M2e+The+First+Mate


 * The First Mate, Gremlin Henchman**

=__Overview__= toc The First Mate is a Silurid in a cute costume who serves as Zipp's second-in-command. He's primarily a control henchman with access to a powerful enemy push as well as the ability to hand out both Slow and Paralyzed. He's also very mobile and can serve as a fairly resilient scheme runner or anti-scheme runner if needed.

=__Mobility__= The First mate has a decent Wk, but what makes him so mobile his his easy access to **Leap**. Being a Silurid, The First Mate has a Leap with the inbuilt mask, requiring only a 4 of any suit to go off. Along with a Cg of 7 this means he can move nice and far in a turn, and can quite easily disengage whenever he feels like it.

=__Offense__= His main damage attack, **Silurid Beat Down**, is okay at Ml6 with 2/3/4 damage, but for a fairly expensive model it's not that impressive. Instead, you'll mostly be wanting to use his **Menacing Croak**, a 6" enemy push, to move enemies into position to be hit by your real muscle. He also has **Swallow You Whole**, which kills or sacrifices a Paralyzed or Ht1 model that also heals him if it succeeds. He has a killer combo to set this up: Menacing Croak to push the enemy into his engagement range, triggering with crows to give the target Slow. Then use **Pounce** for a free melee attack, triggering Rams to Paralyze a Slow model, and for his second AP to use his Swallow You Whole to kill the target. It's not going to come up very often, but if you have the high cards of each suit and your opponent is low on cards & Soulstones, it could be worth considering.

Overall though, The First Mate is much better at simply manipulating enemy models' positions rather than killing them outright.

=__Resilience__= He has decent defensive stats, although nothing to write home about. The only defensive ability he has is **Perfect Camouflage**, which grants negatives to Sh and Charge attacks if he hasn't activated. He also has a trigger on **Menacing Croak** to allow Perfect Camouflage to continue to work even after his activation. Since The First Mate has such strong enemy pushing potential, he will likely be a top target, and so it's worth keeping a couple of Soulstones back in order to make Damage Prevention flips, since he is neither a Pig nor Gremlin and therefore has a harder time getting healed.

The **Treasure Map** upgrade allows the First Mate to heal a small amount whenever he removes a Scheme Marker, at the cost of any Crow - which, given that the First Mate can cycle a card when he discards a Scheme Marker, and that the upgrade cycles a card as well, should be easy to get. His personal Upgrade, **Where the Captain Can't See**, allows him to gain Armor +1 every time he discards an enemy Scheme Marker. It also adds a fantastic trigger, **"Slurp!"**, which lets him discard a Scheme Marker nearby when he lands. This means that, for a low Tomes, you can move 7", discard an enemy Scheme Marker, cycle a card, cycle //another// card (if you took **Treasure Map**) and gain a benefit, and gain Armor +1 for the rest of the game. This can considerably up his resilience in Scheme Pools which need Scheme Markers, or against Crews that use them anyway, especially when combined with Perfect Camouflage, a decent Wd stat, and damage prevention flips (and with **Treasure Map**, you can get the Soulstones you spend on keeping him healthy back). Otherwise, perhaps consider giving him a generic defensive upgrade, such as **On Yer Tiptoes** or the much-coveted **Dirty Cheater**.

=__Tricks and Tips While Joining a Crew__= The First Mate can work well as a fairly self-sufficient scheme runner or anti scheme runner, so consider putting him into a crew if you feel like you need a more resilient runner than a Bayou Gremlin, for example.

With Zipp, the First Mate can take a free Sky Pirates Upgrade. While they are all pretty useful, **Treasure Map** has an awful lot of synergy with The First Mate, and the rest are better used elsewhere if you are taking Iron Skeeters.

=__Tricks and Tips While Leading a Crew__= (with subheadings, usually referencing specific spells, abilities and important combos)

Strategies and Schemes
(General overview, then maybe specifics on what strategies/schemes are good and bad)

Building a Crew
(What sort of minions work well or don't work well with the Henchman, overall advice.

Starting [Henchman]
(Insert some blurb about what the starter box comes with if there is one, the first 1-3 recommended purchases, and why) (Could also start with a quick overview on the Henchman's general difficulty level)

=__Playing Against [Henchman]__= (How best to deal with the Henchman and it's crew, things to watch out for, etc.)

Unless otherwise stated, all names and images on this site are property of Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. ([|Link])
 * __Ownership__ **