Post by osiris on Aug 9, 2020 19:15:49 GMT -5
v1.091
Ok this is obviously intended to be a swarm posse (based on the models included in the boxed set), but there is quite a bit of flexibility in the list creation. The boss is one of the rare very high fortune bosses (Like Custer) and because of this, he doesn't start with Largesse so you have to run his theme posse (Meat Grinder) to give him Largesse, which is not really that big of a deal, as most people play the theme posses anyway. If you also fill all six slots, then ALL posse units gain Durable, which is also not to be underestimated.
The boss himself (Kyle) is a melee only boss, and he CAN dish out alot of hits in a single attack (if both of his servo arms hit, it causes 5 hits to the enemy, two additional from death dealer, plus one more from brutal) but he lacks any ranged firepower. He also doesn't have a big high pierce attack (although -2 isn't bad), but he'll be with a bunch of constructs and creations that can deliver a whallop so he doesn't really need it. Where he really shines is survivability, this is an INCREDIBLY hard boss to bring down. He's Durable Grit-7 standing out in the open, with Hardy for rerolls, and the usual Mettle, but what makes him nearly unkillable is the addition of Meat Shields. As long as he has sacrificial friendly models within 3", on the rare occasion that he does fail a grit check, they die instead of him... He also brings carpathogen, to resurrect his meat shields, should they be destroyed. Even after all that, he's also tainted. He brings TREASURE HUNTER to the posse too, to increase the likelihood of getting Victory Points out of Adventure cards. Your entire posse will be vulnerable to Disrupt weapons, but that's the tradeoff you get for such potential levels of power
His posse is extremely flexible, lets take a look at the slots:
SLOTS 1, 2, 3, and 4: UP TO two Enlightened Construct units.
Each of these slots can have one or two Construct units with the enlightened trait, lets take a look at them all: (Units marked with an * are also Creations, and can be taken in Slots 5 and 6, but all the creations except for 1 (the new Mr Ears) are constructs anyway, so I'm not sure why there's a distinction here. perhaps if there are constructs outside of the enlightened list one day, then there will be more options here, but as of right now, it's a pointless distinction. (Now Mr Ears can at least fit in one of these slots, as he's a Creation without Construct, but that's still the only one...)
FACES:
John Younger *
Donovan
Unger - Creation VI *
Bloody Bill Anderssen
Mantis
Virgil Earp
Creation X*
Creation XIII*
Apex Helion
Frank H-bot 44 McLaury
Mina Edeson
Opie - Creation VIII*
HANDS:
Abomination Seekers
Abomination Widowers
Constructed Menials
Constructed Henchmen
Hellions
SUPPORT:
Abomination Monocav
Constructed Uhlans
Brutes *
Creation V*
Nazombu Snake*
Creation VII*
Phonic Blaster Menials
Starting with the Faces:
John Younger: a very good shooter that is not only a construct, but also a creation. an extremely competent combat unit for his cost, especially considering he comes with a fortune chip. He's a little on the slow side, but overall, this is a very good unit to bring.
Donovan: Well, he's cheap. But still not a great value for the price even. Especially considering there's lots of other units available for this posse that are MUCH cheaper per model. He's not cheap enough to want to use as a failsafe bomb. His electro batons are ok if you are desperate for a melee weapon that causes stun I guess? probably skip this one.
Unger - Creation VI: Another very solid general combat unit, for a rather low points cost. His shooting and melee are both well above average, especially for a unit of this cost. This is another good choice.
Bloody Bill Anderssen: Like John Younger and Unger above, we see yet another very capable multirole combat unit. He's got good shooting and melee, and this guy is also much more mobile than the two mentioned above, with only a slight reduction in survivability due to a lower grit. Again, inexpensive for what it does, and this unit also comes with a fortune chip.
Mantis: Despite her appearance, she's actually slightly better at melee than shooting. She's not to be mistaken for a sniper unit, she lacks any of the necessary skills to be used as such. She has Gundown, but her shooting weapons that she can use with that, are fairly lackluster. She IS again, rather low in points cost though, so that keeps her worth being considered.
