathogen can't bring back units that used suicide weapons.
Opie - Creation VIII - always a favorite, he's fast, and extremely difficult to kill. He's durable Grit-7 with tough, AND he has his own grit rerolls so doesn't really need to stay near anyone other than for carpathogen purposes. He has a low mind stat, but he's legendary so he's immune to compel... Basically if you want a big standalone unit to flank with, this is a pretty solid choice.
Brutes - these are the shooters of the construct world, although they aren't helpless in melee either, with a brutal stun attack. Their strength lies in their armoury access. they come with flamethrowers for short ranged killing, which is pretty good. They can take indirect fire weapons for sneaky lobbing blast templates over walls. They can of course take gatlings for large amounts of longer range shooting dice. and of course, they can bring electrocoils, which are extremely effective against enemies with Machine or Construct. Remember though, in this posse they're tasked, so don't mix and match weapons in a unit. just point them all at one thing and fire away. Small groups of 2 or 3 are probably best, as they will likely all come back with carpathogen, wont cost outrageous points, and can still bring some hurting on the firepower.
Creation V - Another multirole combat construct, this is an excellent unit for this posse. very hard to kill (especially inside sawbones/carpathogen bubbles) and both melee AND long ranged pierce -4 attacks (although his aim stat is low). a shame he doesn't have fortune, or more limit, but still great power for the price.
Nazombu Snake - fast, and somewhat hard to kill, these are speedy melee constructs, and while not nearly has powerful as opie, these are excellent for use with compel, as they're only mind-1 and you can make them attack again and again. Just beware, since they dont have failsafes, your opponent can compel them easily too...
Creation VII - Another multirole combat construct, this is another unit that can standalone, because it has hardy on its own. It also has indomitable, but remember that will only work on a 7+. He has a variety of useful melee and shooting attacks, and can even make ram attacks. Split personality is kind of annoying though as you can never plan how many action points he will have, but at least you can use it to get rid of 1 action point draws.
SLOT 2: Any Enlightened Face unit AND/or an Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
So, like every slot, you get to chose one of the Creations above. In this slot (and slot 4 and slot 6) you also get to bring a face unit. I'd highly recommend bringing someone with Carpathogen, and probably also either repair or sawbones, to make your creations very difficult to kill.
Jedediah Smith - He's a resonable choice for this posse, as he does have Carpathogen, his meat shield reaction is a little bit less good for this posse, as you wont have cheap hands to toss in the way, but it can still work (as you can toss a construct in the way, then resurrect it with carpathogen) He can also bring K9's with sic'em and override automata. His disrupt staff can also be quite useful, vs certain opponents.
Harmony Ratchet - I'm always a fan of very cheap units with Sawbones, but she's actually not the best choice for this role in this posse, as there are other faces available that have sawbones (or repair) and will be much more useful as they have other useful skills or combat abilities.
Donovan - a rather cheap melee construct. not great for using up a face slot, but if you have a few leftover points you dont know what to do with, he can at least toss out quite a few stun hits in melee. but, he's not amazing, you get what you pay for.
Bloody Bill Anderson - If you are going to just take a combat unit in the face slot, he's not a bad choice, with a variety of attacks (melee, direct shooting, and indirect), with some good melee abilities. He's a good catch-all combat unit, but brings no support to your other units.
Ross Mackeye - he does almost nothing for this posse, but at least he's cheap. Still, look further in this posse, there's much better choices.
Wendell Lee - Here's a great choice for this posse. He comes with Sawbones to make your creations much much tougher to kill, a nice indirect blast attack, and he can compel. he doesn't have carpathogen though, but would be excellent when fielded next to someone who does, like Jedediah.
Virgil Earp - He doesn't bring any synergies for your posse, but he is one of the more powerful combat constructs available. Gundown and a Hyper-V rifle can also never be underestimated. Tackle someone you want with a melee unit (like a nazombu snake) then just blast it apart (and they can't shoot back because they're in melee). If you already have all the supporting special rule units you want, he's a good combat unit.
