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Shastar Vidiya Guard


Nick86

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Just been looking through the Wave 4 stuff and came across these guys.

I haven't had the opportunity to test them out, but I think they seem really good for their cost.

The ability to focus for a card pitch and also cycle bad cards out (particularly in an Ironsides crew where pushes are against def anyway) is great, H2K is great particularly if you take heals with Ironsides and their attacks and triggers are really solid.

Has anyone had any experience using them? I feel like they would be a great flanker or even a sidekick for Ironsides in something like guard the stash or turf war, would love to hear people's thoughts/experiences

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Ironsides will have no shortage of things to hire from Waves 3/4.

Arcane Emissary gives her adrenaline a push and can put people in base contact with her before she activates.

Amina Naidu is M&SU and Academic, and she has the ability to disable enemy models (to include making them unable to target people who are below their max wounds, in a list that likes to run a little on the bruised side).

Add in the Shastar Vidiya Guard, and now there's something else that works with her core mechanics, turning her from a frustrating controller to a controller/supporter that will make people have to work harder to deal with.

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They seem an interesting option, their Chakram seems ideal for dealing with low Df model spam (most Resser summoners?).  8 Wd's and Hard To Kill is decently tanky, but their melee attack doesn't excite me as much as it probably should.  Their damage track is only slightly better than the Rail Worker (at 3 points more) so it seems like everything's about the triggers, which on an Enforcer aren't reliable.

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3 hours ago, retnab said:

They seem an interesting option, their Chakram seems ideal for dealing with low Df model spam (most Resser summoners?).  8 Wd's and Hard To Kill is decently tanky, but their melee attack doesn't excite me as much as it probably should.  Their damage track is only slightly better than the Rail Worker (at 3 points more) so it seems like everything's about the triggers, which on an Enforcer aren't reliable.

They have triggers on every suit, but more importantly for reliability, they have an Ability to discard a card to gain Focused +1, which helps with the first attack on both picking a trigger and getting moderate or severe damage. As M&SU, in Ironsides if they've been dinged at all they get to benefit from Hand Picked Men. If you're running them close enough to Ironsides to use their (0) to push her into knots of minions, they'll also get a positive twist on all attack and damage flips. 

What I see is hiring 1, 2 at most in Ironsides, using them to bolster the Oxfordian Mages without needing to clump the mages as much (including potentially pushing them up so that they can furious cast on their activation and burn something down). When it comes time to commit them to an assault (ideally after they've been pinged for a single point), their first attack will hit and wound as though it were double focused, and their second attack will benefit from a single focus-like effect. This allows for card cycling and having the potential to pick your triggers (i.e. no reduction on the base :+fate:+fate damage flip on that first attack or adding another :+fate to the damage because of low differential, tie, or HtW/ItW). You'll want to work some card draw into their crew to make up for the number of things that you're hiring that say "discard a card to do X".

With Rail Workers the best I can do in Ironsides is Implacable Assault for the single focus effect on all attacks. They lack M&SU (no HPM, no heal pulse from Johan, no innate synergy with things like Union Miners), they're not Academic (so they don't provide a passive boost to the Oxfordian Mages), they have fewer wounds (offsets the armor against anything that doesn't ignore armor), and they're slower on Wk and Cg.

They fill a different role in the crews that would hire them. As living construct minions they can benefit from Bleeding Edge Tech and Powered by Flame. Not having built-in synergy auras means that I could leave them alone in a table quarter to claim it without weakening the rest of the crew--but if the strategy calls for spreading out more, I might not want to play Ironsides into it unless I plan on using You looking at me to deny my opponent as much as possible (which gets harder to do with every Wave release).

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I've used them a few times now and I really like them. It's nice to have something outside the typical armour jock we typically have access too. I've found them to have incredible levels of damage but not a ton of survivability. Once my opponents saw the damage they can deal, it wasn't long before they were highest priority targets to take out. So I feel like if they are to become regulars in your list, you'll need to learn how to play them smartly. 

I actually find them to be one of the best carriers for the new "well rehearsed" upgrade. It's a very tough choice versus imbued energies but being able to double down on H2K has been ace. Being able to squeeze out that one extra activation can be huge when your talking about a damage output like theirs. 

Overall it's their versatility and reliability on top of some unique abilities that make them an interesting option. Even their 2" push cannot be under estimated as 2" can be enough to out threat your opponent or get you out of danger. It's not something worth hiring them over but it's definitely something you'll likely use every single turn, and may end up swinging something to your favour. 

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Along those lines, I was thinking of one as a Blade and Claw caddy for hot-swapping Luther and a Steam Arachnid or Joss and a Poison Gamin to set up multiple threat vectors and give some of our more intimidating pieces the ability to sit back as a more flexible counter-charge element. This would make the pair of them contribute to Show of Force while simultaneously having a hard-hitting enforcer that gets out-of-activation pushes and a hard-hitting enforcer that can "summon" reinforcements.

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The interesting thing about them is that I feel like they'd be a decent inclusion for just about any master.

Colette can boost them quickly into combat hopefully before suffering too much damage, enabling them to maximize on damage dealing as long as possible.

Kaeris can provide healing which is super potent on a Df6 H2K model.

Raspy can give armour +2 or help keep them concealed with walls, while also providing her with a means to push out of combat provided they are within range.

Ironsides's HPM ability is downright mean with their damage track and triggers.

Sandeep gives them access to some movement tricks, incorporeal and can use their free focus on his arcane storm, while also providing some very important card drawing to his crew. 

Ramos probably not so much.

Marcus ready has some great options around the 8+ range which will probably work better than these guys will.

Mei can use her steam to keep them protected while they push her forward with their (0). Theres not really a ton of synergy here though. 

*As a side note, they pair well with Johan who can provide healing while also benefiting a great deal from the free pushes.

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14 minutes ago, Jordon said:

*As a side note, they pair well with Johan who can provide healing while also benefiting a great deal from the free pushes.

This side note right here is key. Normally to bump Johan forward and heal in the same turn you would need to have and burn Imbued Energies. If I'm running him with Ramos, Kaeris, or Ironsides, I want him doing something else; like being a Bleeding Edge Technology caddy in the middle of a couple Large Arachnids, Steam Arachnids, Metal Gamin, Arcane Effigy, etc. to help out with the attrition and activation control potential. If I need him to revolt, he should be relatively close to the scrum already (bubble effect) so an extra 2" push would be more than enough to get his coverage to models that might need it.

If you're running with fewer minion constructs (i.e. for me, Ironsides never takes more than a couple) and more M&SU living models, you might find room for the second Shastar Vidiya so that he can keep up without using Mouse or Ironsides herself to pull him closer to the scrum.

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