Post by osiris on Sept 17, 2020 15:13:48 GMT -5
v1.091
This posse looks simple at first glance, but it is definitely not a beginner level posse. it is, however, one of the only choices if you want to play a swarm style list in union. Honestly I think this posse is better when supporting or supported by others rather than a total standalone posse, which is what these analyses have been about, but it would only take the addition of a fellow union boss or possibly two, I'll explain more later.
First lets look at the posse bonus: Custer gets largesse. It doesnt matter if you take him alone and without any slots filled... which is odd. He only wouldn't get largesse if he tried to lead a generic union posse. Whatever, he's got HUGE fortune, so that's good, but he's going to need it, as he can only bring hands with him and they have none. IF you fill all 6 slots, then everyone gets trailfinder, which can be exceptional in a swarm list.
Lets look at the boss himself: you have two options, mounted or on foot.
It really depends on how you want to support this posse as to which one to bring. in small point games I would always recommend the on foot version, as not only is he cheaper, but he also comes with form-up on me, to give himself and one other hands unit trailfinder, which you will need if you dont have enough points to fill all 6 slots in order to get it from the posse bonus. Both versions are inspirational, with for the boys and for the girls, (which strangely you can't benefit from with cavalry, but you CAN from the infantry choices in the hands section), and both versions are gamblers (which can be DEVESTATING given his high amount of fortune). The mounted version costs 40 extra points and has the usual changes: (exchange QatD and Target Priority for Moving Target, gain extra quick and grit and get rapid while becoming bulky) His jetski/snomobile has gatling guns, but this does mean he loses a shot per attack from his six-shooters, which I think is a bad trade. I honestly think the foot version is better, point for point, but there are obvious advantages to being much faster in this game, so it'll come down to a playstyle preference (and an aesthetic, if you want to field all "cavalry", though to be fair, that's what Willa Shaw's posse if for)
SLOTS 1 - 6 : All the slots in this posse are the same: Any Union Hands Unit
There are six possible units to choose from: Iron Horse Cavalry, Skirmishers, Riflemen, Armoured Guards, Armoured Riflemen, and K9 Attack Dogs.
Iron Horse Cavalry: If you want speed and mobility, this is nearly your only choice. I would recommend having one unit of these in this posse. Although only one. They're too expensive to field in large numbers and they're not really worth it. They ARE this posse's "gun dogs" though, so you can have the gatling option (cheapest so probably best), the flamethrower option (for speeding up to swarms and laying out some templates, or burning out buildings full of enemies), the grenade launcher option (for playing hide-n-seek and lobbing grenades over walls/buildings at opponents), or the electrocarbine option, which is by far the worst. they're MUCH worse than the gatlings, in order to MAYBE pull off a shooting stun while holding that adventure card for a VP... and this posse has no card manipulation, so it would be pure luck to pull this off, not worth it. Still a Squad of 3 of these can lay out an impressive amount of shots and are maneuverable enough to get favorable firing lanes to bring some tactical flexibility to this posee. Keep in mind, EACH model will need to target and fire separately, as they dont have massed fire.
Skirmishers: The cheaper, more fragile of the two "close range" infantry choices. for 10 points less per model, they lose ALOT compared to the Armoured Guards, so they're probably not worth it. Still, there is something to be said for them being cheaper, as you can get 7 of these for every 5 of those. They will die faster, and can't shoot as well, but you'll have more of them.
Riflemen: Again, cheaper than their Armoured variant, and again, you lose several advantages. however, they're not QUITE as bad of a trade-off, as their aim stat is the same and its only their fight stat that drops, which is less important, since neither these guys nor the armoured ones have any decent melee attack to worry about. These guys are the better choice if you're looking for cheap swarms, as their extended range could help them, and their aim stat isn't bad, 10 of these can cost as little as 250 points, which sounds like alot, until you compare them to 350+ for the armoured rifles. if you are running low on points, one thing these can do, a minimum size squad can take one special weapon (like a flamethrower, rocket launcher, gatling, thermite grenades, sniper rifle, etc) for relatively cheap.
