A Tactical Look: Foreign Delegates

Nobles from far off lands come to Venice. Lets have a look at how you can use them in your games of Carnevale.

The Patricians are the upper crust of Venice, mingling with the elite and powerful. Sometimes they might just need to mingle with someone that has some, shall we say, communication issues.

Foreign visitors and traders come from afar to trade and partake in some of the more unique Venetian activities. Mascheratas can be a dangerous affair, even for the most seasoned of Patricians, but the thrill of the hunt and the jingle of coin can be far too tempting for those looking for such things.

What’s in the box:

First off the the Foreign Delegates box contains does not contain a Leader, you’ll need to decide for yourself if they’re leading a contingent of guards or being led by a Venetian Noble. In the box you have not one, but two Foreign Nobles, the first many of you have already seen. The second is a completely new sculpt, with brandy in hand and a stiff upper lip. A Venetian Spy provides long range fire support with some of the longest ranged attacks in Carnevale while a pair or Merchants bring close range firepower.

Venetian Spy

Coming in at 15 ducats the Spy isn’t the cheapest character available to the Patricians, but she does share that number with a number of the other Patricians hero choices. If you’ve been running a Captain of the Guard or Adventuring Noble until now, the Spy is easy to swap in.

With mostly 4’s across her stat line she’s reliable, but not the most physically capable. You aren’t going to be taking her for raw stats though, lets go into her special rules. Concealment (1) means you’ll be rewarded for taking cover. Get her behind some barrels or other obstacles and she’ll have a great defensible point to shoot from. Speaking of shooting, Expert Marksman (2) lets you re-roll up to 2 of your missed Long Rifle attack dice. Infiltration lets you deploy the Spy on a roof, perfect for getting a vantage point to make use of her range.

Now lets have a look at what kind of weapon a Long Rifle is. I think it’s safe to say that it’s one of, if not, the most powerful firearm in Carnevale. It has a massive 12 inch range, Evasion -1 and deals an additional point of damage. To top it off -2 Penetration lets you cut down the targets Protection roll by 2. This weapon does have its downsides, Black Powder means you don’t want to end up in a canal but does reload like any other firearm. Two-handed makes this weapon less useful in reaction, but that’s something you’ll want to avoid.

The Venetian Spy is best used at range, basically. Keep her away from enemies but still in line of sight and use any spare command points to reload her weapon. Setting her up on high is advised, not just for a defensible position but the vantage point as well.

Foreign Noble

These guys work best in multiples, fortunately this box has two of them, giving you plenty of command points to deal out to your other foreign characters.

They have a better stat line than the Foreign Spy. With an additional point of Dexterity and Attack, you’ll find them both harder to hit and more able to throw their weight around. Each Foreign Noble comes with 3 command points, unfortunately they don’t speak much Italian. Je Ne Comprends Pas means they only get to give command points to other characters with the Foreign keyword. Their command ability is nothing to sniff at if you have multiple Foreign characters. Even on a single Foreign Noble, First Strike (1) is a valuable commodity, 6 attack on a charge with Expert Offense (2) can be a great alpha strike.

Keep these guys as a pair of reliable alpha strikers. Use the first activation to put up Greve Vrat and charge in. While in the second make use of the Patricians command ability to get an extra point of attack for even more damage. Alternatively you can keep one within line of sight to your Venetian Spy to give her extra AP or out of sequence actions. Being able to reload out of turn is a massive boon.

Merchants

These guys are the Henchmen for this box. They have slightly more stats than a Household Staff and the same Inferior Pistol. They do have Expert Marksman (1) giving them a single re-roll when attacking at range.

Don’t let that put you off of them though, each comes with 2 Command Points. Their Command Ability gives all Henchmen within 6″ First Strike (1) until the end of the round. Use this with some Household Staff with Cast Iron Utensils for an easier time to stun.

These guys are great at harassing opponents, shooting and then moving off to safety. Or providing extra actions to the rest of your gang.  You wouldn’t want to get them too close to an enemy, or get them into melee range. Pair them up with a more capable fighter, like a Foreign Noble or Syphilitic Noble and have them support with ranged attacks and command points.

Example Gang

  • Leader:
    • Venetian Noble
  • Heroes:
    • Foreign Noble
    • Foreign Noble
    • Venetian Spy
    • Fadhila
  • Henchmen
    • Merchant
    • Merchant
    • Household Staff
    • Household Staff
    • Barnabotti
  • Equipment
    • Bottled Courage

This list has a lot of Command Points. A lot. 18 in fact. With this list you’ll be easily able to overwhelm your opponent with extra actions or first strikers. A solid core of strong fighters can be backed up with either Household Staff or Fadhila. You don’t have much in the way of offensive magic, but do have the potential for healing or control magic. Unlike other Patricians lists this one can play the numbers game, with 10 characters you’ll be rivalling Guild gangs in terms of bodies. The key to winning with this list will be to protect your Nobles and Spy while they deal the bulk of the damage with well placed first strikes. Spend your command and will points fast and freely to get rid of troublesome opponents and what remains should be easily dealt with.

If you wanted to create this list you can combine the Patricians Starter, the Foreign Delegates box, and Fadhila.

You can find the Foreign Delegates box and the rest of the Carnevale range on our webstore here!

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