Malifaux: Bishop

From Malifaux Wiki Bishop, Outcast Enforcer Overview Bishop is a Mercenary pit fighter whose main claims to fame are Swift, granting him a third AP, and a handful of useful triggers that make him quite effective in a variety of different situations. Table of Contents Overview Mobility Offense Resilience Upgrades Tactics and Tips Playing Against Bishop Mobility While Bishop's Walk of 4 is a bit of the slow side, his Charge of 7 makes up for it by letting him move quickly into combat. He's also Swift, granting him 3 AP during each of his activations, which allows him to move further than one might otherwise think after glancing at his stats. Offense Bishop is a melee-focused model, and that's where he shines. His main attack is Chain Wrapped Fist, which has a high Ml of 6 but a damage spread of 2/3/4, which is a bit low for a model of his price. However, Bishop makes up for that with a variety of triggers which make him very versatile, and his Study Opponent ability allows him to target either Wp or Df, allowing him to both hit his opponent where they are weakest and to bypass a number of defensive triggers (such as Lady Justice's Riposte trigger, which only triggers on her Df flips, but not her Wp flips). Bishop also possesses the Adaptive ability, which lets him choose a suit when he activates and add that suit to each of his duel totals during that activation. This makes Bishop very independent from the suits in your hand and essentially lets him pick which of his suits he wants to guarantee hitting during that activation. This also provides him a bit of defense from enemies that strip printed suits (such as Hannah or the Freikorps Librarian), as the suit gained from Adaptive is not considered to be printed on his card. The triggers on Chain Wrapped Fist allow Bishop to quickly adapt to whatever enemy his is fighting. Penetrating Blow ignores Armor, Hard to Kill, and Incorporeal, Choke Out makes his opponent Slow, Knock Around pushes his opponent 3" in any direction, and Critical Strike just increases his damage by +1 for each Ram in his final dual total. With a flipped or cheated Ram and a Ram from Adaptive, this can increase Bishop's damage spread to 4/5/6, which is pretty impressive for a model with 3 AP! Bishop's second attack is Haymaker, which costs 2 AP and doesn't deal any damage, but does make the target Paralyzed if it connects. It has a very high Ml of 7, making it a very accurate attack, especially when used as a Disengaging Strike. Finally he has Flurry. This allows him to spend 2 AP and discard a card to get 3 Ml attacks against a single target. They will all have to be Chain Wrapped Fists as Flurry only allows Bishop to take attacks costing 1 AP. Resilience Bishop has higher than average defensive stats and a good number of wounds, which makes him difficult to kill in the best of situations. He's even harder to take down in melee, as his Cage Fighter defensive trigger deals 1/2/4 damage to anyone that makes a Ml attack against him and misses. The Crow he needs to hit his trigger is already built into his Defense, so he can Cage Fighter every attack that fails to strike him. Because of this, Defensive Stance is a good option with Bishop once he's in melee, as it improves his chances of dodging an attack (and thus counter-attacking via Cage Fighter) and still leaves him with 2 AP to fight back. Upgrades Bishop has two upgrades available to him in Outcasts. Scramble increases his WK and Cg, which becomes even better on Bishop, as he has a third AP with which to get even more extra movement out of the upgrade. Oathkeeper can be discarded at the start of Bishop's activation to give him Fast. If you thought that Bishop with 3 AP was good, 4 AP is even better. With it he can charge and flurry in the same activation, Charge twice, or Flurry twice. When hired into Arcanists, the Imbued Protection upgrade will make Bishop have Df 7. This makes attacking Bishop in melee a huge risk, as he's just that much more likely to avoid the attack and hit his opponent right back with Cage Fighter. With Guild, Lead Lined Coat grants Bishop Armor +1, which only serves to make him that much harder to kill. Resurrectionists have Decaying Aura available to them, which punishes any model that lingers too close to Bishop for very long. Because Bishop is so difficult to escape in melee, this can be a viable option for those who like to toss him into the thick of things. When hired into Ten Thunders, Recalled Training becomes an option, granting Bishop a +flip to all duels he makes for the rest of the turn. Because of his third AP, and his ability to counter-attack models that fail to strike him with Ml attacks, this upgrade makes Bishop very scary for one turn. Tactics and Tips Bishop is a melee-focused model, so try to get him into the thick of things as soon as possible. He does very well against weaker enemies that are likely to miss him and trigger his Cage Fighter counterattack, but can also hold his own against Henchman and Enforcers (particularly if he focuses on using Haymaker to paralyze them). When you activate Bishop, take a moment to consider which triggers you need the most and then gain the appropriate suit via Adaptive. Remember that you can still use the suits from cards that you flip or cheat, so don't feel constrained by Adaptive if you need to hit different triggers during his activation or if the situation changes unexpectedly. Playing Against Bishop Bishop is a very versatile model that can be used in many ways. You don't really want to get engaged with him if you can help it, as his Df trigger makes him risky to attack with Ml attacks, and his high Ml makes it hard to disengage from him. Shoot him with ranged weapons when possible.