Virgil Earp: Now here's a much better choice than mantis. He has a MUCH more powerful long range attack, and the same pistol. His melee attacks are lower RoA than mantis, but he has slightly better special abilities with them. He's also considerably more difficult to kill, with both higher grit and durable without losing Quick and the Dead nor Mettle. He's more expensive, but he's much better so I'd say its worth the increase in points investment.
Creation X: A purely melee creation, but it is very very good at melee. The buzzsaw is probably not really ever worth using, despite the ability to make it pierce -8 (that's right... EIGHT) with brutal and crit into fatal. sure it looks like a one shot kill, but realistically, it basically only hits on an 8 or better (and only fatal on a 10-crit) because of complex. High risk, high reward. However, her other attack is actually amazing, with three attacks at a natural -2 (that can be raised to a -4 once per activation) Considering however, that she has Frenzy, taking three attacks vs only the one, greatly increases the chances that she will roll a crit, and get to swing again. And Honestly Three swings with a -4 hitting on 5+ seems even slightly more deadly than that 1 swing hitting on an 8+ even considering the brutal. She's good, but she's also tasked, so keep her within 12" of the boss.
Creation XIII: This thing has the only Suicide weapon in the game that I would ever consider actually trying to use (the normal blasts are extremely difficult, since they're shooting attacks and can't be used when engaged in melee - UPDATE this might be getting addressed soon, see the FAQ) It's a great weapon, but considering it is only one shot, AND it destroys this unit, it's a bit expensive to use. His melee is slightly above average, but much weaker than many of the other creations, and he CAN make ram attacks, which could be interesting. Again, this guy is tasked, so keep him within 12" of the boss should you choose to include him.
Apex Hellion: Well, it is extremely mobile, due to flight but mediocre weaponry (at best), with low stats, and fragile. Too many better choices available in the posse to even consider this guy.
Frank H-bot 44 McLaury: Another really cheap construct, but again, cheap for good reason. The flamethrower is nice, but it's a once-per game attack, and his other attacks are just average. his stats are also average but for his cost, I wouldn't expect more. Not good, but not terrible either.
Mina Edeson: Not only is the misspelled name just irritating enough for me not to consider this unit, you will never get to use her frenzied attack because you can't include Thomas in this posse. However, her other melee attack is rather nasty, and she has some really good defense in the form of quick 6 with quick and the dead and sure foot. she's speedy and a blender in melee, but I'd still probably skip out on her for this posse.
Opie - Creation VIII: Everybody's favorite mutant zombie snake. This thing is really fast, difficult to kill, and killer in melee. it also brings an automatically hazardous torrent shooting attack (being able to give out negative conditions at will is tactically nice). This is an excellent inclusion in this posse, because Opie's main weakness is not having fortune chips, which your boss has plenty of in this posse.
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 apply, as the range is SELF, and anyone contributing RoA must be in range of the initial target (which is impossible in this case) Also the 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. A decent sized pack of these around the boss is an excellent idea, as they can dish out the shooting, take hits for the boss, and he can chop up anything that decides to get into melee with them.
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. As Medium based models, they would actually BLOCK line of sight to the boss from small based attackers, rather than just providing obscured bonuses, if you kept them tight enough. I'd still say the Seekers are a much better choice.
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 (Especially in this posse where they could also be Durable), 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., Like your boss.
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, could land several good hits for a very cheap price in this swarm based unit.
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 because of their unreleased status.
Abomination Monocav - these are fantastic long range skirmishers. They are fast, moving 8" on a normal move and they have an extremely powerful long ranged shooting attack. Their lowish Aim stat hampers them a little bit, but with rate of attack 2 and shred built in, focused shots should hit fairly reliably from a distance.
