Leveticus Tactica: Burnt Offerings

[zFiend]

(I actually think his biggest weakness is "Kill-More syndrome" - it's very easy, playing Levy, to just go on a rampage and forget to pursue objectives.)

 

That.. Is horrible. If that is his biggest weakness. 

[Kadeton]

The flipside, I think, is that his greatest strength is his rarity. I took Levy on tour across the US last year, and of all the games I played (nearly 50) I could probably count the number of opponents who'd actually seen him in action (in M2E) before the game on one hand. I always ask before the game, which usually goes like this:

 

"Have you played against Levy before?"

"Nope."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

 

I'll also usually try to do a basic explanation of his mechanics - death-rebirth cycle, channeling and the way Unmaking works, primarily - and the Ashes & Dust if I've taken that as well. However, people are still always surprised when they push their big tough beater forward and it instantly evaporates.

 

As more players start to pick Levy up, we'll see effective counter-tactics emerge. There are a lot of Masters in the game that feel unbeatable the first few times you play against them.

[Fetid Strumpet]

So Levi players what would you say is, just in general, a better tactic in killing or putting pressure on Levi to be less useful, luring away the waifs or luring away the anchors?

[admiralvorkraft]

Whatever you can do in a given turn.

[Kalkris]

So Levi players what would you say is, just in general, a better tactic in killing or putting pressure on Levi to be less useful, luring away the waifs or luring away the anchors?

In my opinion, in theory luring out the Waifs is faster and more effective (despite their Wk4) because with killing anchors you have to kill all of them to ensure Leve can't chestburst out from a Waif, while killing a Waif makes it so that he can't do that as often (and killing all three - something Leve himself can assist with) will stop that cycle completely.

 

From experience as a fledgling Leve player, I have found so far that I want to time my recklessness with Waifs accordingly in casual games - I keep them close behind anchors until about Turn 3, while moving my anchors up the board at a slow (as fast as those anchors are, which is generally slow save for Alyce) but steady rate, all the while chestbursting through with Leve when I feel it is necessary to (I.E. not necessarily Turn 1, if Leve is fully intact). Turns 4 and later, if everything is bueno with my Waifs, I get somewhat more reckless with the two that I've hired in (or the one that isn't dead at the time out of three total, whatever), mobilizing them in places where Leve would be most needed to off the foe.

 

All the while I have my objective grabbers doing things if need be, and my anchors doing dirty work alongside Leve (when he is out) as well as babysitting (as well they should!). I find that, when making use of Pariah of Iron, keeping a Soulstone Miner handy as a buried backup Anchor is one of my "things" as well.

 

But yeah, ultimately, killing Waifs is a smarter idea if you are looking to make Leve sadder than you would if you were killing Anchors. So luring them out is beyond wise.

 

~Lil Kalki

 

EDIT: Also, luring Alyce, while harder to manage (Wp7), is a fine idea too if attainable due ot her Wk6 and the idea that a Waif might not be in B2B with an anchor all of the time. Perhaps that is poor playing on my own part there, but my Waifs aren't always in base contact with my Anchors since the 6" aura gives me some leeway.

[daniello_s]

Should Levi be afraid of Void Wretches? I'm playing against Levy tomorrow and I want to proxy Wretches as scheme runners (before I'll get a box after their release) but they seem to me as Levi's nemesis

[Kadeton]

So Levi players what would you say is, just in general, a better tactic in killing or putting pressure on Levi to be less useful, luring away the waifs or luring away the anchors?

 

It depends on when you are doing it. If I'm not pushing for an early kill, I'll often activate the Waifs early in the turn to out-activate the opponent - at that point, running a Lure-chain on their local anchor will throw a big spanner in the works. If it's near the end of the turn, especially if you can out-activate your Levy opponent, drag whichever element (Waif or anchor) is easier - as long as the relationship is broken, it doesn't matter. Levy hates being out-activated.

 

If you're at the start of the turn and Levy is in your face, it's generally best to kill or severely cripple him - not particularly difficult for most beaters. That will usually have a greater effect than killing a Waif or an anchor early in the turn.

 

Should Levi be afraid of Void Wretches? I'm playing against Levy tomorrow and I want to proxy Wretches as scheme runners (before I'll get a box after their release) but they seem to me as Levi's nemesis

 

Sort of. In theory they can kill him directly. In practice, they're not very good at it, and he can use Soulstones to prevent what little damage they do. They can hinder what he can do on the following turn a bit, but not significantly more so than any other model activating before him and smacking him about. Levy does need to be a bit more cautious if Wretches are in play, but he doesn't exactly fear them.