Vladimir Ursul - He has a tangle indirect blast attack, which is always useful. and he can use counter intelligence during deployment. He's also a trapper for bringing and dealing with booby traps. He's probably only a good choice if you want to use one of his special skills specifically, because he otherwise brings no synergies for the constructs.
Ushi YI, Tenshi Yi - I'm lumping these together, because they're quite similar, and really have no place in this posse, they neither benefit from nor provide benefit to any other units in this posse. and would be taking up slots needed for units who can.
Dieter and Schultz Kaufmann - Basically the same as the Yi's, above. They dont really have a place in this posse, and you'd be handicapping yourself if you choose to bring them in these slots.
Apex Hellion - It is a construct, and it has flight so its maneuverable. its shooting attack is mediocre, but with death dealer it can deliver quite a few hits in melee. sadly the fight stat is low. Also it has been mentioned that Teamwork isn't supposed to be on his card, which is why he gains it with his special ability when he is near his namesake hands unit. Since you can't have ands in this posse, this unit is also probably not a great choice. Unless you just want to use it as a cheap tackler.
Misty Mimms - Again, not much in the way of synergy with this posse. Still her ability to undercover her way onto the board and frenzy-murder enemy units can never be underestimated. Plus her shooting isn't bad either. I dont think I'd use one of the three face slots for her, but you COULD work it in if you take two other good units with supporting abilities for your creations.
Ben Hamilton - He comes with Repair to give those grit check rerolls to your constructs, and a variety of other automata based skills. His attacks are also quite good. He's great when paired up with someone with carpathogen but no reroll skill, like Jedediah.
Frank "H-bot 44" McLaury - Another very cheap combat construct. Not really worth wasting a face slot on for this posse though. Lots of better options.
Francis Tumblety - One of the best choices for this posse. If you use a face slot on him, since he comes with both Sawbones AND Carpathogen, you can afford to use one of your other face slots on just a combat unit. Tumblety may have low aim, but his high rate of fire helps, and he has tons of useful special abilities, not the least of which is Dark council, giving him a compel vs tainted models (which you can use on your own units remember to give them extra actions) which also provides you with a free hexalith. You can use him in the same way as your boss, surrounding him with dangerous constructs who will become much harder to kill, and can come back even if they die.
Mina Edeson - a melee combat construct, she can be hard to hit, with moving target, Quick and the dead and Surefoot. She's got some very good melee attacks, even if she can't use her big attack because she wont be near Thomas in this posse. Probably best to leave her for posses with Thomas.
Erin Meltzer - If you already took tumblety, erin can be a very useful and easily overlooked addition to the posse. She can open potals (that will link to tumblety's hexalith), she has a powerful short ranged attack, but most of all, she brings shrewd Strategist and TREASURE HUNTER. allowing you to have much better chances at getting VP scoring cards.
Ernesto Volk - a not-so-good version of Meltzer. He has none of the strategic special abilities, and his gun has less penetration (when attuned). He's got a decent enough melee ability, but this posse already will have plenty of melee, and since this guy isn't a construct, he can't be brought back.
Hans Spelmann - Again, another unit that just doesn't belong in this posse. you can get just as good of a shooting attack elsewhere, and from construct units, and he doesn't bring any useful strategic abilities either.
Jocasta Tobin - Same as Hans. She can summon spirits, which aren't anywhere near as good as your constructs, and she isn't a construct herself, not does she help them in any way. Not for this posse.
Katherine Holst - Technically you could use her in this posse. She'll be pretty hard to bring down with Quick and the dead and surefoot, along with mettle and her xenoshield, even if she'll likely not get For the Ladies in this posse.. She can bring back automata, AND give grit check rerolls to machines and constructs. Plus she has gambler for getting rid of 1 action point draws. Her shooting attack is above average too. You CAN use her, but there's probably better options.
