Perdita vs McMourning

My Perdita List:

Perdita
Enslaved Nephilim
Fransisco, Lead Lined Coat - 12
Santiago - 8
Papa Loco - 7
Nino - 7
Monster Hunter - 6
Monster Hunter - 6
Cache - 4

McMourning List:

McMourning, The Whisper
Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Rogue Necromancy
Carrion Emissary
Canine Remains
Nurse
Nurse
Cache - 5

Strategy: Plant Explosives
Schemes: Hold Up Their Forces (Guild), Deliver a Message (Ressers). Both had Harness The Ley Line

Deployment looked like this. I planned to start scoring Plant Explosives early by placing with Nino in turn 2 and try to move the Monster Hunters up to Harness the Ley Line turn 2, and score Plant Explosives on turn 3 and 4. Nino starts by doing 2dmg to the Rogue Necro. One of the Monster Hunters move up, stun the Rogue Necro and land 4 dmg on him, he later attacks back, dealing 2dmg to the MH after I spent a pass token to reduce the dmg by 2, the only time this game I got to use Tough as Nails. Frank finishes him off and I am in a good spot, seemingly. Carrion Emissary moves up a little, builds a wall to Mexico, cutting off my rightmost Monster Hunter and Papa somewhat. Perdita moves into the forest and shoots a few points of dmg off of him. Papa hits a blast of dynamite into the church, but both the Nurse and the Canine dodges gracefully. Santiago removes the poison from the MH damaged by the Necro and gives focuses her. McMourning was much quicker than I thought and moved into the forest, hit Perdita twice for massive dmg and was suddenly in the middle of my crew.

Frank heroicly intervens to push Perdita away from McMourning, flurries and hits McMourning several times, but due to hard to wound, never for more than two dmg. McMourning stones some of the dmg and heals most of it back after he Rancid Transplants Perdita and is back in the middle of my crew again. Rogue Necro does 5dmg to my Monster Hunter and poisons him. Nino picks off the totem. Santiago removes injured and poison from Perdita and gives her some focus.

This is where things start to go bad fast. My crew doesn't do enough dmg to take out McMourning, which is kind of annoying, as he has been in the middle of all my beaters for a while now. McMourning kills Perdita and Santiago, but is in return put down by Frank. Both my Monster Hunters die, and so does really my chances of scoring anything meaningful as well. I cannot even score Hold Up Their Forces due to the Nephilim being insignificant.

Frank picks off the Carrion Emissary, but I cannot manage to place enough Scheme Markers on the centreline, nor any additional bombs on my opponent's side of the table. In the end, he wins 5-1

This may sound bitter after having lost 1-5, but I am not sure how Family is supposed to work right now. This isn't something I suddenly realised after losing yesterday, but something that has been on the mind of both the players for quite a while, seeing as both of us play Guild. Perdita and her Family have been our most played crew by far, and they haven't really impressed us at all. Whoever plays them tend to lose big. There are several grit abilities in the crew, but no way to control them by turning them on now that Shotgun Wedding and Amina is gone, there is no card draw at all outside of Pass Tokens and Hero's Gamble, an ability that triggers off number of models in the crew, and doesn't really have anything to do with the Family keyword per se.

There is also no ruthless in the entire Family, which means that Monster Hunters are horribly afraid of monsters, and that the entire crew has yet another thing they need to spend cards on, on top of no card draw and seemingly everyone having a 5+/6+ free action they need to get off.

In my group, I have been advocating some changes to how Family work to make them synergise more with each other. I felt I had this combo piece when Shotgun Wedding allowed Abuela to hire Amina into the crew due to her anti-charge bubble, obey and her turning on grit. Admittedly, it felt weird that an Arcanist piece provided more synergy than a Family piece, but it was a workaround. I would love to see Abuela get an ability like Matriarch, where she turned on grit abilities for friendly Family members in an aura. Perdita should also have some of her abilities synergise more with Family members I think. As it is now, she is probably best in a multi-master crew with few models due to how Hero's Gamble and Tough as Nails work.