M2E+The+Depleted


 * The Depleted, Neverborn Minion**[[image:pullmyfinger/The-Depleted.jpg width="189" height="314" align="right"]]

=__Overview__= toc The Depleted are the remnants of those who have been infused with Brilliance and fed upon by the Hungering Darkness. Now little more than shells of their former selves, these nearly mindless addicts will do anything for another taste of that sweet, sweet Brilliance.

Never one to waste resources, Jakob Lynch sometimes uses the Depleted as a distraction for his other plans, and they can sometimes be found in the company of other Neverborn as well, courtesy of Mr. Graves or Mr. Tannen.

On the table, The Depleted are very cheap, very durable tarpits that explode when they finally die, tainting those around them with Brilliance.

=__Mobility__=

With a Walk of 4 and a Charge of 5, The Depleted don't seem to be very fast at first glance. They do have some hidden mobility in their free action, **Drawn to the Light**, which pushes them 5" towards a model with the Brilliance Characteristic.

While this might seem to only be an action that would be useful in a crew that focuses on handing out Brilliance, it also allows you to push towards your own Brilliant models, including the Hungering Darkness, Beckoners, Illuminated, and even other Depleted. Taken in pairs, two Depleted and "leap frog" up the board with surprising speed.

Of course, if you are running other models that hand out Brilliance, then you can tag an enemy model and then have the Depleted push towards it to tie it up. Beckoners, with their ability to hand out the Brilliance Characteristic at long range, are probably the best models to use for this purpose.

=__Offense__=

The Depleted are not particularly great at combat. Their single attack has a **Ml** of 4, a range of one inch, and a weak damage spread of 1/2/3. However, they gain a slight bonus to their **Ml** and a +flip to their attack when making disengaging strikes, so they're pretty decent at keeping models in combat with them once they're there.

They have two triggers, both of which are pretty decent. The first, //Burn Out//, forces the opponent to discard one card, which is pretty much always a good thing. The second trigger, //Just a Touch//, is a bit more specialized, as it gives their target the Brilliance Characteristic until the end of the turn. If you're running a crew with The Illuminated, Beckoners or Hungering Darkness then this trigger is great. If you're not running models to capitalize upon Brilliance, however, then the trigger probably won't have any effect on the game (other than allowing The Depleted to push into base contact with the target if necessary).

=__Resilience__=

What The Depleted lack in offense they more than make up for in resilience. Their Defense is a pathetic 3, but they have an incredible eight wounds which is otherwise unheard of for a model of their low cost. Furthermore, they have **Hard to Wound** and **Hard to Kill**, meaning that your opponent is going to have to waste a whole lot of AP just to kill one of these guys.

And when they do get killed The Depleted just explode right in yout face, thanks to their **Consumed** ability. This causes 2 damage to everything in a two inch pulse, and also makes all such models gain Brilliance until the end of the turn. Free damage when your Depleted dies is pretty great by itself, but if you have another model that can take advantage of the Brilliance (such as The Illuminated, who will be barely be bothered by an exploding Depleted next to them) then it's a double-win for you.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

The Depleted are essentially just cheap tarpits, so toss them at annoying models that you want to keep locked in melee and forget about them. They're pretty decent at making disengaging strikes, their short melee range doesn't give enemies much room to maneuver and they're very difficult to actually kill, so no matter which way your opponent attempts to deal with them, they'll probably be wasting AP while you're off completing your Strategy and Schemes.

As a model that hands out Brilliance, The Depleted work great alongside models that can take advantage of that, such as Lynch, the Hungering Darkness, Beckoners, and The Illuminated, and even other Depleted.

The Depleted really shine in Reconnoiter strategies, because although they're **Insignificant**, they're also Minions, so they'll still count towards holding table quarters for you. Because they're so cheap and hard to remove, this makes The Depleted pretty good at holding down a table quarter while your other models deal with the enemy crew.

On the other hand, because they are **Insignificant** Minions, they are very susceptible to Schemes like Distract and Cursed Object; they can't give those Conditions out, but they can receive them, and once they've got them they are incapable of taking the Interact actions needed to remove them. Try to avoid taking Depleted with these Schemes in the pool, or be ready to murder your own models if necessary.

=__Playing Against The Depleted__=

The Depleted are melee tarpits, so do your best not to get stuck in melee with them. Models that can Flurry or otherwise make multiple attacks in one turn can probably take a Depleted down in one or two activations, but that's still a considerable amount of time spent trying to deal with a 4ss **Insignificant** minion. Don't forget that running away is also an option, though the Depleted will make this difficult and will still be around to annoy the rest of your crew once your model has escaped.

The best way to deal with Depleted is probably to take advantage of their low Willpower to inflict them with status conditions or otherwise make them unable to bother you in a significant fashion. Nurses are great for this, as making The Depleted unable to take melee actions or just Paralyzing them can allow your own models to easily get away from them, and Rotten Belles can use their Lure to pull The Depleted away from your more important models.

Interestingly enough, because The Depleted have the Brilliance Characteristic, other Darkened models have a very easy time getting rid of them. Both the Hungering Darkness and The Illuminated will tear through a Depleted very quickly, and even another Depleted can keep one locked down for the entire game if there isn't another Brilliant model to push towards.

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