Constructed Uhlans - these are similar to the monocavs, slightly less useful against most targets, however, they are better if you are facing large units, as they can put quite a few more shots out, and with linked, will be hitting more often. They dont quite have the same punch with only a -2, but all the extra hits will make up for that. The other slight disadvantage here, is their minimum unit size is two, instead of one like the monocavs which makes fitting them into lists a little more difficult as you have to make room for at least 110 points instead of only 60, but this isn't really a huge factor most of the time. Upgrading their weapons is generally a bad idea, as this makes them far too expensive for their usefulness, and although in MOST posses it is easier to bring those weapons elsewhere, like on gun dogs, since everything in this list must be constructs, if you REALLY want fast flamethrowers or speedy indirect grenades, this is one of the few options you have to bring that. still I'd stick with their gatlings, they are quite good, especially in groups.
Brutes - while brutes are a decent all purpose unit, other posses make better use of them. Still, for their cost they come with a flamethrower, and actually have a not bad melee attack either due to stun and brutal being built-in to each attack. And of course, you can swap out the flamethrowers for anything in the armoury, depending on your desired battlefield role for these guys. Sit back and shoot? gatlings or snipers. Hide behind walls? grab one of the indirect fire weapons. For their price though, these guys make good close combat support or frontline shock troops with their flamethrowers. their combat stats are improved from the previous two choices, but they are MUCH slower.
Creation V - Here's a single model unit choice in the support slot. and honestly, he's fantastic. He's rather difficult to kill, and has absolutely amazing melee capability. He even has a good strong long range punch gun, although with his aim stat, and no shooting special abilities, he wont be hitting too often with it.
Nazombu Snake - a much crappier version of Opie. it loses ALOT in exchange for its 30 point difference. it can't shoot, lower limit (and mind, but this can actually be useful...) less grit, no hardy, and it has fickle, which will cost you extra AP for attacks, BUT, it is still a fast unit, that's fairly resilient. and can deliver some melee support. The main use for these seems to keep them near a dark council or compel unit, so that they can make it activate out of turn. However, since Kyle the Black doesn't have either of these abilities, this unit is probably best left for other posses.
Creation VII - Again, a very difficult to kill unit. Rerollable Grit-7 with some pierce protection from Creation, with tough and indomitable... not bad. He also have a variety of good attacks to choose from, including the ability to clobber something with a lethal -6 drill attack that can be fatal on a crit (again, I'm not a fan of the buzzsaw, due to the lower chance to hit). and he's not terrible at shooting either. One thing I personally dislike though, is split personality. As you can never plan on how many AP this unit will have during your activation. Some people like to use this as a "gambler-lite" to get rid of 1 AP draws, but those dont happen too often, and while you can choose NOT use use gambler on good AP draws, with split personality, you have to use it every time.
Phonic Blaster Menials - The cheap unit in the support slot. These are better with Thomas. For this posse, the small unit size means you can't really swarm with them, but they're not good enough to be used as small units. They dont even have massed fire, so firing their template weapons can get cumbersome and tedious. I'd probably skip these in this posse as well.
SLOTS 5 & 6: Basically, any of those same units above, as well as being able to select ANY unit with the Creation rule. As of right now, there's only one unit that has creation that isn't already on the above list:
Mr. Ears - The gorilla ghostbuster. This is actually a VERY potent unit. He's again EXTREMELY hard to kill, as he has Grit-7 with durable-like from creation, Tough, and he also has both Quick and the Dead as well as surefoot for rerolling it. His limit is 3, which is better than most support units, and he has both an excellent ranged weapon, and a couple of good melee attacks as well (especially considering creation makes southpaw really potent, or the REALLY long reach (to engage opponents and draw opportunity attacks.. er I mean backstabs) weapon with tangle for smacking people with low fight attributes.
So, as you can see there's a wide variety of flexibility in list creation, as you can essentially take between 6 and 12 of ANY of the units listed above. you can go true full swarm, and hope to overwhelm your opponent with too many bodies to kill, a list of serious single model unit creations with powerful attacks and strong defenses. OR, my recommendation, somewhere in-between. Definitely keep a squad or two of cheap expendable models near the boss, pick a few of your favorite creations to do the damage, then fill in the rest of your points with squads of units that fit your playstyle (mobile shooters, swarm melee, whatever!)
