May have a spare 10 minutes on coffee break at work, so thought I'd pop down some thoughts on Von Schill within outcasts.
Coming from Guild, I want to say that the Freikorps shooting fun-ness got me into them, but in all honesty it was the Prussian/WW1 German theme that I could run with in a modelling sense that made me pull the trigger (so much pun intended)...but I digress.
Will probably only have time to talk about the man himself this article, so bear with me.
(I'll also note, my games have been predominantly with his thematic crew or 'Freikorps' models)
First up, with a cache of 1, 12 wounds and no defensive triggers, Von Schill would have to be one of the softer 'melee masters' in the game.
Augmented Jump is an amazing ability don't get me wrong, but when your Ml attack has a lower min and mid than your shooting, there is already an issue. Ignoring armour does certainly help, and Can Opener is a brilliant trigger, but I feel if it was built in, or there was a Crit Strike built in, you'd want him in CC more.
Now honestly his Clockwork Seeker is where it is at shooting wise, if you're going against unarmoured targets..especially hard to wound ones, you are going to lay the boot quite happily and a 3/4/5 damage track on a shoot is crazy good.
Stand and Shoot is probably a pretty poor option most times, if it was maybe a (2) action it would be worth while, but the fact is you need 3 enemies in your LoS (hopefully out of cover) for it to even break even, makes it very muchly a corner case ability.
Finish The Cur is a phenomenal (0) and factoring in you'll take 'Engage at will' on him, it is an extra attack for him a lot of the time.
A Legend to Live Up To, factored in with the Steam Trunk, a variety of upgrades and Hannah's defensive buffs (enemy offensive nerfs?) he plays almost like a very loose Hoff-Ball.
When you look at his upgrades, in all honesty he may as well have 2 upgrades available and Survivalist built in.
Tally sheet is pretty good given how Von Schills thematic crew eats cards like it is going out of fashion, and probably the only way you can get the effigy's (0) to work without vomiting up your control hand.
I Pay Better is good, but again, it's losing cards in an already card hungry crew.
I feel most of the other generic upgrades aren't particularly amazing for him, especially given his tiny cache and how frugal you need to be with SS.
Onto the Friekorps upgrades.
I'm sure Paid in Blood could be good on the correct board (and deployment, this on normal or close would be useless) and at 2SS it is quite expensive. Factor in you'll be away from the rest of your crew and you're starting to see diminishing returns on Schill's upgrades and abilities.
Hard and Relentless is great if you know there is going to be some horror shenaniganry! For 1 SS it is pretty good, pretty situational, but good.
Engage at will would almost be an auto take if you're running the Schill-bubble, especially married up with the Steam Trunk.
The Shirt Comes Off, is I think the most amazing upgrade in all of Malifaux, strictly for the visual imagery it conjures. While bloody good, it does feel a little bit 'wastey', if you can somehow get the Hodge Podge Emissary in your crew, I wouldn't even bother attaching it at the start (more on that in a later article),
Spoils of War is relying on you killing something good, with either a Korpsmann or Trapper. Trapper is doable, Korpsmann, less so. May be worth putting on Hannah, but certainly not Schill himself!
Anyway, there is some quick thoughts on just the basics of the man himself, I'll start filling in the other parts of the crew and some 'newb' tactica at later dates.
Cheers,
Nick
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