M2E+Anna+Lovelace


 * Anna Lovelace, Resurrectionist Henchman**

=__Overview__= Anna is Hannah's little sister (does that mean that Hannah is also a Lovelace, or has one of them married?). She possesses a unique form of area denial that can be situationally very useful, and offers consistent ranged damage and a grab-bag of other abilities. As a Mercenary, she can be found working for anyone in Malifaux, not just her native Resurrectionists.

=__Mobility__= With **Wk** 5, **Cg** 5, and no movement tricks, Anna's mobility is average at best. The good news is that once she's where you need her to be, she can usually stay there for the rest of the game.

Anna's main talent lies in her ability to deny enemy models a lot of //their// mobility tricks. Two of her abilities, **Gravity Well** and **Clockwork Dress**, combine to mean that enemies cannot be pushed, placed, or otherwise moved within 8" of her unless they are walking, charging, unburied, or summoned there - or if a member of Anna's crew does the moving. This completely shuts down abilities like Lilith's **Tangle Shadows,** Yan Lo's **Lightning Dance,** and Kirai's **Swirling Spirits** over a large portion of the board, and will hinder any crew that relies on push or place effects to get key models into position. Colette and Guild Austringers also find this rather annoying. Pandora will have to walk in to start her tactical action, wasting her precious AP. It doesn't protect against summoners or the unburying of models, though, so don't get too confident in her zone of control.

=__Offense__= Anna's primary attack is **The Swirling Damned**. With a **Ca 6**, a 10" range, and a 3/3/4 damage track, it won't do many one-shot kills, but provides a very consistent damage output that doesn't care if the target is **Hard** (or **Impossible**) **to Wound**. It also doesn't randomize when shooting into melee, which is always helpful. If she hits with a Tome and does Moderate or Severe damage, her **The Damned Gather** trigger lets her summon a Seishin or Mindless Zombie into base contact with the target - nothing spectacular, but free models are free models. A Crow trigger gives **Screaming from the Aether**, which makes the target and all other models within 3" - friendly and enemy - take a TN 12 Horror duel.

If an enemy closes with her - which is harder than usual - Anna relies on her **Wretched Blade**, which is generally less impressive than her ranged attack (**Ml** 5, 1" range, 2/2/4 damage). It can choose to target either **Df** or **Wp**, though, which helps a bit (particularly if there are nasty defensive triggers to worry about). The **Infect** trigger, as usual, gives the target **Poison** equal to the number of Crows in the duel total, and comes with one Crow built in to the attack. A Mask lets Anna heal 1 damage with **Life Drain**, and a Tome lets her **Glimpse the Void** and try to bury the target (exactly like Tara, the Nothing Beast, and Void Wretches can). Nothing to build a crew around, but handy when they happen.

=__Resilience__= Anna has 9 **Wds** and **Armor +1**; combined with her ability to use Soulstones, this makes her a bit more resilient, but still vulnerable to concentrated attacks. Having something nearby which discourages charges (such as an Ashigaru, Yamaziko, Rusty Alyce, etc. depending on your chosen Faction) will help, because it leaves opponents no choice but to shoot her from range or walk up to her the hard way.

=__Upgrades__= In her native Resurrectionists, **Unnerving Aura** is a bit more effective when opposing models can't push or be lured away from Anna. **My Little Helper** is a very good upgrade choice for Anna if you haven't already bought two copies of it elsewhere (it's a Rare 2 upgrade). Once each game it gives you protection from all actions from enemies outside of 3" - which is superb since her aura's stop anything getting close to her easily. It'll also give her two chances to connect with (0) **Vortex** to displace enemies, and if she dies you get a free **Mindless Zombie** as a consolation. Always buy **My Little Helper** on Anna! **Admiration** is another option to consider. When a model is summoned within 6" of her, i t lets Anna push into base contact with it by discarding a card. If she shoots someone with her Ca attack and summons an incidental **Seishin** or **Mindless Zombie**, or your master summons something in front of her, she can now get a push out of the deal too, which is great because it promotes her mobility without wasting good AP on Walk actions.
 * Corpse Bloat** can be fun as well since Mindless Zombies count as corpse markers you can make roaming bombs with her **The Damned Gather** trigger.
 * Spare Parts** can also be used when you make some mindless zombies near existing corpse markers, when they die they drop an actual corpse marker anyway and a free Rogue Necromancy is nothing to laugh at. Not something to count on but far from impossible.
 * Decaying Aura ** will prevent soulstone usage for heals, but her damage output isn't top notch so it's better placed on your enforcer.