Armoured Riflemen: The more expensive, although quite a bit tougher, version of the regular riflemen. for 10 points per model, these guys gain both Durable AND a point of grit (for a net +2 grit effectively) and their fight stat comes back up to 5. They also gain the ability to combined fire, making them more tactically flexible, and technically they could buy up to two weapons from the armoury, but that would be REALLY expensive as they'd have to be full size to do so. This unit is excellent for sitting back at a "rear" objective, digging in, and laying out long-rage rifle-fire en-masse. they can be incredibly difficult to kill in the right circumstances as well. (see below)
Armoured Guards: This is probably one of your best choices for all around high performance units in this posse. They can fight, they can shoot, and they're somewhat difficult to kill. These are FAR better than the basic skirmishers above because for their 10 points per model, they again gain a point of grit AND durable, they gain a point of aim, and they gain combined fire, and they only give up skirmisher, which is useless to both units, as they have shoulder-to-shoulder anyway. Again, they technically COULD take a 2nd special weapon, if they are a full strength, but I think this would only really be an option in extremely high point value games. Still these guys are by far the best choice for this posse to fill out the rank and file. as they can do pretty much anything, and aren't bad at anything.
K9 Attack Dogs: A pack of these is almost always a good idea. they're cheaper than your armoured infantry, while being nearly as fast as the cavalry. They bring alot of speed and the ability to tie up enemy shooters in melee, while your own gunline gets into position, plus large enough packs pose a significant threat in melee.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
Well, I'd take Custer on foot, I like his plasma 6 shooters better than the gatlings on the bike, and sure he's going to lose some mobility and even a point of grit, but I'd say he's going to be harder to kill on foot, because he's not a machine (for vulnerability to disrupt weapons), QatD is better than moving target, and Target Priority may actually come up as he's often surrounded by his own men. Speaking of which, I would bring Willa Shaw as a separate boss along with this posse. She's going to add SO MUCH. first off she's female, and if she's standing near custer, he's that much more difficult to kill, secondly, her forward echelon ability is going to be OUTSTANDING. Put Shaw, Custer, and a squad of armoured troopers all near each other, and Custer becomes Grit-8 (can be 9 on the bike, but with tradeoffs), the infantry are Durable Grit-7, and Willa is Grit-7.... and that's standing out in the OPEN. hunkered behind cover, everyone could be two Grit higher than that... see, hard to kill. I'd bring one squad of Cavalry, One Squad of Attack Dogs, one squad of armoured riflemen, and three squads of armoured guards in an ideal situation. However, at 1200 points or less, this is going to be impossible to do.
So, Custer and Willa on foot, one squad of 6 Armoured Guards with a flamethrower, Another squad of 5 armoured guards, two squads of 3 attack dogs each, 3 riflemen with a sniper rifle, a 5 man armoured riflemen squad with a Liberty gatling gun. As much as I'd like to keep the dog pack as a single bigger one, and/or include some fast moving shooters in the form of cavalry, there's just not enough points to do it. Getting up to 6 units is important because it gives everyone (except not Willa) trailfinder, to help push forward before turn 1. Custer and Willa move forward with the large squad of guards to capture an enemy objective (probably with one of the dog packs) The other dog pack and the other guard squad move up for board control. The 3 man rifles with the sniper rifle would try to find something tall to hang out on and take hopefully fatal shots at characters, the armoured rifles would sit back on any "home" objectives and lay down fire. ALTHOUGH I may consider changing this composition around a bit if I find I dont need the posse bonus that much, as the dogs already have trailfinder, and custer can give it to one other squad.
IF you want to play cavalry heavy (but for some reason dont want to play willa shaw's posse), dont forget that you could ALSO bring Albert Campbell, as he is a separate boss that could tag along, and will provide grit-rerolls for all your mounted people (as they are machine)
Remember, if custer is near enemies, and has his fortune on him, when you draw a 1AP card... start laughing. He's going to gamble, and if you get a high AP card after that, he's going to just obliterate everything around him, as he'll have no action limit, and TONS of AP with fortune and 3 shots at -3 pierce per attack that could cause hazardous (or even 6 shots at -3 once, yikes) even draqing 3 point action card, he can have TWELVE shots at Pierce -3 using revolver fan, and still focus two of the attack actions (6-9 of the shots)
This posse looks simple at first glance, but it is definitely not a beginner level posse. it is, however, one of the only choices if you want to play a swarm style list in union. Honestly I think this posse is better when supporting or supported by others rather than a total standalone posse, which is what these analyses have been about, but it would only take the addition of a fellow union boss or possibly two, I'll explain more later.
