Hello fellow Wyrdos! For your versatile Monday Model this week our Guild overlords have sent their Steward to make sure all your papers are in order, and collect their protection fees–ah, I mean taxes, of course.

For 6ss, any Guild crew can hire this versatile model. It’s an Enforcer, so only one copy per crew. No keywords, so every crew gets the same use out of him.

They have another take on the solid standard profile for a 6ss minion: 6 Health, 5 Mv and Wp, with only 4 Df. No extra durability abilities, but their Demise ability will help discourage killing them without good reason. After it’s killed by an enemy model, that model suffers 4/6/8 damage! No line of sight or range needed. Nothing about a negative or not allowing it to be cheated, so unless they have Hard to Wound or similar, you can cheat in that severe to make them regret killing your (un)civil servant.

This works rather well with another Ability, Protection Money, allowing the Steward to draw a card after an enemy scheme marker is dropped within a 6″ aura. He’ll happily camp out near a point to hold it for cheap, and dissuade you opponent from scheming within a 13″ diameter bubble around him. And if they decide to kill him, they’ll suffer the consequences.

The rest of the front of his card is Companion, which is always useful on a support model like the Steward, discarding a card or a pass token to chain activate after another friendly ends their activation within a 6″ aura.

On the back of their card, they have a 1″ melee attack, Sharp Wit, with a 5 stat vs Wp to give the target Slow, and a Mask trigger to make models within a 3″ pulse pass a Wp duel or gain Slow as well. Don’t keep your friendlies too close in case you need to use this, but if it happens, he can help out his friends with his next attack…

Dispel Magic! Does what it says on the jar, ending one condition on the target. With a 6″ range it keeps with the Steward’s theme of being pretty close to the action, and with a 6 vs Wp, so long as you hit his TN 12, you have a pretty good chance of making it go off if you need to offensively remove Fast or Focused from an enemy model. Otherwise he’s great at removing Slow from a friendly if they got too close to his Sharp Wit trigger. And, he has another Mask trigger here to give another friendly model in 3″ Focused +1. Solid use for a 6 of Masks.

His tactical action is a bonus, and one of the best in the game that I’ve come across repeatedly: Foul-Mouthed Motivation. Another 6″ range, needing a 6 to heal another friendly 1/2/3 and give them Focus +1.

So, what’s the Stward doing for you during the game? Most of the time, he’s going to sit where your opponent wants to scheme or interact for the strategy, to either get you cards or force them to attack him and take a big chuck of damage if they kill him. Until then, he’ll support your other models nearby by handing out healing and Focus, removing harmful conditions on friendlies or helpful conditions on enemies, and maybe giving some enemies Slow. Nothing terribly flashy, but pretty effective all around.

I see the Steward doing very well in Turf War, taking a Turf Marker and sitting where it is, at best, awkward for the opponent to position to take it back, or at worst, forcing them to kill him. Same idea in Corrupted Idols, though a little trickier without knowing where the Idol will appear (unless of course you cheat in the suit you want on the initiative flip).

Of note, Nellie’s built-in trigger on her One More Question attack could be used to force an enemy to drop a scheme marker, so with some set up, that can turn into card draw if the Steward has the target in his aura. Otherwise, he’s pretty equally helpful in any keyword due to his utility-belt’s worth of helpful actions and abilities.

As far as upgrades go, I don’t think you’ll be spending the extra stones to put any on the Steward. In addition to the expectation that you’ll be forcing you opponent to kill him at some point during the game, several of the Guild’s upgrades don’t offer him anything. Expert Marksman helps models with projectile actions, of which he has none. No Prisoners allows him to heal and push 2″ if he kills something, which he has no way of doing if he’s still alive–it does also give him a bonus action to throw a grenade, but it’s an unlikely enough corner-case situation that I don’t think that’s where you want to be spending stones. Lead-Lined Coat gives him Armor and keeps him from being moved by enemies, but keeping him alive longer runs counter to getting the most out of his Demise ability. Of the three, the coat is the most likely, but I personally think you’ll want the upgrades on other models.

Overall, the Guild Steward has much improved since M2E and I think we’ll be seeing him on the tables in M3E, supporting his comrades and giving the Guild opponents hard decisions to make.

What do you think of the Guild Steward? What’s a versatile model you’d like to hear more about? Next Monday I’ll be continuing through the factions to the Neverborn, and something that goes bump in the night.