
I thought
this would probably be a good time to discuss my thoughts on the faction as a
whole. My history with the Thunders is a bit of an odd one, as I never set out
to actually play them. It just happened that, when the M1E book Storm of
Shadows came out and introduced them, I needed Lynch and McCabe to continue
growing my collection of Neverborn and Guild. Then I picked up a Misaki because
ninjas were cool. Then I started adding bits and bobs and, next thing you know,
I have part of a faction. The fact that Phiasco plays Thunders and we were
frequent sparring partners made me hesitate to expand too much in that
direction, as I like to have games be as diverse as possible. Additionally, as we were going through the last year of school and job searching, paired with the fact that I was a long way from a Malifaux community when I was living in western Virginia, and as a result I haven't bought very many models from Book 3 of M2E forward. As such my collection isn’t really at a point where I feel comfortable
putting them out on the board competitively right now. Mainly, I’m missing two
of the fairly key pieces that most Thunders crews bring for games: Yasunori and
one of the Shadow Emissary or Sensei Yu. Without them, my Ten Thunders will be
missing a lot of the things that give the faction their personal style and
reputation.
Which I
suppose warrants a discussion of what that style is. When most people think Ten
Thunders, there are a couple of things that come to mind. One is the Focus
condition. The Thunders have a lot of ways to get it outside of taking an
action. The old classic is through the Recalled Training upgrade, which allows
one to discard it at the beginning of a model’s actions and gain a + to all
flips for the rest of the turn, basically a super Focus that lasts for the rest
of the turn. They’ve had this since the beginning of M2E, and it’s really
defined their playstyle. Somehow, despite its ubiquity, its managed to escape
each round of nerfs without being modified, so this is still very much the
case. Most of the time, a model that’s planning on being committed to melee or
placed in danger will start the game with an RT attached, which can add a lot
of soft costs to crew construction beyond the cost of the models themselves. In
addition, a number of Thunders models have actions to hand out Focus. The
aforementioned Shadow Emissary and Sensei Yu both play with Focus, as well as a
handful of other faction models. The overall effect is to create crews focused
more on individual, punishing strikes rather than a crew of brawlers that want
to dive in and start throwing blows around randomly.
The other feature are the use of pushes to shove models around. Again, Yu and the Emissary
are the usual suspects for this role. The increased mobility is a big part of
what makes the “typical” faction crews work, and is a big reason why people
play them. Generally, when you’re preparing to play against them, you have to
keep in mind the realistic possibility that they can strike with their heavy
hitters wherever they want to on the board by turn 2 (if not sooner.) Usually
that comes in the form of a charging Yasunori lashing out with a series of
brutal, repeated melee strikes, but the same methods can be applied to
shove a master like Misaki or Shen Long down your throat as well. There are no
safe spaces on the board, basically, if the Thunders want to attack it.
Their
weaknesses tend to come when they get bogged down. They aren’t as fragile as
the Neverborn, but they’re going to be more successful when they fight in a
guerilla style with specific targets rather than engaging in long protracted engagements
and hoping to muddle through. Models like Yin the Penangalan or Gwyneth Maddox
have some decent defensive tech, particularly with the Smoke Grenades upgrades
or defensive buffs from Charm Warders, but glass cannons are more common than
tanks. Additionally, they don’t have a preponderance of anti-armor abilities in
faction. The Arcanists in particular can be tough for this reason, and you
often have to either focus fire on a particular key target or try to avoid combat
with them unless entirely necessary.
So, right
now this is what I have available.
Lynch Crew: Hungering Darkness, 2x Illuminated, 2x Depleted,
Gwyneth Maddox, Mr. Graves, Mr. Tannen, 2x Beckoner.
Lucas McCabe: Sidir Alchibal, Luna, 3x Wastrels
Misaki: Shang, Ototo, 2x Torekage, 2x Thunder Archers,
Yamaziko
Miscellaneous: Yin, Izamu, Oiran, Shadow Effigy, Ten Thunder
Brother, Terracotta Warrior, Monk of the High River
I think the
Emissary is my first priority for new additions, as he’s flexible enough to
work in most crews as a lynchpin and enabler but can dish out some offensive punishment
when necessary, something that Yu can’t really do (also, I don’t have to buy a
whole crew to get the SE, which is nice.) Hopefully by next week I’ll have some
tabletop results to discuss, and maybe a break-down of what crew builds I’m
looking at. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to paint some Dragon
Balls to put on my Shadow Emissary’s base.
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