When she's taken as a Mercenary, anything that will help her survive and hold position can be beneficial. In the Ten Thunders, **Smoke Grenades** provides good protection from ranged attacks, and **Recalled Training** is always worth considering. **The Mimic's Blassing** is handy for protection on the Neverborn side, while **Nexus of Power** makes her safe zone an even better place for friendly models to take refuge.

=__Tactics and Tips__= Anna is at her best when she can help keep the enemy out of a key location, so Strategies like **Extraction** and **Turf War** are fine reasons to hire her. Her aura also helps protect friendly Masters from **Deliver a Message**. If none of those are in play, and/or you know that your opponent's crew doesn't use a lot of push or place effects, she may not be worth her cost; she's a solid model, but nothing special apart from her area denial skills.

She also has **Rush of Magic**, and cycling an extra card at the start of every turn is never bad.

Her (0) **Vortex** Ca doesn't do any damage, but if successful it will push the opponent 4" away from Anna, further extending the positional control that she provides. There's also a chance it will then push other models away from it when it arrives at it's new location. It is particularly useful at shifting tough models from objectives, pushing models around to break up crew synergies and even just freeing herself from engagement with a model she can't handle with her **Wretched Blade**. Since she has no competing (0) actions, she should always look for a target to bully with it.

Anna's toolkit of abilities and actions are especially welcome against **Ten Thunders**. Many of their most popular masters as well as support models (Sensei Yu, Shadow Emissary) heavily influence the game through positioning, placing or pushing other friendly models or even themselves. The combination of Anna's front of card abilities can go a long way towards denying some of this mobility, while her (0) **Vortex** action helps to tamper with their positioning.

Anna has some potential for each Resser master even if it's simply keeping the enemy from pushing into charge range of the master or another key model.
 * **Seamus**- He loves his undead hookers and board control, pulling targets into Anna's denial range keeps enemy crews with the same abilities from pulling them back out, and the Mindless Zombies can be summoned and replaced with more undead ladies of questionable virtue or Seishin for some roaming heals. It isn't perfect synergy or on par with Sybelle but far from worthless.
 * **Yan Lo**- While not an ancestor her summoning free, easy to kill models can lead to much more gathered chi when they get killed. Also keeping the enemy from using pushes to get other models into charge range before Yan can power up is quite useful even though his ancestors are all capable of blocking in their own way as well, especially Izamu and Yin. Turning Mindless Zombies into Ashigaru could be funny, but that would be way too SS costly with Anna and Tosh.
 * **McMourning**- the only real benefits I see for now is that the enemy can't use pushes in her aura to escape, she can put a point of poison on someone from her melee attack (but what in his crew can't do better?) and free stuff to use as needed.
 * **Kirai**- Another model that can get Seishin on the board is not bad, but she can potentially do it twice a turn. Keeping enemies from pushing into a good charge lane on Kirai is also quite valuable as she is a tad squishy. Should Anna have to hit someone with her melee attack then a Shikome could get a 1 AP charge to remove that threat. Also, since Anna is a living model she can be used to trigger //Malevolence.// Oh, hi Ikiryo.....
 * **Tara**- her **Glimpse the Void** works with the crews theme, area denial is always useful, and Rush of Magic can help to optimise your hand, which is handy if you want to throw cards to help protect the Nothing Beast and Void Wretches. Plus of course an extra chance at a good card is always helpful in its own right - help Karina summon up some helpers to play, the undead Death Marshalls could have that extra chance to bury an enemy model, could be the card that lets you get the alpha strike and unbury something nasty in the enemy lines with Tara. Use your imagination.
 * **Nicodem**- the extra card is potential summoning for Nicodem, push denial as well, and some free mindless zombies.
 * **Molly**- popping either Seishin or mindless zombies up can be useful. Molly's summoning isn't exactly gentle on the summoned so the Seishin could possible heal them up if they aren't ambushed immediately. Getting the zombies and corpse markers close can be a set up for Spare Parts and a Rogue Necromancy since there will be many corpse markers to utilize, Rush of Magic for that extra card and it could be what you need for the Ca to go off.

=__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 might or might not work well with the Henchman, overall advice.

=__Playing Against Anna__= If Anna isn't causing you difficulties in getting to a key area, you may be able to safely ignore her; her damage is consistent but not overwhelming, and her other abilities aren't usually game-changers.

If you do need to get her out of the way, ranged attacks or a Nimble melee beater like Howard Langston are the easiest ways to take her out. Plain old charges work well too. Also, note that Anna herself (and the rest of her crew) are not affected by her auras, so she can be Lured or pushed out of position to free up key areas.

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