The Man They Call…. McHammish!

As you’ve read earlier on the blog, I have recently made a move to pick up some Guild models.  The model that pushed me over the edge to finally pick them up has finally been revealed: McHammish!  He’s a treasure hunting, spoiled rich kid who’s come to Malifaux because… well… who’s going to stop him?

Book Four has a lot of great models to discuss.  There may be a bit of conversation about the new way the new Neverborn/Ten Thunders master works (the totem is the really powerful one!) or the way Misaki’s new master has so many AP with which to murder, but for me, the most interesting change on the way masters work has to come from McHammish.  (I’m going to caveat that by saying I reserve the right to change my mind in the future)

Okay, so what makes him so interesting?  McHammish is on a horse!  Yeah, I know we’ve already got that with Avatar Leviticus, but aLevi can’t actually get off his horse.  McHammish has mastered the art of… dismounting!  Okay, so he can’t re-mount his horse afterwards, but give the guy a break – it took four years for someone in Malifaux to figure out how to get off a horse.

So what does he bring to the table?  Well, for one, the fastest Master Guild can get.  I mean, he’s clocking in with a walk as fast as a lot of people can charge, and his charge gets him across a third of the table.  He’s got a healthy WP and CA, and an average DF (though that increases when he dismounts).  His wounds are the highest for any single master: a whopping 13 (though those are split between the horse and himself).

He’s got two melee attacks, one designed to do damage and another that can trigger to pass out some Slow.  He’s getting harder to hit the more people he’s near, and he’s got Bearskin Armor to help keep him alive.  He’s a Ranged Expert, which is nice to go along with his Net Gun.  Whoever he hits with the gun is automatically Slow, and if you get to Severe damage, he’s Paralyzed too.  Plus, the net spills over nearby models and has a chance of making them slow too.

He can use a (0) action to help move his crew faster, pushing them towards him if they’re close enough to hear him.

He’s also got a couple spells – one to debuff a large area of the enemy crew, dropping their DF and WP, though it needs a Tome to cast.  His other spell can only be used on a Slow model and it replaces Slow with Paralyze.  Remember all those Slows you’re dropping with your attacks?  Yeah.  Nice, isn’t it?

But that’s not all!  He comes with a 6 stone cache (bwah??!!?!).  Now that’s a bit deceptive because what treasure hunter wouldn’t travel along with some treasure?  He spends his soulstone cache on at least two of a list of treasures, each with a varied cost.  Want more soulstones?  Take the weaker treasures.  But trust me, there are some real gems in there.  Drop your cache by 3 to grab Armor +2.  Give your melee swords Paired.  Get a (0) action to heal.  Gain a spell that can Reactivate certain members of your crew.  There are a couple others out there too.

Then, when he dismounts, either by having his horse run out of hit points or by using a (0) to dismount, he loses his Ranged Expertness and gains Melee Expert.  A lot of his stuff stays the same but instead of tossing out Slow as much (he still can some), he can do things like Loot the Dead, getting a special ability after killing enemy models.  He can toss out Traps (a new Guild Minion) to help Paralyze nearby models.  And finally, if he’s almost-but-not-quite-dead when he gets to activate, he can do some real damage, using a (0) to pretty much double his actions for the turn, but sacrifice himself at the end of the turn (counts as killed by the enemy for VP conditions).

So there’s one of my new loves – I can’t wait to get him painted up and on the table.  McHammish for President!