Post by osiris on Feb 7, 2020 16:24:02 GMT -5
Alot of the Enlightened posses have a very similar feel, due to lots of common shared rules and units. If you like the giant mechanical spider for a boss, then thisis the one for you! if you fill all the slots in the posse, everyone gets +1 quick. which is actually pretty phenomenal, especially on units with Quick and the Dead, not even considering the additional movement you'll have.
Overall, You'll have the option to take up to four faces from the enlightened, a couple non-vehicle support units, and you must take at least one unit of widowers, although you can have more. So again, like many Enlightened posses, a mix of powerful units and some multi-model units thrown in among them.
Lets look at the boss first:
A pretty expensive boss, it seems you are paying for his high stats, He's a combat oriented boss, but lacks grit rerolls, and is a machine, so only Repair and not Sawbones will work on him. Like most Enlightened bosses, he does bring Carpathogen with him. He's hard to hide because of his XL base size, so make sure you keep some constructs between him and enemies to improve his grit even further, making him only afraid of natural 1's
SLOT 1: An enlightened Widower unit. - We can only assume this means Abomination Widowers.
Abomination widowers are probably the least favorable of the Enlightened hands units. But at least they're cheap. They do have a long ranged rifle with a decent penetration, but need to be in large groups to be effective with it, they're also terribly useless in melee. One of the best uses for this is literally cannon fodder, keeping them in between the boss and anything shooting at him to give him obscured bonuses. They're also goo near faces with the Meat-Shield ability, as sacrificing these little 20 point models to automatically save a face is excellent. Still, in this posse, I'd probably limit myself to only one or two of these units, as you have MUCH better options coming up.
SLOT 2: An Enlightened Hands Construct OR and Enlightened Face unit.
As this is an OR slot, you will always be better off taking a Face.
Here's a rundown of the faces again:
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 add more area to construct resurrection away from the boss. He can bring some K9 automatas (and has sic'em) And keeping him near the widowers will make him nearly invincible (passing off failed grit checks with Meat Shield) 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 - 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.
Harmony Ratchet - Again, I generally usually like cheap sawbones units. But she actually doesn't help this posse as much, as the boss needs Repair, not Sawbones. Still, you could bring her to protect a separate group of models away from the boss.
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, this one with full compel as well! he also has enervate, if you can get it to work. While he doesn't have a great melee, his indirect thermite grenades can be quite powerful (and effective for use from behind some constructs) his obvious value is in escorting constructs and faces 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.
Still, the punch her attacks can bring isn't bad considering her low cost.
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.
His other attacks are all melee, but can punch hard because of creation raising them to -4 pierce.
Vladimir Ursul - 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, 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.
Ushi Yi - A human female. She can also use Meat Shields alongside a group of cheap friendlies (like widowers) 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... This has been noted to be a misprint, it should not have teamwork without the hellions. 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. She'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) since you have several slots available for faces, she is a good pop-up killer.
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 AND the boss. 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's also small enough to hide BEHIND the boss, which will totally block line of sight to him. He comes with 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 other units.
Frank H-Bot 44 Mclaury - another 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 still probably not a great choice, since you can bring units of constructs that will be just as effective, if not more-so, for cheaper.
Francis Tumblety - He comes with Dark Council, for a free hexalith, 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 you construct units 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 focused. 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.
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 focuses. 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 you can bring shooting firepower from constructs like monocavs or brutes, 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. She can summon apparitions too but they're extremely glass cannon units, and frankly the constructs will likely outperform them.
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 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.
If you dont bring Ben Hamilton, then you should bring Katherine Holst though, to get the repair aura for near your boss.
SLOT 3: Another Enlightened Widower unit AND/OR a Non-vehicle Enlightened Support unit.
If you want more widowers to sacrifice, you can take them here without hurting your other slot choices, lets look at the Non-vehicle supports again:
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 - 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. 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. 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.
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, Tough, and Hardy allowing rerolls even if you aren't near anyone with Repair or Sawbones, 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 won'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 he can't be protected by sawbones or carpathogen, but in this posse that's not as much of a concern. 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. the extra quick from teh posse bonus makes him even better able to get into melee or use unstoppable to ram.
SLOT 4: An Enlightened Widower OR and Enlightened Face Unit.
Again, Widowers aren't anywhere nearly as useful as faces, Choose a face from above.
SLOT 5: Exactly the same as Slot 3
SLOT 6: Up to two more Enlightened Widower Units AND/OR Enlightened Face Units.
This slot lets you fill in more widowers if you want them, and gives you access to two more faces (for a total of four Faces in this posse)
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
I'd take Ben Hamilton to keep behind the boss, along with some brutes or monocavs. I'd take Jedediah and Wendell lee to run together, with the widowers, and another unit of either brutes of monocavs. Then my fourth face would probably be Meltzer to get Treasure hunter. Run in two separate groups, shoot your enemies ALOT. survive their return shooting... If they have melee, you'll have more difficulty. If you KNOW you're facing melee posses, maybe trade in for Earp (for gundown), and Tenshi Yi with maybe Shutlz. OR just take more heavy melee constructs instead of the brutes. There's alot of options again, that will fit your playstyle and opponents. On of the big advantages of WWX is the variability and flexibility of your units... there is no ONE NETLIST that is superior to the others.