Ok this is obviously intended to be a swarm posse (based on the models included in the boxed set), but there is quite a bit of flexibility in the list creation. The boss is one of the rare very high fortune bosses (Like Custer) and because of this, he doesn't start with Largesse so you have to run his theme posse (Meat Grinder) to give him Largesse, which is not really that big of a deal, as most people play the theme posses anyway. If you also fill all six slots, then ALL posse units gain Durable, which is also not to be underestimated.
The boss himself (Kyle) is a melee only boss, and he CAN dish out alot of hits in a single attack (if both of his servo arms hit, it causes 5 hits to the enemy, two additional from death dealer, plus one more from brutal) but he lacks any ranged firepower. He also doesn't have a big high pierce attack (although -2 isn't bad), but he'll be with a bunch of constructs and creations that can deliver a whallop so he doesn't really need it. Where he really shines is survivability, this is an INCREDIBLY hard boss to bring down. He's Durable Grit-7 standing out in the open, with Hardy for rerolls, and the usual Mettle, but what makes him nearly unkillable is the addition of Meat Shields. As long as he has sacrificial friendly models within 3", on the rare occasion that he does fail a grit check, they die instead of him... He also brings carpathogen, to resurrect his meat shields, should they be destroyed. Even after all that, he's also tainted. He brings TREASURE HUNTER to the posse too, to increase the likelihood of getting Victory Points out of Adventure cards. Your entire posse will be vulnerable to Disrupt weapons, but that's the tradeoff you get for such potential levels of power
His posse is extremely flexible, lets take a look at the slots:
SLOTS 1, 2, 3, and 4: UP TO two Enlightened Construct units.
Each of these slots can have one or two Construct units with the enlightened trait, lets take a look at them all: (Units marked with an * are also Creations, and can be taken in Slots 5 and 6, but all the creations except for 1 (the new Mr Ears) are constructs anyway, so I'm not sure why there's a distinction here. perhaps if there are constructs outside of the enlightened list one day, then there will be more options here, but as of right now, it's a pointless distinction. (Now Mr Ears can at least fit in one of these slots, as he's a Creation without Construct, but that's still the only one...)
FACES:
John Younger *
Donovan
Unger - Creation VI *
Bloody Bill Anderssen
Mantis
Virgil Earp
Creation X*
Creation XIII*
Apex Helion
Frank H-bot 44 McLaury
Mina Edeson
Opie - Creation VIII*
HANDS:
Abomination Seekers
Abomination Widowers
Constructed Menials
Constructed Henchmen
Hellions
SUPPORT:
Abomination Monocav
Constructed Uhlans
Brutes *
Creation V*
Nazombu Snake*
Creation VII*
Phonic Blaster Menials
Starting with the Faces:
John Younger: a very good shooter that is not only a construct, but also a creation. an extremely competent combat unit for his cost, especially considering he comes with a fortune chip. He's a little on the slow side, but overall, this is a very good unit to bring.
Donovan: Well, he's cheap. But still not a great value for the price even. Especially considering there's lots of other units available for this posse that are MUCH cheaper per model. He's not cheap enough to want to use as a failsafe bomb. His electro batons are ok if you are desperate for a melee weapon that causes stun I guess? probably skip this one.
Unger - Creation VI: Another very solid general combat unit, for a rather low points cost. His shooting and melee are both well above average, especially for a unit of this cost. This is another good choice.
Bloody Bill Anderssen: Like John Younger and Unger above, we see yet another very capable multirole combat unit. He's got good shooting and melee, and this guy is also much more mobile than the two mentioned above, with only a slight reduction in survivability due to a lower grit. Again, inexpensive for what it does, and this unit also comes with a fortune chip.
Mantis: Despite her appearance, she's actually slightly better at melee than shooting. She's not to be mistaken for a sniper unit, she lacks any of the necessary skills to be used as such. She has Gundown, but her shooting weapons that she can use with that, are fairly lackluster. She IS again, rather low in points cost though, so that keeps her worth being considered.