SLOT 3: Enlightened unit with the Creation rule (see slot 1)
SLOT 4: Same as slot 2 (see above)
SLOT 5: Same as slot 3
SLOT 6: Same as Slot 2
Overall you should have Augusta Byron, five or six Creations, and a few Faces.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
I'd definitely take Tumblety, forming two main groups, one around my boss, and one around him. In my other two face slots, I'd consider Either Jedediah (for backup Carpathogen) or Wendel Lee (for Compel and more Sawbones aura) and then, although probably less thematic, I'd bring Erin Meltzer. Treasure Hunter is invalueable, and her attack is really good too. Fill in the rest of your points as you see fit with creations. If you bring compel, take Nazombu snakes for multiple extra attacks from them. If you want shooting, then small squads of brutes are effective. I'm a big fan of multirole units, so I'd include Creation V, John younger, and/or Unger at the very least, and see what you still have points for. Enjoy playing one of the most frustratingly difficult to kill posses in the game!
Lets start with the boss, Augusta herself. She's one of the best, easy to use bosses in the faction. She needs to be in the thick of her units, like many other Enlightened bosses, in order to make use of Carpathogen and sawbones, but Augusta is already extremely difficult to kill on her own, even without taking any bodyguard units to pass wounds off to. Creation effectively gives her durable to her Grit-7, and she's Hardy allowing rerolls. She also has both Quick and the Dead and Tough. Her shooting attack is absolutely fantastic, so try to keep her out of melee.
This posse essentially allows you to take up to 6 units with Creation (of which there are 9 to choose from, some of which are not unique) along with up to 3 Faces. You can take a 4th face if you take Mantis, and only select 5 other units with creation. So this is a flexible posse, but not one confused with taking hands, again, this is great for new players.
SLOT 1: Mantis, OR an Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
Here's the list of those units, they are spread out over both faces and support: John Younger, Unger, Creation X, Creation XIII, Opie, Brutes, Creation V, Nazombu Snakes, and Creation VII. Let's take a look at each one:
Mantis - She's quite cheap, with a variety of above average attacks, her main advantage is having Gundown, which is very useful if you have alot of melee based units (which can be easy to do with creations...) but her shooting attacks for use with it are not as good as her melee.
John Younger - A pretty darn good choice for this posse. he's a multirole combat creation with a good melee attack and a great shooting attack. He comes with his own fortune, and Dying Breath is nice (especially since it happens before carpathogen brings him back!) He's not very quick though.
Unger - Creation VI - Another decent multirole combat unit, he has a great gun, and with creation his melee attack can also be devastating. with two hits at pierce -4. Again, considering he should have grit rerolls and carpathogen resurrection as long as he's near some support. He should be very hard to eliminate, with Durable Grit-6 and Tough.
Creation X - The first of the melee only combat constructs in this list. Her industrial buzzsaw is actually pretty terrible, as it only hits on 7's and she's tasked to possibly prevent focusing (if she's too far away from the boss), however, this doesn't matter, because her meat cleavers are VERY good, swinging 3 times and with creation getting up to -4 pierce, WITH frenzy. Again durable grit-6, this time with mettle though, and she's already only limit 2 to begin with, so disordered can really hurt.
Creation XIII - A mediocre combat construct. This creation brings the only suicide weapon in the game that is easy to use (Not true anymore with the 1.091 beta rules of suicide weapons having close work!) being torrent engulf instead of just blast. but he's rather expensive to be a one shot explosion, and remember, carpathogen can't bring back units that used suicide weapons.
Opie - Creation VIII - always a favorite, he's fast, and extremely difficult to kill. He's durable Grit-7 with tough, AND he has his own grit rerolls so doesn't really need to stay near anyone other than for carpathogen purposes. He has a low mind stat, but he's legendary so he's immune to compel... Basically if you want a big standalone unit to flank with, this is a pretty solid choice.
Brutes - these are the shooters of the construct world, although they aren't helpless in melee either, with a brutal stun attack. Their strength lies in their armoury access. they come with flamethrowers for short ranged killing, which is pretty good. They can take indirect fire weapons for sneaky lobbing blast templates over walls. They can of course take gatlings for large amounts of longer range shooting dice. and of course, they can bring electrocoils, which are extremely effective against enemies with Machine or Construct. Remember though, in this posse they're tasked, so don't mix and match weapons in a unit. just point them all at one thing and fire away. Small groups of 2 or 3 are probably best, as they will likely all come back with carpathogen, wont cost outrageous points, and can still bring some hurting on the firepower.