First lets look at the posse bonus: Custer gets largesse. It doesnt matter if you take him alone and without any slots filled... which is odd. He only wouldn't get largesse if he tried to lead a generic union posse. Whatever, he's got HUGE fortune, so that's good, but he's going to need it, as he can only bring hands with him and they have none. IF you fill all 6 slots, then everyone gets trailfinder, which can be exceptional in a swarm list.
Lets look at the boss himself: you have two options, mounted or on foot.
It really depends on how you want to support this posse as to which one to bring. in small point games I would always recommend the on foot version, as not only is he cheaper, but he also comes with form-up on me, to give himself and one other hands unit trailfinder, which you will need if you dont have enough points to fill all 6 slots in order to get it from the posse bonus. Both versions are inspirational, with for the boys and for the girls, (which strangely you can't benefit from with cavalry, but you CAN from the infantry choices in the hands section), and both versions are gamblers (which can be DEVESTATING given his high amount of fortune). The mounted version costs 40 extra points and has the usual changes: (exchange QatD and Target Priority for Moving Target, gain extra quick and grit and get rapid while becoming bulky) His jetski/snomobile has gatling guns, but this does mean he loses a shot per attack from his six-shooters, which I think is a bad trade. I honestly think the foot version is better, point for point, but there are obvious advantages to being much faster in this game, so it'll come down to a playstyle preference (and an aesthetic, if you want to field all "cavalry", though to be fair, that's what Willa Shaw's posse if for)
SLOTS 1 - 6 : All the slots in this posse are the same: Any Union Hands Unit
There are six possible units to choose from: Iron Horse Cavalry, Skirmishers, Riflemen, Armoured Guards, Armoured Riflemen, and K9 Attack Dogs.
Iron Horse Cavalry: If you want speed and mobility, this is nearly your only choice. I would recommend having one unit of these in this posse. Although only one. They're too expensive to field in large numbers and they're not really worth it. They ARE this posse's "gun dogs" though, so you can have the gatling option (cheapest so probably best), the flamethrower option (for speeding up to swarms and laying out some templates, or burning out buildings full of enemies), the grenade launcher option (for playing hide-n-seek and lobbing grenades over walls/buildings at opponents), or the electrocarbine option, which is by far the worst. they're MUCH worse than the gatlings, in order to MAYBE pull off a shooting stun while holding that adventure card for a VP... and this posse has no card manipulation, so it would be pure luck to pull this off, not worth it. Still a Squad of 3 of these can lay out an impressive amount of shots and are maneuverable enough to get favorable firing lanes to bring some tactical flexibility to this posee. Keep in mind, EACH model will need to target and fire separately, as they dont have massed fire.
Skirmishers: The cheaper, more fragile of the two "close range" infantry choices. for 10 points less per model, they lose ALOT compared to the Armoured Guards, so they're probably not worth it. Still, there is something to be said for them being cheaper, as you can get 7 of these for every 5 of those. They will die faster, and can't shoot as well, but you'll have more of them.
Riflemen: Again, cheaper than their Armoured variant, and again, you lose several advantages. however, they're not QUITE as bad of a trade-off, as their aim stat is the same and its only their fight stat that drops, which is less important, since neither these guys nor the armoured ones have any decent melee attack to worry about. These guys are the better choice if you're looking for cheap swarms, as their extended range could help them, and their aim stat isn't bad, 10 of these can cost as little as 250 points, which sounds like alot, until you compare them to 350+ for the armoured rifles. if you are running low on points, one thing these can do, a minimum size squad can take one special weapon (like a flamethrower, rocket launcher, gatling, thermite grenades, sniper rifle, etc) for relatively cheap.
