Sue

== toc
 * Sue, Outcast Minion**

=__Overview__= Every western needs a musician to sing the blues. The musician of Malifaux is a man named Sue who comes armed with his pair of pistols, and a guitar slung across his back.

Sue is predominantly a Bard. While he has his pistols, his main focus is supporting the crew he's been hired into - helping them maintain control of themselves while simultaneously distracting enemy casters from being able to focus their spells properly.

=__Mobility__= When it comes to mobility, Sue is just a man. No special features, and an average move stat. Simple as that.

=__Offense__= //Pistols// Sue primarily employs his paired pistols for dealing with foes. Being a Gunslinger he can use them in Melee as well as ranged. They only have one trigger (Critical Strike) which triggers automatically with every shot - letting Sue deal 3/4/5 damage with each successful slug fired.
 * Melee/ Ranged**

One other feature is that Sue ignores the effects of Terrifying. This won't come up much as Sue rarely engages in Melee, but should he be forced into close-combat it does help a lot.

=__Resilience__= Sue isn't overly tough. He does have 8 Wds, and 5 Df, so he's not an average cowboy. He is also Hard to Kill which can be useful, but without a supportive source of healing its effects are reduced.

//(0) Disrupt Magic// With no penalty to your own crew there's little to no reason for not activating this aura every turn in which a //Shrug Off// is not critical.

//(1) Six-String Inspiration// Giving his crew a +2 WP boost can come in very handy when faced with certain masters (such as Pandora or Avatar Seamus) to help counter their mind-games.

//(0*) Shrug Off// A spell common to people of the wild-west of Malifaux.
 * Spells**
 * Wrongly listed as a (1) in Twisting Fates, [|ref].

//(1) Circle of Flames// This helps him Sue clear some space for himself to breathe. Once cast all models (Friends or Foes) will suffer a 1/2/3 damage flip whenever they move within, or take an action, including a (1) Pass action, while within 2" of Sue of the spell aura. If cast with a 10+ Tome, this flip increases to 2/3/4. While offensive, its predominantly a defensive deterrent and is very powerful against Melee focused foes (especially those without a charge who will take one flip for moving into Melee range of Sue, and another flip for taking a Melee swing at the musician). It also sets the victims on fire - giving them a burning counter.

=__Tips and Tricks__= Its often best to activate Sue early to get into the face of his enemy and employ "Disrupt Magic" so the enemy is distracted in their spell casting for the round. Furthermore, get him into the heart of a clustered enemy crew and unleash "Circle of Flames" before they have activated. On a group of low-health models, this can be a deadly attack.

Sue is a medium-ranged fighter. You want him in the face of your foes where his guns will be firing on the key targets you need to take down, but also close enough to the enemy so you can put circle of flames to good use. His crew buffing abilities will need him to be close to your friendly models, especially the key ones you'll really be wanting the effects on. Six string inspiration, the +2wp spell, has an aura of 5", requiring him to be quite close, whereas tread the line, giving your models duty, is 8".

Sue is a great model to take if your opponent is taking neverborn. You'll know this in both fixed faction and fixed master games. Giving your models duty is great against Zoraida, although be aware, she will just cast obey on her own models to give them extra ap, but atleast she wont be doing it to yours. As mentionned, Six string inspiration is great against Pandora, and any other crew with minions that target WP for their effects. Finally, neverborn models normally have a high defense, making hitting them hard. Circle of flames has no resist, so being able to hit 3 terror-tots/marionnettes/wicked dolls/other neverborn "grunts" for 1/2/3 is incredibly useful.

=__Master-Specific Tips__= While Sue is a gun for hire, he has standards. He refuses to work for any Crew that has a model that is Wicked and/or Ruthless. As such he will **NOT** work for the following Masters:
 * Lilith
 * Von Schill
 * The Dreamer/Lord Chompy Bits

__Kaeris:__
It is worth noting that Sue synchronizes very well with a crew containing Kaeris, big disclaimer though is that he may only be included in crews where Kaeris is NOT leading the crew due to her henchman hiring restrictions. He can hand out burning tokens, acts very much like the models you'd normally be taking (fire gamin and gunsmiths) and using circle of flames, can control the board, especially when combined with Kaeris's flame pillars. You could erect flame pillars either side of his circle, forcing opponents to walk through it, or similar.

Whilst Sue has a good ranged attack, it doesnt compare to the gunsmith. Gunsmiths are a great minion to take in a Kaeris crew, but they are ruthless, meaning you cannot take them if you include Sue. It may be worth trying out both, as Sue can add a lot to the crew, but so do the gunsmiths. I'd advise trying both out and seeing what works for you. Finally, whilst Sue is good when facing neverborn, remember gunsmiths already have duty, and many of your models have smouldering heart, in many ways, making sue's abilities obsolete, or just unnecessary.

__Pandora:__
Costing her 8 Soulstones to hire sue's Six String Inspiration can be devastating with the amount of WP duels a pandora crew can force. Since the aura effects opposed duels the boost can be used when you're the agressor as well as the defender. Candy's ability to heal also means his Hurt action can feed your hand.

(There are also a lot of Masters and Henchment who can't hire him for their own reasons, of course, like Some'r Teeth who will only hired Gremlins and Pigs and so on.)

=__Minion-Specific Tips__= (As with Master-Specific Tips, going into any specific Synergies with other Minions.)

In a crew that Johan, Taelor, Bishop or any model that has an action, trigger or spell that can push another model into Sue's Circle of Flames causing 1/2/3 dg (2/3/4 with an extra tome) is always a useful combo. Taelor's Hammerstrike can also push Sue 3" inches directly away if she flips a 5 or more. Though very circumstantial it can cause havoc on the board if pulled off.

In a crew with a Freikorps Librarian Sue can not only keep her safe from melee with Circle of Flames and boost her WP with Six String Inspiration. The Hurt ability will allow you to trade WDs for cards to trigger the various libraian spells and triggers. The Librarians ability to cast up to 3 spells with furious casting makes this duo fairly resilient in support or holding objectives.

In crews that can hire both Sue and a nurse, you can pump him with stimulants, or speed, then use shrug off to negate killing him. Stimulants will give him CB9 paired, so you'll be hitting most of the time, and a positive flip on his 3/4/5 damage with critical strike in effect. Speed will give him re-activate.

=__Playing Against a Minion named Sue__= Threat level, how to kill/neutralize it, what to watch out for etc.

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