Avatar+Hamelin

toc
 * Hamelin, Avatar of Plague, Outcast Avatar**

=Overview= Avatar Hamelin emphasizes Blight Tokens, distributing them and then using incredible board control and debuffs to spread more of them and cripple and control those who have them.

=Manifesting=

Hamelin's Manifest requirements are quite difficult. First, he must kill an enemy model with a model contolled by the **Pipes** weapon. To be clear: he must do Severe damage with Pipes to take control of an enemy model, then have that model kill another enemy model.

Second, he must cast **Understand the Soulless** on three enemy models to make them Insignificant. This can be easier to do, since it's something that Hamelin will often want to do anyway.

Hamelin is difficult to Manifest, but mostly requires things you would probably be doing anyway. When you meet the Manifest requirements, it's probably worthwhile to Manifest immediately.

Hamelin loses several things when he Manifests: He can be targeted by Insignificant and Ht 1 models, he doesn't come back to life instantly, and he loses his special card-drawing powers. However, he gains massive debuffs and extremely dangerous attack spells, so it's probably worth it.

=Mobility= Hamelin has an average **Wk/Cg 4/6**, but he is **(+1) Fast**, so he can move quite well. He has no special movement tricks.

=Offense= Hamelin has two extremely powerful strikes and many horrible spells.

His **Contagious Touch** is a melee attack, with a strong **Cb 6 crows**, **Dg 2/3/5** with a positive twist if the enemy has a Blight Token, and an automatic trigger to give a Blight Token. With a Mask for **Coughing Fit**, he can make the target Slow instead of giving a Blight Token.

His **Pipes** Attack is a ranged attack with a massive **Cb 7 masks**, with only **1/3/3** damage. It doesn't give a Blight Token, but controls an enemy model with Severe damage, and with a Crow, it can make the target Slow as well with the **Coughing Fit** trigger..

Hamelin can do massive widespread damage with **(all) A Tyrant's Judgement** or **(1) Leprous Dance**, or can target particular models and potentially auto-kill with **(1) Piper's Lure**.

=Resilience=

Avatar Hamelin has an extremely high **Wp 9**, and a decent **Df 5**, and a very high **Wd 12**.

Hamelin actually loses a lot of Resilience when he Manifests. He doesn't come back to life next to a The Stolen when killed, and can't even summon The Stolen any more. He also can be targeted by Insignificant models again.

However, he still has several defensive tricks. He has a Df trigger, **Ague**, that requires a crow that gives the attacker Slow after resolving a melee attack, whether the attack hits or misses. And he can heal a huge amount of damage very quickly with **(0) Bask in the Plague**.

=Soulstones=

Avatar Hamelin benefits from Soulstones to help defend, and uses Soulstones for his very powerful **(1) Leprous Dance** Spell, so it's good to have plenty of Soulstones on hand.

Avatar Hamelin has a little trick to increase his SS pool, either to fund the cost of **(1) Leprous Dance**, or to pull off the outcast scheme **Gather Soulstones**.

Avatar Hamelin start off by using his **(0) Piper's Swarm** to discard 3 low cards and summon 3 rats. Next, Avatar Hamelin uses the general **(1) Drain souls**, to sacrifice the 3 rats and get 3 soulstone, at the cost of crew wide -1wp, effectively making 3 low cards in to 3 soulstones. Since the range of **(1) Drain souls** is 6", the models sacrificed will allways be in range of **"Nihilism"**, to make sure they are not insignificant at the time of sacrifice.

=Tricks and Tips=

Distributing Blight Tokens
Here are all the ways Hamelin can hand out Blight Tokens:
 * Malifaux Rats, Rat-Catchers, and Nix still give Blight Tokens when they do damage.
 * When a model with Blight Tokens is killed, all models within a 2" pulse gain a blight token.
 * All Malifaux Rats enter play gain a Blight Token.
 * Enemy models damaged by a model with Blight Tokens gain a Blight Token. Note that this is in addition to the Blight Tokens that Malifaux Rats, Rat-Catchers, and Nix already give.
 * Hamelin can give all friendly models in a 3" aura (this may be a typo for pulse) one Blight Token.
 * Hamelin can give a Blight Token with an automatic crows trigger to anyone he his with his Contagious Touch melee attack.
 * He can give all models that fail to resist within a 10" pulse a Blight Token if they don't already have one.

Using Blight Tokens
In addition to the extra Wd that a model takes whenever it has a Blight Token and takes a Wd, and the opportunity for other models in Hamelin's Crew to cast Bleeding Disease for damage based on the number of Blight Tokens, Hamelin has a huge number of special ways to hurt those with Blight Tokens.

They are:
 * Enemy non-leader models become Insignificant if they have Blight Tokens.
 * Hamelin's Contageous Touch gains a positive flip for damage against an enemy model with Blight Tokens.
 * Hamelin can give all models within a 2" aura (friendly or enemy) that have Blight Tokens a negative twist to all Attack and Damage flips.
 * Hamelin gives Slow when he uses a Strike on an enemy with Blight Tokens.
 * Hamelin can use (all) A Tyrant's Judgment to do 1 Wd per Blight Token on a model.
 * Hamelin can heal himself by discarding on Blight Token from each model in range, healing 1 Wd per Token discarded.
 * Hamelin can take control of all enemy models with Blight Tokens within 10".

Controlling Enemy Models
Hamelin has several ways to take over enemy models:
 * Pipes: A non-Master that takes Severe damage from Pipes with Wp 5 or less makes a (1) Action or Charge controlled by Hamelin. Note that this can include self-destructive actions.
 * Leprous Dance: At a cost of 1 Soulstone and a 6 masks or higher card, all enemy models with Blight Tokens within 10", including Masters, must make a Wp->14 duel or take a (1) Action or Charge.
 * Piper's Lure: This pushes a model 4" toward a table edge, and has a Rg 18. If the target reaches the table edge, they're killed and you draw two Cards.

Malifaux Rat Synergy
Hamelin doesn't create new rats when they die any more, but his Rat-Catchers still do.

He has several new synergies with rats:
 * He retains Nihilism, so Insignificant models, including Rats, don't count as Insignificant.
 * All Malifaux Rats entering play gain one Blight Token, which makes them very vulnerable but also helps spread the plague.
 * All Malifaux Rats already in play when he manifests also gain Blight Tokens.
 * He can use (1) Frenzied Piping, which lets Friendly Vermin inflict 1 Wd on themselves when inflicting damage on a model to increase Df by 1. Since most Malifaux Rats will have Blight Tokens, it's unclear whether the Malifaux Rats can use the ability anyway, kill themselves, and spawn a new Malifaux Rat ready to attack, or whether Malifaux Rats can't use this option if they have Blight Tokens.
 * Hamelin can create more rats with (0) Piper's Swarm, which requires 7 mask or crow to cast, and lets you discard up to three Cards to summon one Malifaux Rat each.

=Avatar and their Crew=

Avatar Hamelin has synergies with the same Crew that he uses without Manifesting: Nix, Malifaux Rats, and Rat-Catchers. He gets less benefit from The Stolen than before, but they're still quite valuable. The only change of Crew really worth mentioning is that if you plan to Manifest Hamelin, it's probably not worthwhile to hire an Obedient Wretch.

=Playing Against Avatar Hamelin= I don't know. Wait for a nerf?

Unless otherwise stated, all names and images on this site are property of Wyrd Miniatures, LLC. ([|Link])
 * __Ownership__ **