M2E+Brutal+Effigy


 * Brutal Effigy, Guild Minion**

=__Overview__= Another in the Collodi brand of effigies, the Brutal Effigy is created in the form and likeness of the Guild Death Marshall. Fine craftsmanship makes these little buggers hard to destroy, but for some reason they seem like they always come to help. The Brutal Effigy is able to give new life to a Master that is down on their luck, and also seems to be at the right place at the right time, planting bombs or evidence where it needs to be, even in it's last breath. toc

=__Mobility__= The mobility of all of the effigies is relatively average, and the Brutal Effigy is no different. It's got a Wk of 5, which is middle of the road, and because his main attack is a ranged attack and not a close attack, he's lost his Cg value. The only things that keep him from being left behind are: He doesn't need a (1) action to do the move he's most desired for, and he's got **Finish the Job** which allows for Scheme marker generation. If you need it somewhere which is infested with enemies, then killing him yourself can make that Scheme happen. He's significant so if you find yourself unengaged, and in an opportune spot, he //can// just take the interact, no one needs to die today.

=__Offense__= He doesn't have a ton of offensive value -- he only has one attack, **The Chastiser**//,// a Sh 4 attack with medium range. The damage is only okay, getting better if you can net a Moderate or Severe, but the real fun comes with his only trigger: //Pause for Thought// (on a Mask) means after damaging, the target gains **Slow**.

This is a very nice trigger especially for a low SS model. Great in a Collodi crew, as you can force the duel more often, and with the potential "Leave it to Luck" buff. Also just another **Slow** shenanigan for McCabe.

The Brutal Effigy's attack is made much better by bringing him into a C. Hoffman Crew, as you can **Power Loop** him. Though you'd want to loop in someone else with a strong Sh attack, such as a Watcher or Ryle. This would make his Sh attack more reliable, and give you more cause to throw a high Mask at it for the **Slow**.

=__Resilience__= As a four Soulstone model with four Wds, the Brutal Effigy (like all effigies) is the picture of survivability. This guy has two of the survival trifecta, **Hard to Kill** and **Armor +1**. All he's missing is **Hard / Impossible to Wound**. He may only have four hitpoints, but with those two abilities alone, he's already much harder to shuffle off. He's also got Df 6, and Wp 5, which can save his bacon quite a bit. Df 6 puts him on par for most attacks resisted by Df, and only dedicated combat models like Lady Justice, or The Vikis or other models with an attack stat of 7 get to have the edge on him. Not bad for four Soulstones.

=__Tactics and Tips__= His biggest bit of synergy comes from his (0) action:

**Fear Not The Sword** It targets a friendly Master, and grants them the **Fear Not The Sword** Condition (Though i still call it revitalize! It's easier to shorten to write on my card) This amazing buff makes it so if the Master model damages someone with an attack action, they get to heal a wound, and if they kill someone, they get to draw a card. This isn't going to be amazing for every leader in the Guild, but it will be quite amazing for some.

I know there's an upgrade that lets Doug bring along his stinky Chihuahua over to the Guild, but as soon as wave two started, the Brutal Effigy became my pseudo totem of choice for the good doctor. Let me spell it out for you: The doctor can make up to four attack actions a turn, and if he does damage with them, he can heal up to 5 damage before he's done healing. That's, maybe, 3 of his attack, and he's kaput. But, if he lands all 4 attack actions, he can heal up to 9 wounds a turn, almost doubling his typical healing. Plus the Effigy's got **Accomplice**, so if you need those heals right away, you can activate the Effigy, **Fear Not** him, and then accomplice and let him go to town. The **Chastiser** is also good if Doug hasn't charged yet - you can loose off a couple pot shots before he goes and gets tangled up in melee.
 * Doug McMourning **

One of the effigies of choice for the "Fated" Upgrade build, by handing out **Fear Not** to all of the Minions within 6", you can really get a lot of heals and potential cards. It makes it so an offensive Collodi can almost always strum for **Fast** and heal it back, and all of the Puppets are able to strum and make attacks to get their health back. A top pick to spread out a lot of the time.
 * Collodi **

What is Lady Justice's favorite thing to do? Shop for new blindfolds (HEYOOOOO). But in all seriousness Lady J is another model who will get more than the average master out of **Fear Not The Sword**, because her number one choice of options is stabby cutty killy (making the ability's name sort of a pun). So, with the fact that she is one of the biggest killers in the game, and the fact that she can //Onslaught// for more attacks (with appropriate upgrade) makes this a four Soulstone health and card battery. He may have a little more trouble keeping up, but as a Master buff and scheme runner, they're a pretty solid duo.
 * Lady Justice**

Sonnia is another Master who profits off the suffering of others. She's probably the worst offender, actually. The wording on **Fear Not** reads "After damaging an enemy with an attack action". It doesn't say that enemy has to be the target of the attack, so presumably if Sonnia hits multiple people (meaning those fancy blast templates she's always raving about!) you can heal for each target hit. The same goes for the card draw "After killing an enemy model, this model draws a card". This doesn't allow her to draw off of models that die to **Burning** at the end of the turn, but if multiple things die to blast templates, then you're probably drawing multiple cards. Which leads me to my last bit - if you're killing lots of things and they've got **Burning** on them, you could/should be discarding cards to summon Witchling Stalkers. By drawing cards when models die, you can add fuel to that fire (Punches for puns!).
 * Sonnia Criid**

She has low Wds for a Master, so a heal isn't bad. The main draw is the card draw (heh). Perdita tends to be short on cards, but she tends to do a lot of killing, too. Also, she is always in need of some cheap bodies. Thus, Perdita and the Brutal Effigy are a good combination.
 * Perdita Ortega**

=__Playing Against the Brutal Effigy__= [[image:http://wyrd-games.net/community/uploads/gallery/album_12/med_gallery_26067_12_521262.jpg width="386" height="216" align="left"]]Like all **Hard to Kill** effigy models, your best bets are one of the following:

//Enemy condition removal-// If they don't have **Fear not the Sword**, they're not getting cards. A little bit harder if they're going for **Accomplice**, but if they're stalling for activations, and you can cleanse it off of them, it can put a damper on their heals and card draws (at least for this turn).

//Min damage 4 models// Remember, it's gotta be four. You want to get them to 1 Wd as quickly as possible. If you hit for 4, after **Armor** reduces one, it will perfectly take them to their **Hard to Kill** level. That lets you take them out in two AP, instead of 3 or more. Most Guild Masters can keep him alive either (spare Mcmourning's Nurses, or C. Hoffman), so if you can whittle them down that's fine, but 4 AP to take down a 4 Soulstone Minion is a little tough.

//Armor Ignore/Hard to Kill Ignore// Or in other words, the Mark of Shez'uul. Can't protect yourself with **Armor**, that's one layer of defense gone. Stripping away **Hard to Kill** is better, but more rare. If you can punch through the two main defenses, it's just a 4 Wound Df 6 model.

// Ignore Him? // If killing the Master isn't on your list of things to do today, then maybe you just scratch him off your list too. He can't engage you, and he can't shoot worth a damn, so maybe if you're not trying to damage the Master, all their getting is the card draw on death. You can also just time your Master burns for after their activation, so you can kill them after they've used their chance to heal for the turn, and try and finish them off at the top of the next turn.

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