New player looking for Seamus advice (The Rise of The Mad hatter)

[cheshirecat]

I have recently startedMalifaux and my first two purchases were the lady J and Seamus boxes and I lovedSeamus and the bells sadly most don’t seem to care for him much, but I am notso easily dissuaded I am looking for some help to make a good list with what I have(and please don’t say get a different master) I admit that I will most likely needto get some extra pieces down the road but what I have now is what I need touse.
So far I have 2: dead doxys, 3: belles, Syblle,grave spirit and a convicted gunslinger (I think I might order the copycatkiller soon)
This is the list so far the Doxys and belles can besummoned with corpes tokens after things start to eat the drit. I am just lookingfor good advice thank you all in advance. J
Ressurectionists Crew - 25 - Scrap
Seamus, The Mad-Hatter -- 6 Pool
Grave Spirit [1ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Madame Sybelle [6ss]
Convict Gunslinger [6ss]

[Huang Da Wei]

I have all the ressers and have only just started playing with Seamus. He is growing on me, twice now I have finished someone off with a .50 calibre shot, seems right up there with how I imagine him.
I like to take crooked men too, I have the belles and doxies and this week finished painting the avatar. Copycat would be fun, just love the thought of shooting such a big gun and getting blown backwards...hilarious.

Grave spirit is for undead so is of no use to Seamus but may help Sybelle

[twenty4seven]

Seamus is one of the most fun masters to play but he can be difficult if you're up against non-living crews. My favorite tricks involve getting Seamus stuck in with a few of his girls and then spamming Undead Psychosis. That spell is really Seamus' main strength, forcing your opponent to burn actions walking away is a dirty, dirty trick. If you combine this with his (0) action "No Escape" you can get a free charge against a model by forcing it to walk away from a Belle standing right next to you. Don't forget his triggers! Excessive bleeding is amazing. Your opponent can't win if they can't interact with objectives.

Grave spirits are great totems but everything in your crew is ultimately very expendable, even Sybelle, so I rarely take one with Seamus. The copy cat killer is hilarious fun and the "My Little Friend" scheme is one of the most difficult but rewarding in the game.

People like to hate on Dead Doxies but they're one of my favorite Minions in the game. If you have a crew of nothing but Belles you can generally go for about 4 turns before your opponent kills anything. I like to deny my opponent kills with the Doxies and then have Seamus fire into a combat and kill my own girls for the 2 wds, the control card, and the corpse counter. Which brings up another great thing about Seamus, Necrotic Ministrations. Never forget necrotic ministrations it will save your life in many circumstances. Nothing beats firing into a combat and explaining to your opponent that you're hoping to hit your own model

These are just some of the tricks off the top of my head but Seamus is a very fun Master with lots of cool abilities. Try some things out and keep us updated on how it goes but most of all have fun!

[dgraz]

Welcome to Malifaux!

I'm not a rezzer player myself, so I can't give you any deep dark secrets. The New Players Lounge is still a fairly new area of the forums, so you might find more exposure for your questions on the actual Faction Discussions sections. Also there is some really great info on the Wiki:
http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/

I have faced Seamus numerous times, so I can tell you what has been most effective against me. twenty4seven has already hit most of my high points; Undead Psychosis is money. Using Trail of Fear (12" is a huge range) also helps with it.......and what really sucks is when I'm forced to walk away from a Cb6 Belle and can't disengage!

Against living crews, Trail of Fear and Terrifying is pretty nasty. Agree again that 'Excessive Bleeding' is awesome and a late turn Slit 'Jug' when the opponent is low on cards can be mean.

He is very defensive.....'Hard to Wound 2', 'Terrifying', 12 Wounds, 'Necrotic Ministrations'.....all make him very survivable....but he is not un-killable. His defense stat is abysmal so he is going to get hit. Models with high 'Weak' damage (Guild) will tear him down pretty quick. So don't put him out front.....yes he is tough, yes he can fight....that doesn't mean he should. It can be wise to keep an Undead model near him so they can protect him via 'Undead Psychosis'.

A big thing is strats and schemes. Seamus crews are great at board control. If the enemy has something where they need to be somewhere like 'Stake a Claim', Belles can lure them off of their objective.....Treasure Hunt is nasty because 'Lure' makes them drop the Treasure.

On summoning: Seamus is one of the weaker summoners so don't worry about doing it early. I see summoning for Seamus to be a 'clutch' move. A turn 5 or turn 6 summon can win you the game. Again, strats and schemes are key....taking 'Stake a Claim' is great for Seamus because he can summon a Belle late turn 6 in contact with the objective and there isn't much the opponent can do about it. Or a Claim Jump strat he could put the Belle there to tip the number swing or Lure an opponent off a Claim. If you draw the big you need for summoning, hold on to it so you can summon when you need to.

I play mostly 'living' crews....against which Seamus is good, but I know he can struggle against 'non-living' crews.....I can't really help you there, but I guess Seamus' Avatar might be good there.

One final tidbit that my Seamus playing friend said to me just the other night....Rezzers play for turns 5 and 6. Chances are that you aren't going to overwhelm anyone in the first half of the game so be patient. Shut down the enemy, deny them their VP, mitigate what they can do, position yourself, and survive. Then late game make your move and finish it.

Hope that helps. As an aside, the two crews you picked are the two most popular demo crews for teaching new players.........so if you don't have a local Henchman, paint them up and apply!

[Fetid Strumpet]

Just as a clarification Dgraz, as far as I know Belles cannot use their Cb6 Teeth and nails to stop you from disengaging. Disengaging strikes must be made at a model's maximum Melee range, and a Belle's maximum melee range is 2" with their grimy parasols, which are Cb 4. If I am incorrect in this I would love to be proved wrong, but just trying to toss in a clarification of a particular point.

[dgraz]

Just as a clarification Dgraz,

I just double-checked it, and you're right about that. Okay, Sybelle then with Cb 5.

[Omenbringer]

I definately like the Dead Doxies in combination with the Rotten Belles. It definately accentuates the Ct and Mouse tactics of the orignal crew box.

[cheshirecat]

Ressurectionists Crew - 25 - Scrap
Seamus, The Mad-Hatter -- 6 Pool
Copycat Killer [2ss]
Dead Doxy [5ss]
Madame Sybelle [6ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]
Rotten Belles [4ss]

Ok first off thank you all for your advice it has helped a lot.

Seconded after a few games I have found that yes grave sprit is less than help full, so I went and got myself a little new friend. Secondly I have noticed that the convicted gunslinger is good but winds up not fitting in the crew very well, he always winds up getting separated and alone and therefore dead, so I swapped him with a dead doxy which I’m hoping will not be inclined to wander off and die.

And lastly I’m thinking that when I expanded my force up to 35pts I’m going to add miss molly and her necromantic machine.

[Omenbringer]

The little guy is a pretty nice model for Seamus. Gives another hard hitting gun and some repositioning shenanigans for Seamus (not as useful for spell casting though).

[LordZombie]

If you take a gunslinger, he does not have to be alone. Stand him behind the belles with los to the enemy and have the lovely belles lure models into his range. If he does not have to move, then drop a card and rapid fire on the model. With three shots, one should trigger "trigger happy" and that is 4 shots into one model. If the gunslinger doesn't drop someone, Seamus can finish the job if need to. I took a gunslinger a couple of games ago and I find it hard to not include him now.