Tactics: Seamus

Seamus by far my favorite of the Resurrectionist masters. He is great at so many things. I typically prefer him for assassinate and slaughter. The movement bonuses he grants to Belles also makes them good for treasure hunt. He is very difficult to kill and can take a ton of punishment. The necrotic ministrations ability helps to refill your hand and keep him healed.

Some things I’ve found with Seamus is that he works better with 7-8 stones. You’re going to want to cheat and burn a stone most times to be sure his gun hits and does at least moderate damage since you only get one shot. When he gets in a bind or stuck in melee (you don’t want to be there his purse is only good if you need one more point of damage) Undead Psychosis can force the enemy to move away as long as you keep your undead models close. He is a bit lackluster at some things, unless you have whittled your opponent down to no card his melee attacks are low damage output with a trigger that only works when your opponent has no cards. No escape lets him charge on an opponents turn, cool but very situational since you don’t typically want to be in melee with him.

My usual 30SS list with him consists of a convict gunslinger, copycat killer, 2 punk zombies, 1-2 canine remains and a Belle. The idea is to run the dog forward as interference, it will die an maybe trigger rabies if you get lucky. The belle moves up and lures something forward (preferably whatever moved closer) to set up the gunslinger, Seamus and the copycat for a shot. Using this technique I’ve been able to kill a steamborg by turn two with one round of shooting as well as eliminate other forces one piece at a time. The nice thing about this tactic is depending on how you activate you’ll usually have a corpse within 6” to make a Belle. Once you have a few more Belles you can usually pull what ever you want in range and cast distract to slow down the rest of the crew.

I haven’t had a chance to experiment with the hanged yet but it seems like they are a natural fit for a Seamus crew. Seamus’s ability to lower willpower should allow them to cause some havoc. The 8 stone cost and the fact that they are spirits are both limiting factors to consider. Seamus really relies on the ability to make more Belles, if you’re not creating a new Belle every other turn you’re probably not going to win a war of attrition. Sticking with low cost high damage/utility units is the safest strategy with Seamus.

The unique characters can add a different flavor to his crews but they really become very situational. Sybil can help move the Belles around where they are needed and give Seamus a chance to activate most of his crew at once. She soaks up damage and has a decent output, but isn’t always the best choice depending on your strategy. Mortimer and Sebastion both can do some interesting things however you have to remember if they are using an all action they will be left behind. If you flip a graveyard for the special terrain Mortimer is a auto-include. Once he gets there he can pop out 2 corpses a turn and help to grow you army. Sebastion is decent in melee but the desire to turn him into a dog factory makes it so you don’t actually do anything useful with him. Bette Noir should be a useful addition, the major issue I see here is her cost and having to keep a high crow in your hand. With Seamus this could be a Belle or a more useful trigger. The havoc she can wreck if your enemy has something die in the middle of their forces is considerable. But in my experience with her she’s done some damage and then either died because I didn’t have a crow or came back to late to make an impact. I love the model and think she could be a huge asset, I just haven’t had success with her yet.

[edit: Bette doesn't need a high crow, it just so happens that every time I've used her the only high card I had in my hand was a crow. So she's potentially much better than I give her credit for I just haven't had success.]