Post by osiris on Feb 10, 2020 19:39:44 GMT -5
v1.091
The big daddy is back, and this time he's in power armor! This posse, like many others in the enlightened, can be extremely difficult to kill. The +1 Tough bonus to all Hands and Face units is really nice, especially when combined with some of the other Enlightened special rules like Sawbones/Repair and Carpathogen. It is a bit strange that they still want Brutes to be taken in slots, since they wont benefit from the posse bonus (being support units), but they're already quite good and tough themselves. This posse can allow you to bring up to 5 Face units, as long as one has the creation rule and another one is Harmony Ratchet (it has 3 'any' face slots in addition to those), plenty of hands options, and in the 6th slot as usual, a pair of support unit options. Lets take a look at the Boss then the Slots:
Legendary Burson Carpathian - He's Grit 8, with the Durable-effect from Creation, he also has Tough for when that actually fails. He has a variety of attacks. He's a large base model with unstoppable and Quick 6 for ram attacks. He has a RoA2 stun brutal attack that when combined with frenzy can be effective at dishing out alot of low pierce hits. and he has a Brutal special servo claw, that when combined with Creation (and an additional action point) can be crushingly powerful at pierce -4. He also has an excellent shooting attack at Lethal, Brutal RoA 3 pierce -3 (that can crit into blast oddly enough) but it is Heavy and even he can't move and shoot it. (and he has to spend an extra action point to brace to ignore special in order to fire it more than once per activation). He still has carpathogen, but he is hampered by the Split Personality rule. Yes, you can use it to get rid of low Action Point draws, but you simply cannot plan on how many action points he will have in an activation. He is quite expensive in this incarnation but extremely resilient. You also need not bother with keeping him near anyone that gives out grit rerolls, unless you are facing alot of high-pierce weapons from your opponents, because anything with Pierce -1 or 0 will only cause him to fail a grit check on a critical failure, and those can't be rerolled anyway.
SLOT 1: Harmony Ratchet OR and Enlightened Hands unit.
This will almost always be used to bring Harmony Ratchet. You have at least two other slots to bring some Hands units, and up to four if you dont want to bring any support units. All of the Enlightened hands in this posse will be upgraded to Grit 5, but without someone with Sawbones or Repair near them, they still wont have reliable grit check rolls. So Harmony Ratchet is a good, cheap choice.
SLOT 2: A unit of Brutes AND/OR an Enlightened Hands Unit
Here's a good slot to get some hands if you want them. you can still take the Brutes if you wish, but remember they wont benefit from the posse bonus (although they are still good fire-support units with a variety of weapons choices)
Brutes - Technically a Support unit, 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 armory 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.
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.
Hands Choices here are as follows:
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) 1.091 faq says MAssed fire doesn't work on weapons with a range of self. 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.
Abomination Widowers - These appear to 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 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. These units bring 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). They're also great in groups around anyone with Meat Shields.
Constructed Henchmen - Compared to the menials, 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 slots (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 good 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: An Enlightened Face unit AND/or any Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
This is a good slot to take two faces, one with Creation
The Face choices :
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 constructs, 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 - see below
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 - see below
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 (grit 6 in this posse), 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 expendable constructs).
Grit rerolls are generally very helpful, even if in this posse they're only necessary against high-pierce weapons alot of the time. Compel is always nice as well.
Mantis - see below
Virgil Earp - a very powerful combat construct. He wont die easy with Durable Grit-7(from the posse bonus), 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 - see below.
Creation XIII - see below.
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. In this posse she's at least grit-5, and she's harder to hit due to shrouded, and parry in melee. She also 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 - This is basically a better version of 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 (to make them Grit-6 in this posse), 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 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 has trailfinder. Death Dealer helps add some hits to its melee attacks. Sadly, it's extremely fragile, and a quick of only 4 means it wont even be able to reliably use quick and the dead. at least it has mettle. It has a special rule that gives it +1 fight and the Teamwork rule if it is within 3" of another UNRELEASED unit.... (His card is not supposed to already have teamwork, it has been Errata'd.) 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 forces you to start in reserve, but 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) 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 a decent 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 - 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 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 - 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 your other constructs 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 - See below
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 she crits a focused shoot action (on 9+ with refined). 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 (slightly improved in this posse), 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 though.