Creation V - Another multirole combat construct, this is an excellent unit for this posse. very hard to kill (especially inside sawbones/carpathogen bubbles) and both melee AND long ranged pierce -4 attacks (although his aim stat is low). a shame he doesn't have fortune, or more limit, but still great power for the price.
Nazombu Snake - fast, and somewhat hard to kill, these are speedy melee constructs, and while not nearly has powerful as opie, these are excellent for use with compel, as they're only mind-1 and you can make them attack again and again. Just beware, since they dont have failsafes, your opponent can compel them easily too...
Creation VII - Another multirole combat construct, this is another unit that can standalone, because it has hardy on its own. It also has indomitable, but remember that will only work on a 7+. He has a variety of useful melee and shooting attacks, and can even make ram attacks. Split personality is kind of annoying though as you can never plan how many action points he will have, but at least you can use it to get rid of 1 action point draws.
SLOT 2: Any Enlightened Face unit AND/or an Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
So, like every slot, you get to chose one of the Creations above. In this slot (and slot 4 and slot 6) you also get to bring a face unit. I'd highly recommend bringing someone with Carpathogen, and probably also either repair or sawbones, to make your creations very difficult to kill.
Jedediah Smith - He's a resonable choice for this posse, as he does have Carpathogen, his meat shield reaction is a little bit less good for this posse, as you wont have cheap hands to toss in the way, but it can still work (as you can toss a construct in the way, then resurrect it with carpathogen) He can also bring K9's with sic'em and override automata. His disrupt staff can also be quite useful, vs certain opponents.
Harmony Ratchet - I'm always a fan of very cheap units with Sawbones, but she's actually not the best choice for this role in this posse, as there are other faces available that have sawbones (or repair) and will be much more useful as they have other useful skills or combat abilities.
Donovan - a rather cheap melee construct. not great for using up a face slot, but if you have a few leftover points you dont know what to do with, he can at least toss out quite a few stun hits in melee. but, he's not amazing, you get what you pay for.
Bloody Bill Anderson - If you are going to just take a combat unit in the face slot, he's not a bad choice, with a variety of attacks (melee, direct shooting, and indirect), with some good melee abilities. He's a good catch-all combat unit, but brings no support to your other units.
Ross Mackeye - he does almost nothing for this posse, but at least he's cheap. Still, look further in this posse, there's much better choices.
Wendell Lee - Here's a great choice for this posse. He comes with Sawbones to make your creations much much tougher to kill, a nice indirect blast attack, and he can compel. he doesn't have carpathogen though, but would be excellent when fielded next to someone who does, like Jedediah.
Virgil Earp - He doesn't bring any synergies for your posse, but he is one of the more powerful combat constructs available. Gundown and a Hyper-V rifle can also never be underestimated. Tackle someone you want with a melee unit (like a nazombu snake) then just blast it apart (and they can't shoot back because they're in melee). If you already have all the supporting special rule units you want, he's a good combat unit.
Vladimir Ursul - He has a tangle indirect blast attack, which is always useful. and he can use counter intelligence during deployment. He's also a trapper for bringing and dealing with booby traps. He's probably only a good choice if you want to use one of his special skills specifically, because he otherwise brings no synergies for the constructs.
Ushi YI, Tenshi Yi - I'm lumping these together, because they're quite similar, and really have no place in this posse, they neither benefit from nor provide benefit to any other units in this posse. and would be taking up slots needed for units who can.
Dieter and Schultz Kaufmann - Basically the same as the Yi's, above. They dont really have a place in this posse, and you'd be handicapping yourself if you choose to bring them in these slots.
