M2E+Francois+LaCroix


 * Francois LaCroix, Gremlin Henchman**

=__Overview__= toc Francois is a shooter, though he is more than capable in melee as well. He is a damage-focused model, but his attacks often damage himself as well. He's most often seeing with Ophelia LaCroix, but he can add a strong (if self-destructive) attack to many different Crews.

=__Mobility__= Reckless and a **Wk 5** means Francois can get to where he needs to be in a hurry. His **Cg 6** gives him an effective 13" charge threat range when combined with **Reckless**. Or, if you don't want to walk, you can just have him shoot things instead.

Francois has a mobility attack action, **Gremlin Menace**, with **Ca 6** and resisted by **Wp**. It pushes Francois 5" toward a model. This isn't any faster than his **Wk**, but it can be useful in a few ways. First, it's not a **Walk** action so you can use it to get out of disengagement. Second, it gives the target a negative flip to Attack Francois, so it's a nice way to protect yourself if you want to move toward a tough enemy anyway. It doesn't add speed, exactly, but it does make some approaches more useful. Note that you can also use it on a friendly model if you just want the push. (Or, technically, if you're worried about someone Obeying another model to attack Francois.)

=__Offense__= Francois is a heavy-offense model with a very high damage potential. He carries a sword and the Rough Rider pistol for his attacks.

Melee
At **Ml 6**, Francois is very capable in-close. He also carries an auto Dumb Luck on his sword that gives him access to 4/6/10 damage all the time.

Ranged
His pistol is only Sh 5 but has a 10-inch range as well as a good damage profile of 2/3/4. His pistol carries two triggers, Dumb Luck on a Ram and Loose Trigger on a Crow. Dumb Luck ups his ranged damage to 4/6/8 but the real gem is his Loose Trigger. This is one of the “infinite” triggers that are still in the game. It allows Francois to suffer one damage and then immediately shoot again. This follow-up shot does not have to be at the same target, and it can be used multiple times. As long as you have wounds and are doing damage with Crows in the attack flip, you can continue to shoot until there is either nothing left, Francois is dead, or you runs out of Crows.

Other
Francois also has another Attack Action, **Gremlin Menace**, that has a Wp resist on the target with a range of 6". It allows a 5” push and the target gains negatives to attack flips when he targets Francois.

Francois has one Tactical action, **Showdown**. It's a self-buff to increase his damage-dealing even more: a (0) tactical action that requires a 5 of Tomes or higher, which allows Francois to discard a card before performing a duel to gain a positive flip to the duel.

=__Resilience__= Francois has a defense that is below average (**Df 4**), but he a very strong Willpower (**Wp 7**) and he can use Soul Stones to do a couple of things to improve his resilience. He has a **Wd 10**, which is quite high, but without some healing he's not likely to survive a sustained onslaught from multiple enemy models.

Firstly, he can spend a Soul Stone to get a positive defense flip and impart a negative flip to any damage he would suffer from the attack. He can use a Soul Stone to prevent damage, or to get his Squeel trigger and push away from a threat. This is extremely useful when a model charges Francois, since it can allow Francois to Soul Stone a mask and take damage to push away from the charging model, denying it the second attack.

If you combine Crows with **Showdown** and the Upgrade **Dirty Cheater**, you can get many attacks from Francois though it would come at the cost of a card for every positive duel as well as using Soul Stones for crows before you flip cards. Unless you have a handful of high Crows this gets expensive rather quickly.

=__Upgrades__= As a Henchman, he also has access to two upgrade slots. Since there is never enough Dirty Cheater to go around it is often better to decide on what your plan will be before equipping it to any specific model.

__ Dirty Cheater __
Heals damage when the model Cheats Fate. Francois will take damage from his own attacks so **Dirty Cheater** is a solid upgrade for him. It also makes **Showdown** useful in that you can cast it and cheat using any low card you have. You don't need to succeed, just cheating allows you to heal one point. Especially nice on the first turn to heal the damage from Reckless since you won't likely have any other use for the low cards.

Gremlin-See
Francois can also make use of the **Gremlin-See** upgrade that gives him access to Shrug Off as a (0). For the cost of a card he can remove one condition of his choosing, so if Francois is on fire he can put himself completely out or discard Poison, Slow, the Hanged’s no heal condition.

Team Work
Team Work can be useful on him as well since it allows free movement into combat and pushes the model that was in combat up to 6” directly away. This allows Francois to get into melee where he wants to be but it does cost (1) AP. With access to 3 AP a turn, it allows Francois to get into combat and do some serious damage to the enemy before it can do the same to your crew. The great thing about this upgrade is that it allows you to leave combat and go to a better one as Francois' low Df usually makes leaving combat difficult.

Stilts
The most useful thing about Stilts for Francois is the ability to abandon them to reduce damage suffered from a Ml action to zero. This is great since you can use it to negate the damage Francois gets from using his auto Dumb Luck trigger on his sword.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

Francois can be a heavy hitter in your crew but like most Gremlin models if your opponent wants him gone often enough there will be no saving him.

Francois has some interesting differing play styles. He is a Henchman so he can use Soul Stones to spend for Crows to continue his Loose Trigger.

Francois goes extremely well with Ophelia since it allows Ophelia to move and then use a (0) action to place Francois near her and Francois can activate via Companion. He is the best Kin in melee combat and though

Som'er can help him get the triggers he needs on his shooting attack with Do it Like Dis

=__Leading a Crew__= As a Crew Leader, Francois provides a lot of offensive ability, fairly good resilience, and an extra AP. However, he doesn't really have much in the way of control, manipulation, or team buffing abilities.

Strategies and Schemes
As a crew leader, Francois will do well with Reckoning or Turf War, since he's good at killing enemies and holding territory. He'll need to hire a crew that will help support him for other strategies.

Building a Crew
(What sort of minions might or might not work well with the Henchman, overall advice.

=__Playing Against Francois__= Francois can put out a lot of damage, and can slip away from trouble with a Mask when attacked. He doesn't have very good defenses, though. Attacking him may mean burning through Soulstones and then his very high **Wd** before you can kill him.

He's also fairly suit-dependent, needing Masks for defensive pushes and Crows for his shooting attacks. If you can get through his cards and attack him later in the round, he may be easier to hurt.

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