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 are already probably going to have firepower for days considering you can have 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. If, for some reason, you feel spectral summoning is your thing, she has it.
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 your 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.
Here's the list of those units with the Creation rule., 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 - 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. in this posse he's Grit-7 with durable-like effect from creation, and even though he has mettle, he's limit 3 on his card so it won't hurt as bad when disordered (Plus he comes with his own fortune chip to walk it off) an excellent choice for this posse.
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-7 in this posse and Tough.
another excellent choice for this posse.
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 durablegrit-6 Grit-7 in this posse, this time with mettle though, and she's already 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 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-8 in this posse! with tough, AND he has his own grit rerolls (Again at that high of a durable grit, rerolls wont do you any good unless your opponent hits you with at least a -2 pierce weapon anyway) 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 - Dont bother taking these in this slot, you can get them in slots 2 and 4
Creation V - A support unit, so he wont benefit from the posse bonus. multirole combat construct. 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 - A support unit, so it wont benefit from the posse bonus. 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 - A support unit, he will not benefit from the posse bonus. 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 4: Exactly the same as Slot 2
SLOT 5: up to two more Enlightened Faces (see above)
SLOT 6: Up to two Enlightened Hands OR Enlightened Support units.
Support units wont get the posse bonus, but there are still several VERY good ones in the enlightened list:
Abomination Monocav - 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 has obvious added benefits near carpathogen or repair. BUT these 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 - Discussed above (See Slot 2)
Creation V - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
Nazombu Snake - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
Creation VII - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
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 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.
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 board 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 small unit right in the middle of the board, and it can continue to wreak havoc with its deadly ram attack after that!
Drum - An automata, but not a construct, so he can't be protected by sawbones or carpathogen. 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.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
Well, I'd look to exploit the high grit bonuses. I'd take Harmony, John Younger, Unger, Opie, and your choice of a sawbones/repair/carpathogen (I tend to lean towards francis tumblety, but Jedediah could work with more hands to keep him alive since you already have sawbones from harmony) Probably a unit of Seekers, and either two small squads of Monocavs, or one 3 man squad and a vehicle (I still like the borer, just for the uniqueness) then see what kind of points you have left over for attack dogs or brutes if you prefer shoooting.
The big daddy is back, and this time he's in power armor! This posse, like many others in the enlightened, can be extremely difficult to kill. The +1 Tough bonus to all Hands and Face units is really nice, especially when combined with some of the other Enlightened special rules like Sawbones/Repair and Carpathogen. It is a bit strange that they still want Brutes to be taken in slots, since they wont benefit from the posse bonus (being support units), but they're already quite good and tough themselves. This posse can allow you to bring up to 5 Face units, as long as one has the creation rule and another one is Harmony Ratchet (it has 3 'any' face slots in addition to those), plenty of hands options, and in the 6th slot as usual, a pair of support unit options. Lets take a look at the Boss then the Slots:
Legendary Burson Carpathian - He's Grit 8, with the Durable-effect from Creation, he also has Tough for when that actually fails. He has a variety of attacks. He's a large base model with unstoppable and Quick 6 for ram attacks. He has a RoA2 stun brutal attack that when combined with frenzy can be effective at dishing out alot of low pierce hits. and he has a Brutal special servo claw, that when combined with Creation (and an additional action point) can be crushingly powerful at pierce -4. He also has an excellent shooting attack at Lethal, Brutal RoA 3 pierce -3 (that can crit into blast oddly enough) but it is Heavy and even he can't move and shoot it. (and he has to spend an extra action point to brace to ignore special in order to fire it more than once per activation). He still has carpathogen, but he is hampered by the Split Personality rule. Yes, you can use it to get rid of low Action Point draws, but you simply cannot plan on how many action points he will have in an activation. He is quite expensive in this incarnation but extremely resilient. You also need not bother with keeping him near anyone that gives out grit rerolls, unless you are facing alot of high-pierce weapons from your opponents, because anything with Pierce -1 or 0 will only cause him to fail a grit check on a critical failure, and those can't be rerolled anyway.
SLOT 1: Harmony Ratchet OR and Enlightened Hands unit.
This will almost always be used to bring Harmony Ratchet. You have at least two other slots to bring some Hands units, and up to four if you dont want to bring any support units. All of the Enlightened hands in this posse will be upgraded to Grit 5, but without someone with Sawbones or Repair near them, they still wont have reliable grit check rolls. So Harmony Ratchet is a good, cheap choice.