Apex Hellion - It is a construct, and it has flight so its maneuverable. its shooting attack is mediocre, but with death dealer it can deliver quite a few hits in melee. sadly the fight stat is low. Also it has been mentioned that Teamwork isn't supposed to be on his card, which is why he gains it with his special ability when he is near his namesake hands unit. Since you can't have ands in this posse, this unit is also probably not a great choice. Unless you just want to use it as a cheap tackler.
Misty Mimms - Again, not much in the way of synergy with this posse. Still her ability to undercover her way onto the board and frenzy-murder enemy units can never be underestimated. Plus her shooting isn't bad either. I dont think I'd use one of the three face slots for her, but you COULD work it in if you take two other good units with supporting abilities for your creations.
Ben Hamilton - He comes with Repair to give those grit check rerolls to your constructs, and a variety of other automata based skills. His attacks are also quite good. He's great when paired up with someone with carpathogen but no reroll skill, like Jedediah.
Frank "H-bot 44" McLaury - Another very cheap combat construct. Not really worth wasting a face slot on for this posse though. Lots of better options.
Francis Tumblety - One of the best choices for this posse. If you use a face slot on him, since he comes with both Sawbones AND Carpathogen, you can afford to use one of your other face slots on just a combat unit. Tumblety may have low aim, but his high rate of fire helps, and he has tons of useful special abilities, not the least of which is Dark council, giving him a compel vs tainted models (which you can use on your own units remember to give them extra actions) which also provides you with a free hexalith. You can use him in the same way as your boss, surrounding him with dangerous constructs who will become much harder to kill, and can come back even if they die.
Mina Edeson - a melee combat construct, she can be hard to hit, with moving target, Quick and the dead and Surefoot. She's got some very good melee attacks, even if she can't use her big attack because she wont be near Thomas in this posse. Probably best to leave her for posses with Thomas.
Erin Meltzer - If you already took tumblety, erin can be a very useful and easily overlooked addition to the posse. She can open potals (that will link to tumblety's hexalith), she has a powerful short ranged attack, but most of all, she brings shrewd Strategist and TREASURE HUNTER. allowing you to have much better chances at getting VP scoring cards.
Ernesto Volk - a not-so-good version of Meltzer. He has none of the strategic special abilities, and his gun has less penetration (when attuned). He's got a decent enough melee ability, but this posse already will have plenty of melee, and since this guy isn't a construct, he can't be brought back.
Hans Spelmann - Again, another unit that just doesn't belong in this posse. you can get just as good of a shooting attack elsewhere, and from construct units, and he doesn't bring any useful strategic abilities either.
Jocasta Tobin - Same as Hans. She can summon spirits, which aren't anywhere near as good as your constructs, and she isn't a construct herself, not does she help them in any way. Not for this posse.
Katherine Holst - Technically you could use her in this posse. She'll be pretty hard to bring down with Quick and the dead and surefoot, along with mettle and her xenoshield, even if she'll likely not get For the Ladies in this posse.. She can bring back automata, AND give grit check rerolls to machines and constructs. Plus she has gambler for getting rid of 1 action point draws. Her shooting attack is above average too. You CAN use her, but there's probably better options.
SLOT 3: Enlightened unit with the Creation rule (see slot 1)
SLOT 4: Same as slot 2 (see above)
SLOT 5: Same as slot 3
SLOT 6: Same as Slot 2
Overall you should have Augusta Byron, five or six Creations, and a few Faces.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
I'd definitely take Tumblety, forming two main groups, one around my boss, and one around him. In my other two face slots, I'd consider Either Jedediah (for backup Carpathogen) or Wendel Lee (for Compel and more Sawbones aura) and then, although probably less thematic, I'd bring Erin Meltzer. Treasure Hunter is invalueable, and her attack is really good too. Fill in the rest of your points as you see fit with creations. If you bring compel, take Nazombu snakes for multiple extra attacks from them. If you want shooting, then small squads of brutes are effective. I'm a big fan of multirole units, so I'd include Creation V, John younger, and/or Unger at the very least, and see what you still have points for. Enjoy playing one of the most frustratingly difficult to kill posses in the game!