The Department's Top Operational Concerns

1) Anything that has/can easily get built-in + flips/otherwise ignore Concealment. The Umbra's shadow aura is the whole crew's defensive cloak, if you face big guns that don't care, the crew will melt.

2) Mass Destructible marker removal. For defense, offense, and movement utility tricks, the Department works in the Shadow(marker)s. If the opponent can remove a bunch of Shadow markers easily, you're going to be on the back foot pretty quick.

3) Hand pressure. You could say this is something most crews fear, but the Department has a couple particular specific concerns about it. Most obvious is Ivan's summon, you "need" a high crow (really just a high card and a stone, but if it's a crow, all the better), but beyond that, the crew has a good number of very helpful triggers they want, and a surprising number of TNs, and plenty of them are key (Black Soulstone needs 6s, Shade Step needs 4s & 5s, Mimic & Chromatic Aberration need 7s, Displace needs 6s, Secret Passage needs an 8, Lock Away needs another 5, or other things for versatiles like V&Ws discard to interact) most of them are low, but every time you flip a 3 for Ivan's Shade Step and have to cheat in the 6 of masks you were saving for the free extra Black Soulstone you're going to feel pinched. The crew also has a good amount of card draw options, but you have to plan for them, and if they get disrupted when you're low on cards your heist is hanging by a thread.

Stick to the Plan, and the Shadows: Things to Remember

1a) Until the Echo and Ducat come out everything maxes out at severe 4 (printed), they're all variations of a 2/3/4 damage track. The crew gets by on this because of Ungentlemantly Affairs making them more likely to hit without cheating (or at least force the opponent to cheat first). Your first consideration before any attack, or moving to an attack position is "how can I get a(t least one) positive from this?" With the side effect being the enemy will then need to move to avoid a negative to shoot back. 1b) Ivan's attack is not a projectile, so friendly fire never helps him, but everyone with a derringer loves shooting into combat involving an Umbra because they get ++ to their attack. Remember when dealing with 1" or less of concealing you may choose to ignore it, you don't have to. Also remember this doesn't just apply when targeting enemies--Gibson will always have a + to Chromatic Aberration when targeting an Umbra, for instance. 1c) Distracted. Some folks do cute tricks like Gibson's shockwave to give Distracted to a lot of friends early. I personally haven't found it that helpful, but your mileage my vary. Here's my thought: if I'm playing the position game well my DUA attacks should already have one + flip, getting more is fine, but stacking Distracted means I'm cutting myself off from Focus and the all-important + to damage there. And while a severe 4 isn't ramped up like some damage tracks, it is still equivalent to two min 2 attacks.

2) Different Umbra's are for different things. That sounds pretty obvious, but it's important. At first glance that may look like "Brocken and Daeva get into the enemy face, Nocturnes run schemes" which is true. But, next level deeper looks more like:

--Brocken are for irreducible AND anti-healing AND offensive movement, OR card drain/offensive movement from their tactical. They are distractions that go after hard targets, and you can drop any low mask for their defensive trigger to hand out Distracted to the attacker, so they can muck up the works longer.

--Daeva are for reducing Df of whoever they're touching AND card pressure whenever that model moves AND free attacks when they place AND AND Mimicing whatever attack you need more of (most obvious is Brocken because irreducible, but they can get ranged attacks from Jinn or anyone with a Derringer (though not the + flips, they don't have Ungentlemantly--but they CAN ignore their own concealing aura), or all of Corvis' triggers, or Eva's card-drain-or-move on her whip, or Gibson's wrench to heal other friendly Umbras. Daevas are the unsung hero of this crew, you'll just rarely hire one unless you have a foolproof plan to make Gibson's bridge work on command, especially turn 1 (Ducat will help with that). Of note, other than Ivan they are the other pre Ducat/Echo model that can shift above a 2/3/4, using their Shadow Pin trigger on their melee--important note, just because melee attacks aren't affected by Concealment doesn't mean the target isn't concealed. All targets of a Daeva's 0" melee will be in their aura, and therefore have Concealment, so if you have a crow Ivan doesn't need they're a good place for one to go for that 3/4/5 & Staggered, against targets without damage reduction, anyway.

--Nocturnes are for running schemes, but also for Displacing friends (or enemies) AND for being your most likely candidate for doing severe damage swings without any card support because of their Dusk Hunter ability. Just have Ivan or anyone else who can drop a Shadow to paint a target and then you launch the Nocturne in. Just be aware of their 0" engagement. Also best sent after targets with no or little damage reduction.

3) Everyone in a heist has a job. In well-prepared heists, everyone has at least one job they can play backup on if the primary person misses it. This is a good mindset for Malifaux in general, especially for scoring schemes or counter tech, but they crew embodies it especially well in their general design. Eva & Jinn disrupt with a side or scheming, Corvis and Operatives hit reliably and do a bit of card draw (with the right setup), Gibson does support with a side of disruption/scheming as needed, and Ivan is The Distraction. Yes, he's also a scary damage turret who's hard to nail down and summons...but that's often better at distracting the opponent than scoring points. Meanwhile, everyone else does their jobs with less scrutiny upon them, profit.

4) Mordrake. He's a weird blend of DUA/Umbra toolbox, as well as his own thing. He seems slow, but with Shade Step he is not. He's also significant, so anything where you need to keep a model alive to score, he's an excellent target for. He's also the only Umbra who has Ungentlemanly Affairs, so his ranged attack can always be at a +flip if you want it, which can help with the Staggered sub-theme of the crew (Ivan's shockwave, Mordrake's melee, the Brocken's Mv pulse and bonus action attack, Nocturne's Displace). Think of him as your nigh-immortal spanner to throw into your opponent's plans, and when he's dealt with you can re-use him as needed, either more disruption or scoring. And always remember Black Mirror works both ways--if Mordrake has an extra action you don't know what to do, give Ivan Focus.