SLOT 2: A unit of Brutes AND/OR an Enlightened Hands Unit
Here's a good slot to get some hands if you want them. you can still take the Brutes if you wish, but remember they wont benefit from the posse bonus (although they are still good fire-support units with a variety of weapons choices)
Brutes - Technically a Support unit, 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 armory 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.
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.
Hands Choices here are as follows:
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) 1.091 faq says MAssed fire doesn't work on weapons with a range of self. 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.
Abomination Widowers - These appear to 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 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. These units bring 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). They're also great in groups around anyone with Meat Shields.
Constructed Henchmen - Compared to the menials, 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 slots (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 good 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: An Enlightened Face unit AND/or any Enlightened unit with the Creation rule.
This is a good slot to take two faces, one with Creation
The Face choices :
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 constructs, 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 - see below
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 - see below
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 (grit 6 in this posse), 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 expendable constructs).
Grit rerolls are generally very helpful, even if in this posse they're only necessary against high-pierce weapons alot of the time. Compel is always nice as well.
Mantis - see below
Virgil Earp - a very powerful combat construct. He wont die easy with Durable Grit-7(from the posse bonus), 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 - see below.
Creation XIII - see below.
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. In this posse she's at least grit-5, and she's harder to hit due to shrouded, and parry in melee. She also 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 - This is basically a better version of 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 (to make them Grit-6 in this posse), 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 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 has trailfinder. Death Dealer helps add some hits to its melee attacks. Sadly, it's extremely fragile, and a quick of only 4 means it wont even be able to reliably use quick and the dead. at least it has mettle. It has a special rule that gives it +1 fight and the Teamwork rule if it is within 3" of another UNRELEASED unit.... (His card is not supposed to already have teamwork, it has been Errata'd.) 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 forces you to start in reserve, but 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) 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 a decent 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 - 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 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 - 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 your other constructs 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 - See below
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 she crits a focused shoot action (on 9+ with refined). 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 (slightly improved in this posse), 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 though.
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 are already probably going to have firepower for days considering you can have 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. If, for some reason, you feel spectral summoning is your thing, she has it.
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 your 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.
Here's the list of those units with the Creation rule., 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 - 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. in this posse he's Grit-7 with durable-like effect from creation, and even though he has mettle, he's limit 3 on his card so it won't hurt as bad when disordered (Plus he comes with his own fortune chip to walk it off) an excellent choice for this posse.
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-7 in this posse and Tough.
another excellent choice for this posse.
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
Creation XIII - A mediocre combat construct. This creation brings the only suicide weapon in the game that is easy to use 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-8 in this posse! with tough, AND he has his own grit rerolls (Again at that high of a durable grit, rerolls wont do you any good unless your opponent hits you with at least a -2 pierce weapon anyway) 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 - Dont bother taking these in this slot, you can get them in slots 2 and 4
Creation V - A support unit, so he wont benefit from the posse bonus. multirole combat construct. 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 - A support unit, so it wont benefit from the posse bonus. 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 - A support unit, he will not benefit from the posse bonus. 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 4: Exactly the same as Slot 2
SLOT 5: up to two more Enlightened Faces (see above)
SLOT 6: Up to two Enlightened Hands OR Enlightened Support units.
Support units wont get the posse bonus, but there are still several VERY good ones in the enlightened list:
Abomination Monocav - 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 has obvious added benefits near carpathogen or repair. BUT these 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 - Discussed above (See Slot 2)
Creation V - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
Nazombu Snake - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
Creation VII - Discussed above (See Slot 3)
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 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.
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 board 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 small unit right in the middle of the board, and it can continue to wreak havoc with its deadly ram attack after that!
Drum - An automata, but not a construct, so he can't be protected by sawbones or carpathogen. 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.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
Well, I'd look to exploit the high grit bonuses. I'd take Harmony, John Younger, Unger, Opie, and your choice of a sawbones/repair/carpathogen (I tend to lean towards francis tumblety, but Jedediah could work with more hands to keep him alive since you already have sawbones from harmony) Probably a unit of Seekers, and either two small squads of Monocavs, or one 3 man squad and a vehicle (I still like the borer, just for the uniqueness) then see what kind of points you have left over for attack dogs or brutes if you prefer shoooting.