 

Also, if you're using them as scheme runners and getting them near the enemy, Levy will evaporate them. If you hold them back to try to hurt Levy while buried, they're probably not giving you full value. It's a tricky equation to balance.

[Hateful Darkblack]

When I've played Levi against someone with Void Wretches, the Void Wretches were more of a threat to the Soulstone Miners than to Leveticus himself. Leveticus was harassed a little but Void Wretches while buried, but never really threatened.

 

I found that Death Marshals are scarier than Void Wretches. Burying Levi without healing him is BRUTAL.

 

* * *

 

As far as Levi's weaknesses go, I can think of a few:

- Scheme Runners! His core crew doesn't have any good scheme runners. He can compensate with some Crooligans or Watchers or Necropunks or what have you, but any model until 6ss is a liability, since he needs anchors and any points in cheaper models are points not going into 6ss+ anchors.

- Waifs, even with their defensive tricks, are pretty fragile if you can track them down. When I'm playing Leveticus, I put a lot of effort into hiding them, and an opponent with Leap can zap 'em and gum up my play fast.

- Timed Kills! All his models have a cycle of death and rebirth that can be fragile. If you time it right, kill-killing them is easier than you might expect.

- Forced Turn Order! His main defense is disappearing every turn. If he doesn't activate first in the turn and bury himself, he's a sitting duck.

- Cover! He hates models that have cover! I've had a game where Leveticus got shut down because my opponent kept all his models behind cover. I was missing with Unmaking, and when Unmaking isn't reliable, it isn't very strong.

- Schemes! He's vulnerable to several schemes. Frame For Murder is often a safe bet to take against Leveticus. Murder Protege often works well too, since he often takes big models that are worth destroying anyway.

[Hateful Darkblack]

With 2 free models at the start of game and a lot of cheap crappy summons during play (I'm lookin' at you, Abominations), Leveticus often out-activates his opponents. I have never really had a problem with opponents luring my Waifs or Anchors away from each other, because I can usually act later in the round and move them back together or bring another Anchor in. And usually I'm hiding the Waifs out of LOS anyway.

 

Luring anchors out of range or LOS may distract Leveticus, but he can recover easily enough. Killing the Waifs really hurts him.

 

Those Waifs are Levi's extra lives, like an old-style arcade game. He starts the game with three lives. Every time you kill a Waif, you take one away that he can never get back.

[Kadeton]

- Scheme Runners! His core crew doesn't have any good scheme runners. He can compensate with some Crooligans or Watchers or Necropunks or what have you, but any model until 6ss is a liability, since he needs anchors and any points in cheaper models are points not going into 6ss+ anchors.

 

I really like Freikorps Trappers for this purpose, especially when going for ALITS or other centreline-focused strategies and schemes (even Power Ritual with one of the diagonal deployments). They can pick off enemy scheme runners during their non-Interactive first turn, and provide a forward anchor for Waifs to run towards rather than having to coordinate Waif and anchor movements together.

 

On the other hand, my favourite scheme runner (and in my opinion, the best scheme runner in the game by a large margin) is the Ashes & Dust.

[fengor]

My strategy against Levi  would be Seamus with Red Chapel Killer.

 

Back Alley to a Waif. Hand Cannon to the Face. Distraction and Back Alley to safety. Later int he turn My belles will usually try to lure anchors away from waifs. Waifs are usually out of LOS i think.

 

Still have to find a way to deal with Ashes&Dust though

[Adran]

So Levi players what would you say is, just in general, a better tactic in killing or putting pressure on Levi to be less useful, luring away the waifs or luring away the anchors?

 

In general which ever is more effective at the time.

If you can stop Levi unburying for a turn for any reason then you have had a great turn.

If you stop him unburying where he wants, then you've done fairly well.

 

Obviously killing all the anchors or all the waifs mean no un burying for Levi at all. Keeping away for 1 turn means you still have to deal with it next turn. Killing all but 1 waif and all but 1 Anchor means that you have to then  keep keeping them aprt.

[Patzer]

I think to combat Levy effectively, you need to be willing to make sacrifices (much like dealing with Viktoria). He's going to kill something (probably several somethings) but that's pretty much it - if you can account for the losses, you can play around him. Killing him (rather than letting him sacrifice himself) or one of his Waifs will make him more cautious, but most people never make the attempt because "It's not worth the effort."

 

(I actually think his biggest weakness is "Kill-More syndrome" - it's very easy, playing Levy, to just go on a rampage and forget to pursue objectives.)

This my experience too, that players often feels like it is not worth the effort to go after the Waifs. Maybe because they are resummonable, I don't know, but a lot of players I have faced will simply ignore them.

 

On the kill more syndrome, I agree completely. Its something that happens at times, that one will quite easily get a murderous tunnel vision.

