Hoffman and Stake a Claim

When it comes to Stake a Claim, there are few Masters in the Guild that can do it as well as Hoffman. Stake a Claim is one of the hardest strategies in the game, and it's one of the only strategies where only one player can score on it a turn. In order to win Stake a Claim you have to have some movement shenanigans and tricks, which Hoffman brings in spades.

The core of a strong Stake a Claim crew for Hoffman should look something like this:

Hoffman

-Field Mechanic (2)

-Arcanist Assets (1)

2 Watchers (8)

2-3 Soulstone Miners (12-18)

If you have Hoffman and don't have any Watchers or Soulstone Miners, make sure you get at least two of each as soon as you can. Watchers and Miners are great scheme runners, and are instrumental in winning Stake a Claim. Your goal in Stake a Claim is to put down as many Claim Markers as possible to ensure you get the Victory Points for the Strategy instead of your opponent. Soulstone Miners are great for this because you can unbury them on the opponent's side of the table (as long as it's 6 inches away from an enemy model or the enemy deployment zone), so if you unbury them at the end of Turn 1, you can start using them to drop Claim Markers on Turn 2. After they drop their first Claim Marker you want to get your Miners moving in Turn 3 so they can either start dropping Scheme Markers or getting in position to drop more Claim Markers in Turn 4.

What you want to do with Hoffman in the first turn is use the Update Hardware action off his Field Mechanic upgrade to give one Watcher Hydraulics, and the other Programmed Directive. To maximize AP efficiency make sure you either crack a Soulstone or cheat in a Tome so you can hit the trigger to take the action again, so you can upgrade both Watchers for one Ap instead of two. You'll also want to make sure you use Hoffman's (0) action Shakedown to put a scrap marker in base contact with the Watcher that's going to get the Hydraulics. The Watcher with Programmed Directive takes Interact Actions for one less AP than usual (so a (2) interact action becomes a (1) interact action), and Hydraulics makes the other Watcher Nimble. At Wk 6 with Flight, these two become Scheming and Claiming machines. If you can try to alternate dropping Claim Markers between your Miners and Watchers, you can drop Claim Markers every turn. If your Watchers are Claiming your Miners should be moving, and then vice versa.

After you give the Watchers their Modifications, you want to use the rest of Hoffman's AP on Machine Puppet and healing, in that order. I've had a lot of success having Hoffman using his Magnetic ability to hitch a ride from the Watcher with Programmed Directive. This way you can use his Machine Puppet to make it Walk and Claim outside of its activation. You'll want to shoot for the Mask trigger on Machine Puppet to push the Watcher 2 inches before it takes the (1) action you choose, so you can use Hoffman's 3 AP to drop 2 Claim Markers (1 Machine Puppet to Claim, 1 more with the Mask trigger to push 2 inches & walk 6 inches, and then finally 1 more to claim again) before the Watcher itself even activates. Try not to spread out the Watchers too far, if one goes down you'll need the other one to come over and save Hoffman. He really relies on his constructs to get around and prevent damage, and any AP spent walking is AP taken away from Machine Puppeting.

You can add whatever other models you want into the crew to help achieve the specific schemes of your game, but adding something big and distracting like a Peacekeeper can help take your opponent's attention away from the Watchers and Miners. You'll need something to protect your Schemers/Claimers and draw ranged fire away from them. Using a crew of nothing but Hoffman, Watchers, & Miners can be effective at accomplishing a Scheme Marker heavy game, but can be very difficult to use and limits your options when selecting Schemes. Adding in models like a Peacekeeper, Ryle, Austringers, etc can help open up your options Scheme and game play wise.