Malifaux: Beckoners

The Beckoners are two minions that expand the tactical options for the Neverborn. They are particularly suitable to be added to the Dark Debts crew. From the Malifaux Tactica Wiki page: The Beckoner is the Rotten Belle of Lynch's crew, and is just as essential to him as the Belles are to Seamus. They also hold the dubious honor of being the first ladies of the night in the game that are not zombies. Beckoners are control pieces and function to pull enemy models into your crew and spread the Brilliance characteristic at range. They have a gun, Honeyed Words, with a moderate range that attacks Wp instead of Df and ignores cover. Models damaged by this attack receive the Brilliance characteristic. Their gun also has a highly useful trigger, First Taste's Free. This trigger reduces a target's Wp or Df by 1 and is cumulative. Additionally, the debuff does not end during the Closing Phase, but rather last's until the Beckoner's next activation. This trigger makes them an attractive (pun intended) option for Zoriada or Pandora crews, both of which are heavily dependent on Wp effects. One strategy would be to have the Beckoner activate early in one turn, apply the debuffs, and then activate late the next turn; giving the maximum length of time for the debuffs to be in effect. In addition to the gun they have a melee attack with their nails, which has a low damage spread but automatically provides poison. Come Hither This is the bread and butter spell of the Beckoner and the reason for taking them in a Lynch crew. This spell works in a very similar way to Lure, pushing the target toward the Beckoner and then moving her toward it. The twist is that if the target has Brilliance than they push their charge rather than their walk, and the Beckoner has a trigger where if the two models end within melee range of each other, the spell target gains Brilliance. This spell works for your crew on several levels, pulling enemy models away from the safety of their crews or away from objectives, providing Brilliance at range, and if they end the move in melee range of a Beckoner, locking that enemy down with a model that they cannot hit due to Irresistible and Don't Bite the Hand. Sales Pitch This spell removes AP from a target's next activation, 1 per mask in the Ca value. This can be used to neuter an opponent's heavy hitter for one turn, but be aware that the spell only effects general AP and targets can still use AP generated by Melee Expert, Casting Expert, etc. The Party Never Ends The reason other than Come Hither that the Beckoner gets taken in Lynch crews--all models within 6" of the Beckoner do not lose the Brilliance characteristic at the end of the turn. The Beckoner's optimal turn occurs when they begin within 12" of a target. The first AP is used to fire their Honeyed Words attack at a target model, wounding it and giving it Brilliance. They then use the (0) action Know My Client to buff their stats versus models with the Brilliance characteristic. Finally they cast Come Hither on the original target (relatively easy with a Ca of 8), pushing that target its charge towards the Beckoner and the rest of your crew.