 

My strategy against Levi  would be Seamus with Red Chapel Killer.

 

Back Alley to a Waif. Hand Cannon to the Face. Distraction and Back Alley to safety. Later int he turn My belles will usually try to lure anchors away from waifs. Waifs are usually out of LOS i think.

 

Still have to find a way to deal with Ashes&Dust though

Seamus and Lilith both have strong tech against the Waifs. Both can either get to them, or get the Waifs to themselves. Austringers should also get an honourable mention for being less than nice to the Waifs.

[daniello_s]

What would you recommend Construct-wise if you know you will face heavy Incorporeal or Terrifying crew?

Levy has Ca shooting which ignores Incorporeal himself but who among Constructs could help him?

[asrian]

Ashes & Dust (Immune to Conditions)
Between him, Levy, and Rusty, that leaves one decent 6+ SS model of your choice for a third anchor. Bishop and Joss are both good front line fighters as is the Friekorps Librarian for mid range (casting and healer). If I heard my opponent was going to take Ressers those are ones I would look into. Either that, or throw in Hannah or Lazarus for potential Melee or Shooting blast templates to bypass hard to wound on multiple models, Taelor or Sue who are immune to Horror Duels (one being melee, one ranged and both are good against Ressers).

[Nukemouse]

I've just managed to join Leveticus ownership!

I've got Iron Zombies, Bete Noire, Mcmourning crew box and Izamu The Armor.

Obviously my weakness here is schemes! A lot of people talk about Crooligans and Necropunks, but are there other options available? What could i bring that would be really surprising? Leveticus and Alyce seem to be able to handle most of the up close violence and Izamu, The Valedictorian etc will be great "Anchors" but are there any tricks i should keep in mind for these specific models?

[Kirby]

Looks like you have a solid Pariah of Bone set going.  Both the Crooligans and Necropunks are fantastic scheme runners and their plastics will be available soonish.  Another decent pair of scheme runners for Leveticus are the Void Wretches.  They don't synergize too directly with Leveticus's playstyle, but they are still cheap at 4ss and come with both Incorporeal and Wk5.

 

Another option is Ashes & Dust, model extraordinaire.  It is crazy fast with the Scramble upgrade and innate 3ap per turn, can't be charged, immune to effects, cannot be buried, and can get extra movement shenanigans from Leveticus.  Whether you're dropping scheme markers, tearing up backfield support pieces, or just generally being a huge pain in the butt. Ashes & Dust does it all.  Just be careful of him giving up points in the Schemes/Strats that he doesn't enjoy.

[Kadeton]

I've just managed to join Leveticus ownership!

I've got Iron Zombies, Bete Noire, Mcmourning crew box and Izamu The Armor.

Obviously my weakness here is schemes! A lot of people talk about Crooligans and Necropunks, but are there other options available? What could i bring that would be really surprising? Leveticus and Alyce seem to be able to handle most of the up close violence and Izamu, The Valedictorian etc will be great "Anchors" but are there any tricks i should keep in mind for these specific models?

 

I'd look for some Waif-anchors that aren't quite as mobile or combat-focused - Waifs don't want to hang around the fight with Izamu, and can't keep up with the Valedictorian!

 

In keeping with the Bone theme, I'd suggest a couple of Dead Doxies. They're minimum-cost anchors which boost your crew's mobility, manipulate enemy positioning and are otherwise solid. Very handy to have around.

 

I've surprised a lot of opponents using Sybelle and a Rotten Belle together as scheme runners (you can also replace the Belle with a Doxy). They're especially good at things which require a (2) Interact, like Deliver a Message or Stake a Claim. With Scramble, they're highly mobile even on boards covered in Severe terrain, and are also very handy utility models when they're not scheme-running.

[Nukemouse]

Well on the subject of Void Wretches i accidentally just won a Tara auction on ebay so I'll have those soon enough.

The Valedictorian can just fly back to my waifs if i need it i suppose and honestly i think i can keep a waif near Izamu and safe, he can just disengaging strike to stop people getting into melee with her and she can hide behind terrain or something.

Necropunks are growing on me the more i look at them.

[Patzer]

I've surprised a lot of opponents using Sybelle and a Rotten Belle together as scheme runners (you can also replace the Belle with a Doxy). They're especially good at things which require a (2) Interact, like Deliver a Message or Stake a Claim. With Scramble, they're highly mobile even on boards covered in Severe terrain, and are also very handy utility models when they're not scheme-running.

Good stuff.

 

Another Undead henchman that I have thought about bringing with Leveticus is Datsue Ba. She is well costed and can summon pretty well while deleting models, i.e. keeping to theme.