Malifaux: Lucius Crew

From the Malifaux Tactica Wiki: Lucius is tricky. His crew generally consists of lower cost models such as the Guild Guards. Even his "heavy hitters" do not pump out a lot of damage on their own, but rely on a combined arms approach. He, of everyone in the Guild, supports his crew the most and loses well over half of his capability when not running his own crew. His limited crew of Guardsmen and Elite Division can pull off some cool "alpha strike" tactics, but it's pretty tricky to make them work. Focusing on any single part of his crew can take it apart quickly and make it tougher to play. Overall, Lucius crew is all about the whole being greater than the sum of it's parts. For the most part your crew will be made of very "average" models (average movement, average attack, average resilience), but can be made to work very well by using a combined arms approach. The Elite Division box comes with 1 Guild Guard (4 SS), Ryle (8 SS), the Guild Guard Captain (7 SS) and a Lawyer (7 SS), for a total of 26 Soulstones (plus Lucius' cost of 10 SS if not leading the crew). The starter box thus gives you a very top-heavy crew, with a trio of high-cost minions. Lucius tends to work best when he has a good number of minions around him however, so your first purchases should definitely be cheaper models with which to replace one of the 7-8SS minions in small games. Your first purchase after the starter box should definitely be a pack of Guild Guard, who are cheap, resiliant and decent in both melee and ranged combat. Adding at least one Austringer is recommended to begin with. Good early buys are a blister of Guild Guard, a second Austringer and one of the Totems. Which one you choose depends on your play style, but if in doubt the Drill Sergeant has several different uses. Lucius is trickier than a normal Guild Master due to his reduced list options, but can do well if you use the right pieces at the right time.