Overall, You'll have the option to take up to four faces from the enlightened, a couple non-vehicle support units, and you must take at least one unit of widowers, although you can have more. So again, like many Enlightened posses, a mix of powerful units and some multi-model units thrown in among them.
Lets look at the boss first:
A pretty expensive boss, it seems you are paying for his high stats, He's a combat oriented boss, but lacks grit rerolls, and is a machine, so only Repair and not Sawbones will work on him. Like most Enlightened bosses, he does bring Carpathogen with him. He's hard to hide because of his XL base size, so make sure you keep some constructs between him and enemies to improve his grit even further, making him only afraid of natural 1's
SLOT 1: An enlightened Widower unit. - We can only assume this means Abomination Widowers.
Abomination widowers are probably the least favorable of the Enlightened hands units. But at least they're cheap. They do have a long ranged rifle with a decent penetration, but need to be in large groups to be effective with it, they're also terribly useless in melee. One of the best uses for this is literally cannon fodder, keeping them in between the boss and anything shooting at him to give him obscured bonuses. They're also goo near faces with the Meat-Shield ability, as sacrificing these little 20 point models to automatically save a face is excellent. Still, in this posse, I'd probably limit myself to only one or two of these units, as you have MUCH better options coming up.
SLOT 2: An Enlightened Hands Construct OR and Enlightened Face unit.
As this is an OR slot, you will always be better off taking a Face.
Here's a rundown of the faces again:
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 add more area to construct resurrection away from the boss. He can bring some K9 automatas (and has sic'em) And keeping him near the widowers will make him nearly invincible (passing off failed grit checks with Meat Shield) 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 - 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.
Harmony Ratchet - Again, I generally usually like cheap sawbones units. But she actually doesn't help this posse as much, as the boss needs Repair, not Sawbones. Still, you could bring her to protect a separate group of models away from the boss.
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, this one with full compel as well! he also has enervate, if you can get it to work. While he doesn't have a great melee, his indirect thermite grenades can be quite powerful (and effective for use from behind some constructs) his obvious value is in escorting constructs and faces 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.
Still, the punch her attacks can bring isn't bad considering her low cost.
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.
His other attacks are all melee, but can punch hard because of creation raising them to -4 pierce.
Vladimir Ursul - 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, 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.
Ushi Yi - A human female. She can also use Meat Shields alongside a group of cheap friendlies (like widowers) 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....
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. She'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) since you have several slots available for faces, she is a good pop-up killer.
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 AND the boss. 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's also small enough to hide BEHIND the boss, which will totally block line of sight to him. He comes with 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 other units.
Frank H-Bot 44 Mclaury - another 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 still probably not a great choice, since you can bring units of constructs that will be just as effective, if not more-so, for cheaper.
Francis Tumblety - He comes with Dark Council, for a free hexalith, 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 you construct units 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 focused. 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.
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 focuses. 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 you can bring shooting firepower from constructs like monocavs or brutes, 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. She can summon apparitions too but they're extremely glass cannon units, and frankly the constructs will likely outperform them.
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 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.
If you dont bring Ben Hamilton, then you should bring Katherine Holst though, to get the repair aura for near your boss.
SLOT 3: Another Enlightened Widower unit AND/OR a Non-vehicle Enlightened Support unit.
If you want more widowers to sacrifice, you can take them here without hurting your other slot choices, lets look at the Non-vehicle supports again:
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 - 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. 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. 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.
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, Tough, and Hardy allowing rerolls even if you aren't near anyone with Repair or Sawbones, 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 won'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 he can't be protected by sawbones or carpathogen, but in this posse that's not as much of a concern. 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. the extra quick from teh posse bonus makes him even better able to get into melee or use unstoppable to ram.
SLOT 4: An Enlightened Widower OR and Enlightened Face Unit.
Again, Widowers aren't anywhere nearly as useful as faces, Choose a face from above.
SLOT 5: Exactly the same as Slot 3
SLOT 6: Up to two more Enlightened Widower Units AND/OR Enlightened Face Units.
This slot lets you fill in more widowers if you want them, and gives you access to two more faces (for a total of four Faces in this posse)
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
I'd take Ben Hamilton to keep behind the boss, along with some brutes or monocavs. I'd take Jedediah and Wendell lee to run together, with the widowers, and another unit of either brutes of monocavs. Then my fourth face would probably be Meltzer to get Treasure hunter. Run in two separate groups, shoot your enemies ALOT. survive their return shooting... If they have melee, you'll have more difficulty. If you KNOW you're facing melee posses, maybe trade in for Earp (for gundown), and Tenshi Yi with maybe Shutlz. OR just take more heavy melee constructs instead of the brutes. There's alot of options again, that will fit your playstyle and opponents. On of the big advantages of WWX is the variability and flexibility of your units... there is no ONE NETLIST that is superior to the others.