Action efficiency in M4E Explorer’s Society

Maniacal Cackle here to continue sharing my experiences in the competitive scene.  This time I want to talk about action efficiency, particularly in Explorer’s Society.

What is action efficiency?

In short, action efficiency is getting more done with your actions.

An action that moves 6 inches is more efficient than an action that moves 3 inches. An action that does more damage is more efficient.  So a single action can be efficient.

A model that takes 6 actions is doing more than a model that does 3 actions in an activation (assuming those actions are each doing something, and not just transferring actions). That’s also action efficiency.

Some models are also action efficient because they take two actions for the cost of one action, such as with the onslaught trigger.

In general, the player who can get more done over the course of the game is going to win the game, if they are using their actions wisely. Action efficiency is a critical component of this!  M4E design really emphasized the individual power level of models during design, so it is especially important this edition.

A quick note on DMM and charge

DMM (Don’t Mind Me) is one of the most powerful generic abilities in the game. It gives you the very powerful effect of picking up a marker even if it is guarded by an opponent.

This is a form of action efficiency, because other models would have to spend an action moving the opponent then picking up the marker.  However, DMM is such a big conversation in itself that I’ll largely ignore it for the purposes of this post. The two DMM models in this post are action efficient even before including DMM!

The charge action is also one of the strongest actions in the game, although we often take it for granted. It turns one action into two without cost - you just get to do a move AND an attack. Wildly strong, and an important consideration when analyzing ranged models vs melee models.

What does that look like in the Explorer’s Society

Explorer’s Society is a great faction to look at for this as they have a lot of models that really demonstrate action efficiency, and they also happen to be the faction I’m currently focusing on playing.

So here’s a look at some of the biggest ones I’ve noticed.

Vernon and Welles

Holy moly.

7 stones. 4 actions. Wild.

Throughout the open beta of M4E, people really were down on this model. Even I thought the only thing to note about them was pseudo-DMM.

But take a moment to actually look at what the model can do. It can take four actions per activation! How many 7 stone models are doing that?  Very few, which makes Vernon and Welles just an exceptional scheme runner.

It comes at a high cost - potentially two cards (one for onwards and one for discarding to interact).  Such high power often warrants two cards, but you also don’t always want to do this.

This is where the flexibility comes in.  Interact-Walk-Interact is still very solid value that you are happy to hire a 7 stone model for. Vernon can do this very consistently hitting either onwards (by lucking flipping a card), or simply using a normal action to walk and then discard to interact. This is a sweet spot of being very card efficient (needing a 0+ card to guarantee a successful activation) and action efficient.

In extreme cases, you may decide you are being extra stingy with your cards and not even willing to discard a 1 for a successful activation.  This is fine when all you need is two actions.

Vernon and Welles allows for a nice balance between managing your cards and cranking up to ridiculous action efficiency. It is worth cultivating the skill to be able to find that balance so that you are always getting great results with the model.

One critical thing to note is the danger of engagement. If Vernon gets engaged, he needs to be rescued or to rescue himself with a crows trigger. This is card inefficient AND action inefficient. Seriously bad news!  You need to use zones of control to prevent this, but that would be another blog post.

Iron Matron

Walk - charge - attack - attack - move 3 - interact

What. The. Fuck.  The Iron Matron can just do SO much in an activation. That’s just one example of taking 5.5 actions in an activation. Her signature being 1.5 actions worth of value and being able to target herself is really what puts this model over the top. 

She can also interact, move, interact, interact. Or take three attacks.  Or any mixture of what you need to do. Her flexibility is through the roof and she is just always the right tool at the right time.

To be at full power she needs a shielded and a crow. The crow is worth building around. The shielded she will naturally produce or you can pair her with intrepid emissary on turn 1.

If the opponent knocks it off - great!  They just wasted an action hitting the Iron Matron, which likely cost them action efficiency.

Alleyway Echo & Eva

These models both have a signature to secret passage - which is so much movement it is basically the same as two walks that also dodge terrain. To just understand how action efficient this is, try getting to the same location by just walking with these models and see how many walks it takes. And it is a signature!

Alleyway also has the cruelty trigger AND can stone for more attacks. You can have activations where you secret passage twice, take two attacks to kill something, then stone for a third attack.  That’s about 7 actions worth of value in one activation!  For the most part you’re abusing secret passage & the cruelty trigger.  Not much downside to this model other than you’re saving a mask for it.

Eva has secret passage as a signature AND Don’t Mind Me. So she’s just efficient across the board, action wise. She’s very card inefficient as she needs an 8 on her TN.  Your turn will often be based around planning for this. 

You can use Ivan, Double Agent to give her another signature to give her another chance to flip the 8 naturally. You can empower.  But ultimately you’re saving an 8 to make sure that this goes off as she is a critical scoring piece. Plan accordingly, and try to organize your turn so you can capitalize on the card you saved if she lucky flips it and saves you a high card.

Alpinist

Last we have the humble GOAT.

This model is incredible. One of the best unpack tools around.  

Walk, signature with mask trigger to bring two models forward.

That’s a bit more than three actions in two, so that’s nice. But importantly you’re using a 5 stone model to move up your strongest models in the crew. So you’re turning 5 stone actions into 9+ stone actions.  It’s as simple as that. The GOAT is action efficient, and that’s a reason to hire it when you have a deployment that supports its unpack style (which is that you NEED terrain for it to stand on to bring your models up, and you need a plan to get off again which is probably just scaling the terrain downwards).  Good on corner especially.

For the rest of the game, it has three actions that can help manipulate the table and just plays a role-filler. You definitely won't be upset to have a rescue mechanic floating around and its attack on the charge can be quite useful.

A big downside is being mask hungry on turn 1, which can compete with important triggers like the Alleyway Cruelty trigger.  Be mindful of this in crew building. You may also decide to just not use the mask and use the signature twice. Again a model that allows you to balance how card efficient you want to be vs how action efficient you want to be.

Wrapping up

Hopefully that helps illustrate what action efficiency is, its importance in M4e, and what it looks like in Explorer’s Society as an example. And I didn't even cover Pattern in Portals or Turncoat, but I'll leave it to you to examine those.

I would love to hear about what models folks consider action efficient across ES and other factions!  Action efficient models are often great regardless of crew.