Armoured Riflemen: The more expensive, although quite a bit tougher, version of the regular riflemen. for 10 points per model, these guys gain both Durable AND a point of grit (for a net +2 grit effectively) and their fight stat comes back up to 5. They also gain the ability to combined fire, making them more tactically flexible, and technically they could buy up to two weapons from the armoury, but that would be REALLY expensive as they'd have to be full size to do so. This unit is excellent for sitting back at a "rear" objective, digging in, and laying out long-rage rifle-fire en-masse. they can be incredibly difficult to kill in the right circumstances as well. (see below)
Armoured Guards: This is probably one of your best choices for all around high performance units in this posse. They can fight, they can shoot, and they're somewhat difficult to kill. These are FAR better than the basic skirmishers above because for their 10 points per model, they again gain a point of grit AND durable, they gain a point of aim, and they gain combined fire, and they only give up skirmisher, which is useless to both units, as they have shoulder-to-shoulder anyway. Again, they technically COULD take a 2nd special weapon, if they are a full strength, but I think this would only really be an option in extremely high point value games. Still these guys are by far the best choice for this posse to fill out the rank and file. as they can do pretty much anything, and aren't bad at anything.
K9 Attack Dogs: A pack of these is almost always a good idea. they're cheaper than your armoured infantry, while being nearly as fast as the cavalry. They bring alot of speed and the ability to tie up enemy shooters in melee, while your own gunline gets into position, plus large enough packs pose a significant threat in melee.
HOW WOULD I PLAY THIS POSSE?
Well, I'd take Custer on foot, I like his plasma 6 shooters better than the gatlings on the bike, and sure he's going to lose some mobility and even a point of grit, but I'd say he's going to be harder to kill on foot, because he's not a machine (for vulnerability to disrupt weapons), QatD is better than moving target, and Target Priority may actually come up as he's often surrounded by his own men. Speaking of which, I would bring Willa Shaw as a separate boss along with this posse. She's going to add SO MUCH. first off she's female, and if she's standing near custer, he's that much more difficult to kill, secondly, her forward echelon ability is going to be OUTSTANDING. Put Shaw, Custer, and a squad of armoured troopers all near each other, and Custer becomes Grit-8 (can be 9 on the bike, but with tradeoffs), the infantry are Durable Grit-7, and Willa is Grit-7.... and that's standing out in the OPEN. hunkered behind cover, everyone could be two Grit higher than that... see, hard to kill. I'd bring one squad of Cavalry, One Squad of Attack Dogs, one squad of armoured riflemen, and three squads of armoured guards in an ideal situation. However, at 1200 points or less, this is going to be impossible to do.
So, Custer and Willa on foot, one squad of 6 Armoured Guards with a flamethrower, Another squad of 5 armoured guards, two squads of 3 attack dogs each, 3 riflemen with a sniper rifle, a 5 man armoured riflemen squad with a Liberty gatling gun. As much as I'd like to keep the dog pack as a single bigger one, and/or include some fast moving shooters in the form of cavalry, there's just not enough points to do it. Getting up to 6 units is important because it gives everyone (except not Willa) trailfinder, to help push forward before turn 1. Custer and Willa move forward with the large squad of guards to capture an enemy objective (probably with one of the dog packs) The other dog pack and the other guard squad move up for board control. The 3 man rifles with the sniper rifle would try to find something tall to hang out on and take hopefully fatal shots at characters, the armoured rifles would sit back on any "home" objectives and lay down fire. ALTHOUGH I may consider changing this composition around a bit if I find I dont need the posse bonus that much, as the dogs already have trailfinder, and custer can give it to one other squad.
IF you want to play cavalry heavy (but for some reason dont want to play willa shaw's posse), dont forget that you could ALSO bring Albert Campbell, as he is a separate boss that could tag along, and will provide grit-rerolls for all your mounted people (as they are machine)
Remember, if custer is near enemies, and has his fortune on him, when you draw a 1AP card... start laughing. He's going to gamble, and if you get a high AP card after that, he's going to just obliterate everything around him, as he'll have no action limit, and TONS of AP with fortune and 3 shots at -3 pierce per attack that could cause hazardous (or even 6 shots at -3 once, yikes) even draqing 3 point action card, he can have TWELVE shots at Pierce -3 using revolver fan, and still focus two of the attack actions (6-9 of the shots)