Zombies or necro punks?

[whitekong]

So I can't decide, can anyone help me out. Which would you choose and why?
Thanks in advance.

[Sobek]

Never mind, I misread.

I like the Punk Zombies better than the Necropunks, myself.

[Khail]

With which master and what does the rest of the list look like?

[whitekong]

Ok sorry the first post made perfect sense in my head.:o: I will be running Mcmourning starter set, but I would like too have some options so I don't have to play it the same way every time. So punk zombies or necro punks.

[hannibal]

I'm assuming you're choosing between punk zombies and necro punks? If so, I go for the punk zombies. They have paired katanas with a Cb 7, they have Hard to wound, and a Df 5. Which is actually pretty high for this game.

When it comes to a comparison, both the punk zombies have Rot and flurry. When it comes to wounds I think the punk zombies edge out the necropunks. The punks have 6 woundw tih hard to wound 1, meaning that it usually takes 3 hits to kill the punk. Two if the attacker gets lucky on a damage flip.

The necros have 4 wounds and hard to kill. Normally 4 wounds isn't great because it's only moderately hard to one-round them, but the hard to kill means it's gonna take two. So if you had to compare them the necros are going to die in 2 hits whereas the punk zombies are going to die in 2.5 hits (round up or down depending on luck). Then once they die, they boh have slow to die so that's a push.

But for me it comes down to having the same defence and the punk having better Cb with more damage. They even have the same move, so no bonus for the little necros there.

But what this really says is: for the use I intend, the Punk Zombies are better. And my use is to run up and start hurting people. The necropunks really aren't front-line thumpers like the punk zombies. So to use them that way is an unfair comparison.

The necropunks are utility models, not good at their two roles but enough to tip the scales. For example, with arachnid and leap, they can pretty much be anywhere. Really, it's arachnid more than leap because of the suit requirement on leap makes this not a totally reliable spell. But the arachnid means that you can divert only 3 soulstones to grabbing the Treasure or securing a table quarter for the reconnaissance misson. That frees up the more bashy stuff to go out and inflict the hurt on people.

The leap and the melee powers (flurry, slow to die, hard to kill, overpower) are really the model's secondary uses. If an enemy is in combat with, say, Sebastian or a punk zombie or a flesh construct, then you can send in the necropunk to inflict those last 2-3 wounds to kill the bad guy. It's especially useful if the bad guy and sebastian/punk zombie/flesh construct have both already activated. Because then the enemy has probably burned all his good cards from his hand. So have you, obviously, but if you can get leap off as a zero action and then focus you're doing bonus flips to mitigate that.

So really, the question becomes: what role do you have planned for the punk or necro? That'll you the best use of your soulstones.

[Malifoe]

I will play the necropunk advocate, then, as the zombie's positives have already been described.

Two matters that were mostly over looked above:

First, Necros are significantly cheaper than zombies meaning you get more corpse tokens for your stones.
Second, in pairs or triplets, they can tie down an important model by giving him slow.

I have been experimenting with a large number of necros (5-8 in 25-30SS games) with Nicodem. Since I want corpse tokens throughout the game, I like their survivability. The only downside is damage output, which is pathetic at 1/2/3. I don't want to spend control cards on flurry, so most of the time they are swinging and doing a couple of damage here and there.

Their ability to be where you want them is unmatched. If you take 4 or 5, there is a good chance you will get a leap with at least one without cheating each turn. That necro has a 15" move, which gives nearly unparrelled movement, especially at an essentially dispossable price.

I think they are better with Nico than with McM, since his bolster undead is more efficient with more models. Don't discount them as an attack option or an alternate cruise missle option for your nurses. With some mid-level mask cards, one of them could easily get 22" across the board and then flurry with 9CB and positive damage flips.

Lastly, there is a view that they are not worth targeting. Taking out a punk zombie removes a potent threat and significant investment. Taking out one necro is annoying (requiring at least two hits) and still leaves the necro next to him ready to accomplish the objective.

In your case, try playing with a mix. See what you like better and whether the rest of the list lacks mobility or hitting power. Good luck.

[hannibal]

I will play the necropunk advocate, then, as the zombie's positives have already been described.


I'll second everything you've said. While I personally don't think leap is that great, because it requires you to flip/cheat a specific suit, and because these guys need to run in groups. Leaping a sabretooth cerberus: cool, because you really only need to cheat once. Having to cheat a bunch of these guys is a lot of cards.

And yeah, I know there's a decent chance you'll get the suit, but I pretty much assume that if the model doesn't have the suit requirement I'm going to have to cheat. Makes planning easier that way.

The other thing I'd say is that flurry can be quite nice. Just last night I used rapid fire twice, dropping a low card every time (both times I think it was a 1). I think flurry is perfect for when you have junk cards.

Lastly, your numbers arguement is correct, if you plan to take that many. I was thinking of 3 necros vs 2 punk zombies. At that point, the discount doesn't net you a ton more models. But yeah, you take like 8 of the necros, that's a big jump compared to the 5 punk zombies you'd buy at that level.

That being said, if you think Bolster undead is nice the with Necros, the punks would be running around with Cb9 (with a paired weapon!) and Df 7. Oy . . .

Still, you make very good points.

[DangerousBeans]

I have neither (but both are on order) but from a theoretical PoV Punk Zombies seem to be the main combat front liners for resi's. Off the top of my head McM doesn't have much to offer them, but they hardly need it.

Necropunks on the other hand are fast, nimble little beasties. They're not going to do nearly as much damage as a zombie but they'll be invaluable in such a scenario driven game. As noted above they're unsurpassed for Resi's in terms of speed so grabbing that treasure/board space should be a piece of cake. They also make better targets for nurses since you won't feel so bad sacrificing a 3ss model as oppossed to a 5ss model!

I'd say probably the necro's are a better match for McM, since he can make flesh contructs to bring the pain, but doesn't have much in the way of speed. Or get both!