Virgil Earp: Now here's a much better choice than mantis. He has a MUCH more powerful long range attack, and the same pistol. His melee attacks are lower RoA than mantis, but he has slightly better special abilities with them. He's also considerably more difficult to kill, with both higher grit and durable without losing Quick and the Dead nor Mettle. He's more expensive, but he's much better so I'd say its worth the increase in points investment.
Creation X: A purely melee creation, but it is very very good at melee. The buzzsaw is probably not really ever worth using, despite the ability to make it pierce -8 (that's right... EIGHT) with brutal and crit into fatal. sure it looks like a one shot kill, but realistically, it basically only hits on an 8 or better (and only fatal on a 10-crit) because of complex. High risk, high reward. However, her other attack is actually amazing, with three attacks at a natural -2 (that can be raised to a -4 once per activation) Considering however, that she has Frenzy, taking three attacks vs only the one, greatly increases the chances that she will roll a crit, and get to swing again. And Honestly Three swings with a -4 hitting on 5+ seems even slightly more deadly than that 1 swing hitting on an 8+ even considering the brutal. She's good, but she's also tasked, so keep her within 12" of the boss.
Creation XIII: This thing has the only Suicide weapon in the game that I would ever consider actually trying to use (the normal blasts are extremely difficult, since they're shooting attacks and can't be used when engaged in melee - UPDATE this might be getting addressed soon, see the FAQ) It's a great weapon, but considering it is only one shot, AND it destroys this unit, it's a bit expensive to use. His melee is slightly above average, but much weaker than many of the other creations, and he CAN make ram attacks, which could be interesting. Again, this guy is tasked, so keep him within 12" of the boss should you choose to include him.
Apex Hellion: Well, it is extremely mobile, due to flight but mediocre weaponry (at best), with low stats, and fragile. Too many better choices available in the posse to even consider this guy.
Frank H-bot 44 McLaury: Another really cheap construct, but again, cheap for good reason. The flamethrower is nice, but it's a once-per game attack, and his other attacks are just average. his stats are also average but for his cost, I wouldn't expect more. Not good, but not terrible either.
Mina Edeson: Not only is the misspelled name just irritating enough for me not to consider this unit, you will never get to use her frenzied attack because you can't include Thomas in this posse. However, her other melee attack is rather nasty, and she has some really good defense in the form of quick 6 with quick and the dead and sure foot. she's speedy and a blender in melee, but I'd still probably skip out on her for this posse.
Opie - Creation VIII: Everybody's favorite mutant zombie snake. This thing is really fast, difficult to kill, and killer in melee. it also brings an automatically hazardous torrent shooting attack (being able to give out negative conditions at will is tactically nice). This is an excellent inclusion in this posse, because Opie's main weakness is not having fortune chips, which your boss has plenty of in this posse.
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 apply, as the range is SELF, and anyone contributing RoA must be in range of the initial target (which is impossible in this case) Also the 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. A decent sized pack of these around the boss is an excellent idea, as they can dish out the shooting, take hits for the boss, and he can chop up anything that decides to get into melee with them.
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. As Medium based models, they would actually BLOCK line of sight to the boss from small based attackers, rather than just providing obscured bonuses, if you kept them tight enough. I'd still say the Seekers are a much better choice.
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 (Especially in this posse where they could also be Durable), 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., Like your boss.
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, could land several good hits for a very cheap price in this swarm based unit.
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 because of their unreleased status.
Abomination Monocav - these are fantastic long range skirmishers. They are fast, moving 8" on a normal move and they have an extremely powerful long ranged shooting attack. Their lowish Aim stat hampers them a little bit, but with rate of attack 2 and shred built in, focused shots should hit fairly reliably from a distance.
