All the Cool Kids play Seamus

For some reason, Seamus is easily the most often used Master in my local area. I must have played against him at least half a dozen times over the past few months and at a recent tournament, 3/13 players brought Seamus. The positive of all this is that having played against him so much, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how he works. So last Tuesday for the Rainbow Challenge, I grabbed my Seamus crew for a match against fellow gamer Chris Poli and his Chuck Norris Von Schill crew.

The Advice

So with each Master I play through I’m hoping to start compiling a list of threads, blogs and other web pages that discuss tactics for that Master. Here’s what I found with a quick search – if you have any others you’d like to point out, make sure you post a link in the comments section!

http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/M2E+Seamus

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?49701-Seamus-list-ideas

http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?46393-So-how-is-Seamus-treating-you-guys

http://cheatedfatesblogging.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/why-i-build-lists-the-way-i-do-a-breakdown-of-the-seamus-build/

The Game

45 SS

Standard Deployment

Reconnoitre

Schemes:
- Line in the Sand
- BodyGuard
- Breakthough
- Cursed Object
- Frame for Murder

Evil Dead Seamus with his ladies and...children?

The List

Seamus
- Redchapel Killer
- Sinister Reputation
- Spare Parts*
Copycat Killer
Bete Noir
3x Rotten Belles
3x Crooligans*

* Both Spare Parts and the Crooligans were from the 12/31/2013 version of the Wave 2 Playtest.

So I generally went with numbers to help achieve Reconnoitre, with Bete Noir as my second heavy hitter to take out anyone who tried to hunt down my Crooligans. With Seamus I wanted to focus mostly on utilising shooting, with Redchapel Killer to help with the mobility and Sinister Reputation for a bit of extra protection (also because it’s 1SS and if I’m not taking Bag of Tools, why wouldn’t I take this!). Spare Parts was taken because it gave me an additional summoning option (Extra Pieces is longer range and a (1) action rather than a (0) for Arise my Sweet). But more importantly, it gave me a chance to pull out my freshly painted Rogue Necromancy!

With Seamus committed to shooting I tried to pick my crew to ensure that they won’t get in his way by getting stuck in melee with his target/s. This was part the reason why I went with the Crooligans (thanks to their Always on the Move ability), but the Rotten Belles with their Lure should also prove useful.

The schemes I chose were Breakthrough and Cursed Object, both of which were well suited to the Crooligans. If worst came to worst though, I figured Seamus and Bete were both capable of achieving Breakthrough and the Belles could help with Cursed Object.

Opponent’s List;

Von Schill
- The Shirt comes off
- Hard and Relentless
Steam Trunk
2x Freikorpsmen
Freikorps Specialist
Bishop
Taelor

I offered Chris the chance to use some of the Wave 2 Freikorps but he instead decided to give Bishop and Taelor a shot, both of whom have proven to be really solid models in the new rules. Since he knew he’d be facing Seamus, the Anti-Terrifying upgrade Hard and Relentless was a natural choice but other than that, he went with a standard Von Schill crew.

For Schemes, Chris chose Frame for Murder on one of his Freikorpsmen and Bodyguard on Taelor

Result

For Seamus, this was essentially an exercise in Lure & Kill. Over the course of the game my Rotten Belles lured in a Freikorpsman, Von Shill himself and eventually the second Freikorpsman into range of Seamus and the Copycat killer, who in turn shot them all with Focus Strikes. My Crooligans managed to get cursed object off on at least 4 models, but thanks to Always on the Move were able to otherwise avoid the enemy (although one managed a very luck escape from Taelor) to place my scheme markers for Breakthrough. The centrally placed Crooligan was killed by Bishop (not before giving him a cursed object though!), only to be Paralysed, slowed and almost killed by the Crooligan’s replacement - Bete Noir. Bete herself didn’t manage to finish off Bishop, and in fact was buried after Bishop “killed” her with his Cage Fighter trigger! By this point in was Turn 4, with Bishop prepared to rampage through some Belles, Fortunately this was the turn in which Seamus summoned a Rogue Necromancy, who then finished off Bishop and in turn 5, killed Taelor with the help of a companioned Belle to strip away that last wound.

The Game ended with me having lost one Belle (twice, to the same Friekorpsman!), a Crooligan and the Copycat Killer, while my opponent was left with a Freikorp’s Specialist who’d been chasing after one of my Crooligans (unsuccessfully, I might add!). Chris had scored Frame for Murder and Bodyguard (on Taelor in Turn 4) for 4VP, while I’d achieved all my objectives for 10VP

 Because the original Rogue Necro didn't look ridiculous enough...

Post-game thoughts

Before going into this game I’d initially envisioned Seamus making heavy use of Back Alley to kill chunks of Chris’s crew, while summoning Autopsies and Rotten Belles to help achieve Reconnnoiter. In actual fact, he wound up walking once or twice, then spending the rest of the game just shooting his 0.50 Flintock at the models his Belles Lured into range. It obviously worked really well, but I feel like I didn’t get the full “Seamus Experience”. I never got to use Back Alley and I only summoned one Belle. Aside from the few shots Von Shill tried throwing his way there were very few Terrifying checks and his legendary resilience was never put to the test. Still, even without his other tricks. Still, he fulfilled his task of killing my opponent’s models, so I guess I can’t complain.  

At least with the version I played, Spare Parts was well worth the upgrade slot. Even just the chance to summon a Rogue Necromancy is fantastic, and his appearance ensured the death of both Bishop and Taelor in the last two turns of the game. I also seriously considered taking Maniacal Laugh instead. It’s actually one of my favourite Resser upgrades, both for it’s awesome name and the ease at which you can summon a horde of cheap zombies to clog up your opponent (at least in theory). Unfortunately it wasn’t going to work well in this game, since they’d prevent Seamus freely shooting any models they’re engaged with and they couldn’t count for achieving Reconnoitre. I also didn’t have any Zombie models I could use. :P

For the rest of the crew, I had no complaints. Rotten Belles are still the Lure Machines I know and love, Bete Noir is a fantastic melee machine and the Crooligans proved to be my MVPs – having successfully achieved both of my schemes. Pre-game I was trying to decide between taking Necropunks and Crooligans. Both seem to achieve the same role but do it in different ways, with the Necropunk being more card intensive and an extra SS, yet a little faster and tougher. If it was just Breakthrough I wanted to achieve then I probably would have stuck with Necropunks, but Crooligans seem very well equipped for With Cursed Object and hey – I wanted to use my freshly painted models!

...also I had a spare Nightmare Teddy head, and the butt-horse was just funny.

Final Impressions

So overall, did I enjoy using Seamus? Absolutely. I’ve always liked the mobility tricks his crew have offered and in M2E he’s really come into his own, being a resilient little bugger with a lot of flexibility in what he can do. At this stage, he remains my favourite Resser Master although he might have some competition when I finally give the two M’s (Molly and McMourning) a run!

Until next time,

Adrian