Constructed Uhlans - these are similar to the monocavs, slightly less useful against most targets, however, they are better if you are facing large units, as they can put quite a few more shots out, and with linked, will be hitting more often. They dont quite have the same punch with only a -2, but all the extra hits will make up for that. The other slight disadvantage here, is their minimum unit size is two, instead of one like the monocavs which makes fitting them into lists a little more difficult as you have to make room for at least 110 points instead of only 60, but this isn't really a huge factor most of the time. Upgrading their weapons is generally a bad idea, as this makes them far too expensive for their usefulness, and although in MOST posses it is easier to bring those weapons elsewhere, like on gun dogs, since everything in this list must be constructs, if you REALLY want fast flamethrowers or speedy indirect grenades, this is one of the few options you have to bring that. still I'd stick with their gatlings, they are quite good, especially in groups.
Brutes - while brutes are a decent all purpose unit, other posses make better use of them. Still, for their cost they come with a flamethrower, and actually have a not bad melee attack either due to stun and brutal being built-in to each attack. And of course, you can swap out the flamethrowers for anything in the armoury, depending on your desired battlefield role for these guys. Sit back and shoot? gatlings or snipers. Hide behind walls? grab one of the indirect fire weapons. For their price though, these guys make good close combat support or frontline shock troops with their flamethrowers. their combat stats are improved from the previous two choices, but they are MUCH slower.
Creation V - Here's a single model unit choice in the support slot. and honestly, he's fantastic. He's rather difficult to kill, and has absolutely amazing melee capability. He even has a good strong long range punch gun, although with his aim stat, and no shooting special abilities, he wont be hitting too often with it.
Nazombu Snake - a much crappier version of Opie. it loses ALOT in exchange for its 30 point difference. it can't shoot, lower limit (and mind, but this can actually be useful...) less grit, no hardy, and it has fickle, which will cost you extra AP for attacks, BUT, it is still a fast unit, that's fairly resilient. and can deliver some melee support. The main use for these seems to keep them near a dark council or compel unit, so that they can make it activate out of turn. However, since Kyle the Black doesn't have either of these abilities, this unit is probably best left for other posses.
Creation VII - Again, a very difficult to kill unit. Rerollable Grit-7 with some pierce protection from Creation, with tough and indomitable... not bad. He also have a variety of good attacks to choose from, including the ability to clobber something with a lethal -6 drill attack that can be fatal on a crit (again, I'm not a fan of the buzzsaw, due to the lower chance to hit). and he's not terrible at shooting either. One thing I personally dislike though, is split personality. As you can never plan on how many AP this unit will have during your activation. Some people like to use this as a "gambler-lite" to get rid of 1 AP draws, but those dont happen too often, and while you can choose NOT use use gambler on good AP draws, with split personality, you have to use it every time.
Phonic Blaster Menials - The cheap unit in the support slot. These are better with Thomas. For this posse, the small unit size means you can't really swarm with them, but they're not good enough to be used as small units. They dont even have massed fire, so firing their template weapons can get cumbersome and tedious. I'd probably skip these in this posse as well.
SLOTS 5 & 6: Basically, any of those same units above, as well as being able to select ANY unit with the Creation rule. As of right now, there's only one unit that has creation that isn't already on the above list:
Mr. Ears - The gorilla ghostbuster. This is actually a VERY potent unit. He's again EXTREMELY hard to kill, as he has Grit-7 with durable-like from creation, Tough, and he also has both Quick and the Dead as well as surefoot for rerolling it. His limit is 3, which is better than most support units, and he has both an excellent ranged weapon, and a couple of good melee attacks as well (especially considering creation makes southpaw really potent, or the REALLY long reach (to engage opponents and draw opportunity attacks.. er I mean backstabs) weapon with tangle for smacking people with low fight attributes.
So, as you can see there's a wide variety of flexibility in list creation, as you can essentially take between 6 and 12 of ANY of the units listed above. you can go true full swarm, and hope to overwhelm your opponent with too many bodies to kill, a list of serious single model unit creations with powerful attacks and strong defenses. OR, my recommendation, somewhere in-between. Definitely keep a squad or two of cheap expendable models near the boss, pick a few of your favorite creations to do the damage, then fill in the rest of your points with squads of units that fit your playstyle (mobile shooters, swarm melee, whatever!)